. An illustrated and descriptive guide to the great railways of England and their connections with the Continent . QUEEN BESS ROCK—BEDRUTHAN. The locality of Bedruthan Steps has been described as a scene ofgigantic confusion mingled with the most peaceful beauty. In the midstof the expanse of broken stone stands the Queen Bess Rock, a toweringutterly inaccessible mass of stone, standing well out seawards, and in whichthe willing visitor may readily detect a likeness to the Virgin Queen, wear-ing crown, ruff, and farthingale. Looking out to sea as it stands, the figureseems to be making a state
. An illustrated and descriptive guide to the great railways of England and their connections with the Continent . QUEEN BESS ROCK—BEDRUTHAN. The locality of Bedruthan Steps has been described as a scene ofgigantic confusion mingled with the most peaceful beauty. In the midstof the expanse of broken stone stands the Queen Bess Rock, a toweringutterly inaccessible mass of stone, standing well out seawards, and in whichthe willing visitor may readily detect a likeness to the Virgin Queen, wear-ing crown, ruff, and farthingale. Looking out to sea as it stands, the figureseems to be making a stately courtesy to that Spanish Armada whosecoming was looked upon by the Cornish men with more interest perhapsthan by the men of other counties, simply because Cornwall might be thefirst English land the Spaniards would V3^ QUEEN BESS ROCK, 15EDRU iHAN bitla: .NORIU It would be an interesting inquiry as to when its apposite name wasgiven to the rock. The oldest inhabitant knows nothing beyond this, thatit was called Queen Bess Rock when he was a chick. The use of thename Bess rather than Elizabeth suggests antiquity in the first appli-cation of the name. And when we remember how intimately Elizabethwas associated with the Armada, when we recall how bold Admiral Drakewas a western man, and how Sir Walter Raleigh was certainly more thanonce within a days ride of this spot, we may fairly opine that the rock gainedits name during the reign of the lion-hearted woman herself, and that thefitness of the appellation was intensified by the peculiar mocking aspect ofthe rock as it seemed, and seems, to make an obeisance in the very direc-tion where the Armada met with its heaviest losses. The influence of Elizabeth in the West extended even to the Scilly Isles,where the famous initials E. R. may st
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1885
