3-017-141 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

he Prince and Princess of Wales descending the Botallack Tin-Mine, near St. Just, Cornwall, 1865. 'All the ladies and gentlemen, including the Princess herself...attired themselves in loose dresses of white flannel to go down into the mine...By the side of...[the] path, and on the heights above, were hundreds of people, the spectators of a curious scene. On each hand were high, jagged, weather-beaten rocks, with here and there a rude construction of planks and beams to aid in the working of the mine. Halfway below was the head of the shaft, the gaunt upper works and wooden platforms hanging over deep chasms, and at the base of the high rugged cliffs the water surging itself into foam against the black, seaweed-covered rocks...On arriving at the mouth of the shaft, the Princess..., having on a coarse straw hat trimmed with blue, took her place with Mr. St. Aubyn...the Prince and a brakesman sat on the next seat behind them...The car descended gently down a steep inclined plane, and in a moment, the Royal party had passed downwards from the light into the dark shaft, the depth of which is about 200 fathoms. The bottom-level of the mine extends horizontally about half a mile beneath the sea...A part of this mine belongs to the Prince of Wales'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.