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Guest House

In June 1933 Mr and Mrs Pye were travelling by bus from Wadebridge to Boscastle, a town on the North Cornwall coast. As the bus approached Boscastle it stopped to allow one passen- ger to get off and while it was stationary Mr and Mrs Pye both looked out of the window at an attractive guesthouse just nearby. It had a terrace set out with tables and striped umbrellas. Mr Pye noted that although he didn’t see a sign he was certain it was a guesthouse.

On arriving in Boscastle Mrs Pye walked back down the road to seek accommodation at the guesthouse but was unable to find it. Indeed both Mr and Mrs Pye searched for the guesthouse by bus and on foot but were never able to find it. Intriguing as this case seems, there is, in fact, some evidence that a satisfactory explanation has been made. In 1962 a Miss Scott-Eliott closely examined the small coastal road from Tinta- gel to Boscastle along which the Pyes had travelled, She found a small private hotel on a steep hill which runs into Boscastle, surrounded by a twelve-foot wall and hedge hiding it from the road except at one small point.

At the time of the Pyes’ visit the building had been a private house though summer visitors often took tea on the drive in good weather. If they were doing so at the time the Pyes travelled past this may have been what created the impression in Mr Pye’s mind that the building was a guesthouse despite the lack of signs. Miss Scott-Eliott also located a cafe at the foot of the hill in Boscastle which had striped umbrellas at the time of the Pyes’ visit. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the Pyes saw both buildings and superimposed their details.

Of course, once on foot and able to take in the scenery more slowly, neither was able to locate the building which their minds had, in effect, created. Essex | France | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Devon | Devon | Devon | Essex | France | France | Hampshire | Indonesia | Ireland | Isle of Wight | Italy | Kent | Lancashire | London | London | London | London | Norfolk | North Yorkshire | Norway | Norway | Oxford | Oxford | Phenomena | Salop | Suffolk | Surrey | Surrey | Surrey | Unknown | Warwickshire | Wiltshire |