The Irish Lady, Lands End

John Edgar Platt

The locale of this composition is the headland of Black Rock Pedn-men-dw in Cornwall, England. The rock thrusting upward out of the water is known as the "Irish Lady". It is told that Irish seamen shipwrecked on the rock and all perished save a woman who clung to the rock while the tumultuous seas prevented those watching from saving her. She died and slipped into the sea and sailors and fishermen have reported seeing a female with a rose in her mouth sitting on the rock during high winds and seas.

Sir Humphrey Davy wrote a poem on this tradition. The following is an extract from it:

"Where yon dark cliff [b] o'ershadowa the bltte main / Theora died amidst the stormy waves / And on its feet the sea-dews wash'd her corpse / And the wild breath of storms shook her black locks. / Young was Theora; bluer was her eye Than the bright azure of the moonlight night; Fair was her cheek, as is the ocean cloud Red with the morning ray. " Amidst the groves, And greens, and nodding rocks that overhang The gray Killarney pans'd her morning days, Bright with the beams of joy.