BEING made a Cornish Bard at the Cornish Gorsedd in Bodmin, in September 1997, has to be a diamond-sharp Guardian Country memory.

And it was a special honour to be installed by my old friend the Reverend Brian Coombes, the Grand Bard and great champion of Cornish causes, who was then based in Bodmin.

Wearing the sky blue robes and headdress trimmed with black and gold in public for the first time was a thrill.

And there was a real Celtic aura with Bards from Brittany and Wales, the Bretons in white robes, the Welsh in emerald green.

The Gorsedd was created back in 1928 to "guard and enhance all that is Cornish in our way of life" as Hugh Miners, a former Grand Bard put it.

Charisma

The previous evening there was a packed congregation at St Petroc's Church, Bodmin, for a thanksgiving service for Princess Diana, led by Canon Ken Rogers, another old friend.

In Bristol, Sonia and I once attended a cricket dinner over which the princess presided – she even chose the menu. Charisma is the only word. She lit every room she entered – a princess straight out of Greek tragedy.

My earliest Bodmin memories are of sport; playing cricket at St Lawrence's Hospital with many patients watching; reporting football matches at Priory Park; and meetings with Fred Peel-Yates, sports journalist of this newspaper for more than a third of a century.

Fred's sport columns were coloured with character and sometimes a whiff of controversy. He had a marvellous sense of perspective.

Fred, who lived in the town, loved his golf and personified the old style and spirit of the game, once memorably quoting the American golfer Walter Hagen: "Never hurry, never worry, and always remember to smell the flowers along the way."

I am old enough to have travelled to Bodmin by train and that recollection stirred again in 2003 when EV Thompson's novel Paths of Destiny was launched aboard the Bodmin and Wenford Railway.

Enjoying lunch and wine at our tables as we passed through Guardian Country bathed in glorious gold and copper conjured up memories of travelling as a young man in a more civilised era of rail travel.

Then, every station had a porter who helped passengers with their luggage and provided accurate information about any changes on your journey.

The GWR was truly "God's Wonderful Railway."

Here is the celebrated Cornish walker Mr JRA Hockin recalling the age of steam: "To catch a train is not the only reason for finding Bodmin Road Station; all by itself at the bottom of a valley, half hidden in the Lanhydrock shrubberies.

"It is one of those friendly little junctions that kept sweetly on tap the old, original thrill of railway travelling and, what is just as unexpected and even more welcome, is something else on tap in a small, smug refreshment room."

Back in the 1960s I met George Ellis. He was a photographer for all seasons, equally at home on sporting occasions or at the Royal Cornwall Show, the Bugle Band Festival and general elections.

Folklore has it that he once asked the King and Queen to stand "closer together".

Ladder

Pat Munn told me how, on one such visit, George was seen striding along the street carrying a ladder. He was convinced, among the big crowds, he'd get his best shots from "high up."

Of course, over the years he contributed hundreds of photographs to the Cornish Guardian.

This trip along Bodmin memory lane also includes some films at the Palace cinema.

The Battle of Britain, 1969, was vintage British film- making, with Laurence Olivier in the role of RAF Air Chief Marshal Lord Hugh Dowding.

A star-studded cast and evocative filming captured the epic battle in the air and there were precious stone performances by Kenneth More, as Group Captain Barker, and Susannah York, as Section Officer Maggie Harvey.

Television inevitably cannot match the scale and grandeur of the cinema screen.

Camelot, with Vanessa Redgrave as the beautiful but complex Queen Guinevere, was a different kind of cinema evening – although the critics had their reservations, it was enthralling for Arthurian enthusiasts.

In some early research on the subject of Arthur I was intrigued to come across a reference to Bodmin.

In 1146 a group of canons from Layon Cathedral came to Cornwall on a fund-raising mission. They arrived at Bodmin and brought with them an image of Our Lady which they were convinced had healing qualities.

A man with a withered arm hoped to be healed. "Just as the Bretons are wont to wrangle with the French on behalf of Arthur, the man began to dispute with one of the company, saying Arthur was still living." A furore erupted and no cure could be performed.

Conversation with HJ Willmott in a Bodmin tea-room is another happy recollection.

HJ, a long-time stalwart of this newspaper, was a kindly, perceptive man. Here is a fragment from his pen or typewriter:

Evergreen

"A month later, when the daffodils were still taking the winds of March, we (with his wife), set foot in Bodmin for the first time … as we waited outside the station we saw down the pleasant, clean, buff stone and evergreen prospect of St Nicholas Street towards the as yet unseen town."

A milestone experience was when Major Hugo White, military historian, officer and gentleman, took me on a tour of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Museum.

This solid, old building oozes history, something deeper and more profound than the impressive array of medals and the uniforms, the range of small arms and the machine guns. It is as if you are somehow in touch with the spirit of the old soldiers who served their regiment so well for more than 250 years.

What an asset this museum is to Bodmin and the whole of Guardian Country; beyond the cherished exhibits you think of the bravery, the service and the sacrifice.

Looking through The Times Book of Quotations, I was interested to read as many as 50 entries relating to the military. Here is just one from the Duke of Marlborough, 1650-1722: "No soldier can fight unless he is properly fed on beef and beer."

But I suspect these DCLI men in the old days would have enjoyed an 'ansome Cornish pasty.