Pastyland
Sir: Could I explain to A. L. Rowse (Letters, 12 March) why 'everybody over- looks the Cornish'? They are overlooked for the same reason that an uninteresting patch of waste ground is overlooked by the eye straying on the stimulating view in the far distance. That is: of all the provincials in the United Kingdom they have the least to commend them. When I left the RAF 20 years ago I spent the following six summers 'working the season' in Cornwall. I also spent two winters there. My abiding image of the Cornish is one of beefy young men red- faced with beer singing 'And We'll All Go Back to Oggie Land'. Their hymn to nationalism and supposed superiority is about a pastry for God's sake!
I grew to despise them for their boorish stupidity and hypocrisy. They disparaged the holiday-makers as `grockles' but greedily took their money in the only business they seemed capable of running — bed and breakfast in their own homes.
Any business or enterprise outside this mean line seemed beyond them. Anything from the smallest snack bar upwards seemed to have been initiated and owned by outsiders. But Rowse rather makes my point for me by identifying one of the Cornish 'greats' as some obscure racist who founded the Standard Bank of South Afri- ca.
Cornwall produces few men of any note in any field. Indeed even their MPs seem to be drawn from other countries. Is there even one native Cornish MP?
I love the Cornish coastline. It is the reason I return and at one time I dreamt of owning a whitewashed cottage there by the sea. My main reason for not doing so was the appalling prospect of being surrounded by Cornishmen.
John Mackay
9 Highfield Street, Darwen, Lancs
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