Overview

Before the railway came to Cornwall, novelist Wilkie Collins and his artist friend Henry Brandling set out on foot from Plymouth to explore the then 'rarely visited' peninsula. In 1850, tourism was in its infancy and the pair had many adventures, visiting Land's End, Tintagel, St Michael's Mount and Loe Pool. A local guide took them on an extraordinary tour down Botallack mine, and another showed them how to scramble up the Devil's Bellows at Kynance Cove. This charming account of their travels includes fascinating descriptions of legends and customs, pilchard fishing, ancient monuments, eccentric innkeepers and local cuisine, painting a vivid and affectionate picture of Cornwall as it was nearly 200 years ago.

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9781851246564

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Reviews

The joy of the whole book is that it’s so well written and feels so modern. -- RICK STEIN IN the summer of 1850, Wilkie Collins, a Londoner, travelled by foot through Cornwall with an artist friend, Henry C. Brandling. He was only 26 and on the cusp of his novel-writing career. This book, initially published as 'Rambles Beyond Railways'...and reissued with a foreword by Rick Stein, pre-empts his brilliance at characterisation and is as fresh and readable as any present-day travelogue. -- Kate Green * Books * Celebrating freedom, nature, ancient standing stones and the charm of the Cornish, this is a book to take with you on your next weather-dependent holiday in Cornwall. -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * How to walk the Wilkie Collins way * [this book is] full of adventure and anecdote, including vignettes of Tintagel, Land’s End, St Michael’s Mount and Loe Pool, also pilchard fishing, eccentric innkeepers and local cuisine. On the cusp of railway access that would transform everything by ushering in mass tourism, this is a different, unfamiliar Cornwall that nonetheless speaks across the ages, including in a delightful foreword by Oxford alumnus and famous seafood chef Rick Stein (New College, 1969). -- Richard Lofthouse * On The Shelf: February 2026 *

The joy of the whole book is that it’s so well written and feels so modern. -- RICK STEIN

Author Information

Wilkie Collins (18241889) was the author of the popular early detective novels The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Henry Brandling (18231897) was a landscape artist and member of the Royal Academy. Rick Stein is a chef, restaurateur, writer and television presenter. His series Rick Stein's Cornwall aired on BBC One from 20213.

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