MOUSEHOLE'S LOBSTER POT & MOUSEHOLE'S LAMORNA... (My new poem about Mousehole, Cornwall...)

 Mousehole’s Lobster Pot & Mousehole’s Lamorna…

(Inspired by Thomas Herbert Victor’s painting from around 1960 & my photograph taken in March 2024…)

Gulls fuss near three of the boats from Mousehole’s moored fishing fleet, 

Roped and reined to stunted granite posts below the working quay.

And a feeling of quaintness is afforded by flowering shrubs persisting

At the portals of curious harbour cottages, the audiences of the sea.

Pastel coloured roofs, dotted with chimneys small and neat

Match the painted vessels, listing gently in the pallid sunlight.    

And the Lobster Pot leans out above an inoffensive tide, its balcony white,

Whilst the haven of the Ship Inn huddles, just visible, at far right…  

Christmas lights’ scaffolding awaits removal, its presence indiscreet,

Chains and ropes lie dark in sodden sand from granite posts on the quay

And the wintering haven’s entrance remains baulked and blocked, resisting

The tides. Small boats crowd along the wall, plucked from the encroaching sea,

Slate grey roofs, their chimneys perched upon by gulls’ webbed feet,

 Are yellowing with lichen and watch over Mounts Bay in the March daylight.

And Lamorna’s bay window leans out over the harbour from a height,

Whilst the Ship Inn lies tucked brightly behind the old Lobster Pot hostelry, far right… 

Pete Ray

22nd March 2024…

The Lobster Pot was once a hotel and also a restaurant but Lamorna is now a holiday let which affords a great view of Mousehole’s harbour.

My photo was taken in March 2024 but I stayed at Lamorna in December 2023, which was excellent.

The artist was born in Mousehole in 1894, the son of a bootmaker and whilst attending art school in nearby Penzance, he was awarded a scholarship at London’s Slade School of Art.

He refused to leave Cornwall however and it appears that the furthest he ever travelled from Mousehole was to Truro… 

Below is another view of the Lobster Pot by the same artist, who apparently signed some of his later paintings as ‘W Sands’…