John Thomas Blight

John Thomas Blight ( born October 7, 1835 in Redruth, Cornwall, † January 23, 1911 in Bodmin, Cornwall ) was an English writer, graphic artist and archaeologist.

Life and work

Blight showed early an extraordinary talent in making drawings and etchings and spent most of his youth with botanical and architectural sketches. Soon, scientists such as Robert Stephen Hawker were aware of him and let him make of illustrations. In 1856 he published at the age of 21 years with Ancient crosses and other antiquities in the West of Cornwall his first work, which has already appeared two years later in an expanded edition. 1861 followed A week at the Land's End, in which he portrayed the landscape and antiquities of Cornwall atmospheric.

1863 produced Blight etchings on the excavation report, the only just discovered prehistoric settlement Carn Euny. He also expressed was the first to suggest that the menhirs and stone hole of Mên-an -Tol could form the remains of a stone circle. In 1864 he wrote the work Churches of West Cornwall with Notes of Antiquities of the District. In his works there are also representations of known megalithic sites, including the Lanyon Quoit, Chun Quoit and the stone circle of Boscawen - Un.

However Blight immense power remained almost entirely without financial reward, a factor which was a huge burden on his daily existence. Therefore, he was forced to supplement as a guide for visitors to the local megaliths and digs his meager income. He became acquainted with the literary historian James Orchard Halliwell - Phillipps through contacts with the library in Penzance. Together they visited Wales and Stratford-on- Avon. From these trips Blight made ​​many drawings. He also illustrated the written by Halliwell compendium on the life of William Shakespeare, for which he was never paid.

In 1866 he was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. A year later, and only ten years after his literary debut of the behavior of Blight became increasingly irrational and he had to be taken from Bodmin, where he remained housed the rest of his life in the Lunatic Asylum ( Asylum ). He died in 1911 at the age of 75 years.

Publications

Illustrations

  • Cornwall 's Dark Age Stone Dwellings and Monuments
  • Cornish Witches and Cunning Men
  • Cornish Feasts and Folklore
  • Cornish Ghosts
  • Cornwall 's Holy Wells
  • The Halligye Fogue
England Graphic designer Antiquarian Stratford-on-Avon (District)
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