John Thomas Blight, FSA, was born in Penzance in 1835. He showed an extraordinary early talent in drawing, botany and wood engraving, and spent much of his youth sketching the ancient stones and holy wells of west Penwith, soon gaining the respect of scholars like Robert Stephen Hawker, James Orchard Halliwell and Sabine-Baring Gould. His work was in demand, and he published several books, including the delightfully evocative A Week at the Land's End (1861), in which he illustrated 'the extreme western point of England; its romantic scenery, its natural productions, and its ancient legends'. In his introduction, Charles Thomas shows the importance of Blight's work in its time, and how it contributes to the historiography of Cornwall.