AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN...

Here`s a photo I took on a recent pilgrimage to the North Cornwall Coast Path.  It`s the stretch between Lundy Bay and Pentire Point and the promontory at the top of the photo is known as The Rumps, with the island, known as The Mouls or Puffin Island, just out to sea.   Apart from the majestic scenery, this bit of the coast path is memorable for a more poignant reason.

Just around the corner from Pentire Point at the top left of the picture, there`s a rather small and obscure plaque which marks the spot where Robert Lawrence Binyon (1869-1943) is alleged to have written his immortal poem, `For the Fallen.`   I say `alleged` because there`s another spot on the coast path, further down near Portreath which also claims the distinction.

Having come across the Pentire plaque and spent a few quiet moments of contemplation, I would merely suggest that the grandeur of Pentire Point must surely have been the greater and more dramatic influence for Binyon`s poem which, of course, includes the stanza that we all know and revere so well:-

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.