{"product_id":"cornwall-to-the-crystal-palace","title":"Cornwall to the Crystal Palace","description":"\u003cdiv itemprop=\"description\" id=\"scope_book_description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy Pamela Vass \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003eThe Cornish Fishwife \u003cem\u003ewho\u003c\/em\u003e Walked into History\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the summer of 1851, a 75-year old fish seller set out from the far west of Cornwall with little more than a basket, a bonnet and a fierce determination to reach London - on foot.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003eHer name was Mary Kelynack. Celebrity followed. Newspapers clamoured to tell the story of her extraordinary walk. She sat for a sculptor, inspired a song and a polka \u003cem\u003eand even greeted Queen Victoria\u003c\/em\u003e.   \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003eAnother adventure, unknown until now, was to come, yet fame was fleeting. Back home in Cornwall, why did her story fade into folklore, and  and why was she laid in a pauper’s grave?\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eThrough meticulous research, contemporary newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts and vivid storytelling, this is the extraordinary story of the endurance, humour and stubborn pride of a woman who refused to be overlooked.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003ePrologue\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn a warm August morning in 1851, the bustle of Southampton High Street slowed to a curious halt. Shoppers and sailors alike turned their heads as a stocky woman shuffled past, her back bowed beneath the weight of a wicker basket shaped like a coracle. A vast beaver bonnet shaded her face, lending her an air at once comical and commanding. When questioned, she gave an answer so startling that word spread through the crowd within minutes. She was a fishwife from Newlyn, in the far west of Cornwall. She was in her eighties, she claimed, and she was walking all the way from the Land’s End to London to see the Great Exhibition, the marvel of the age.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHer name was Mary Kelynack, and her journey would become one of the most unlikely legends of Victorian Britain. The newspapers seized upon her. London society opened its doors to her. Even Queen Victoria would come to hear of her astonishing trek. Yet behind the public fascination is a story more complex and more human than the myths that grew up around her. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDiscovering that story has been truly intriguing. The more we look at such records as there are, the more the ground shifts. Parish registers show she was not eighty-four, as she so confidently declared, but seventy-five. The five weeks she regularly insisted the walk had taken doesn’t quite add up, leading us to think she travelled more slowly, paused far longer and endured far more difficulty than she said. And the route she took? It survives with only glimmers of clarity: a sighting here, a newspaper mention there, the logic of 1851 turnpike roads and traces left in wider evidence of the time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book sets out to uncover Mary’s real story: not the embroidered legend, but the journey we can trace through those surviving records. It follows the trail - sometimes faint, sometimes contradictory, always compelling - wherever it leads, from her upbringing in the tight-knit fishing community of Newlyn, to her long weeks on the road and her unexpected fame in London. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd it brings us to her last, and until now completely un-recorded, adventure in her final years.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph\"\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is far from being simply a tale of a curious old woman in an enormous bonnet. It is a moving and thought-provoking account of a Cornish widow who would not be bound by poverty or circumstance. With stubborn courage, a sense of justice and an undimmed capacity for wonder, she carried herself, quite literally, into history. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMary Kelynack’s story is now more complete than it has ever been but you may find yourself pondering one particular question. Why, after seventy-five years of Newlyn life, did Mary Kelynack defy traditional roles and expectations to do something so extraordinary? As you follow her story, occasionally recreated with a little dramatic license on my part, perhaps you will find an answer. \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Boundstone Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56763166130556,"sku":null,"price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0332\/2039\/5140\/files\/CoverimageMaryKelynack.jpg?v=1778572995","url":"https:\/\/shop.theboxplymouth.com\/products\/cornwall-to-the-crystal-palace","provider":"The Box","version":"1.0","type":"link"}