Man who excels at putting worm on hook is master baiter.....

It has come to my attention that in a recent Blog by steve c, entitled : Turnips and Candle Wax ,
some outrgeous claims were made, that not only besmirched the name of the wondrous Turnip, but also completely ignored the role of the Cornish in its conception.

The blog contains a very nice tale, set in Ireland (pah!), of the man who supposedly made the first turnip lantern. All nonsense of course!

Let me enlighten you........

The Turnip, or Swede, to give it its true Cornish name, was in fact invented by the famous Cornish gardener and tin miner, Treve Combellack, in 1453.

This fact is confirmed in the well known journal of Calamity Brown, the landscape gardener. (Later known as Capability Brown after importing the Swede to England)

So it's hardly likely that some Irish bloke called Stingy Jack would have made the first lantern!

In fact Cornish people, who've long settled around the world, call themselves "Cousin Jacks" and it is far more likely that Steve is in fact talking about "Stringy Jack". So called because he made rope ladders out of twisted Swede stems for the tin miners, during the early 1500's. However, he wasn't a criminal who made pacts with the devil, but a respected craftsman and Swede rope maker.

At that time Cornish people lived mainly on fish and swede (as it is the national vegetable of Cornwall) and the lanterns that the tin miners used were hollowed out swedes with candles inside - hence the term Jack o' Lantern - referring to "cousin jacks" of course.

This is also the reason that the world famous Cornish Pasty contains so much Swede, as obviously, the inside of the lantern had to be used somewhere.

I hope that sets the record straight, and please, let's show at least a little respect for such an eminent Cornish inventer and his truly wonderful invention - The Swede (or Turnip to you English Philistines.)