PENZANCE

is a corporate town, and was a town for coining tin but that practice is now obsolete.

I walked down to the quay, at the end of which is a light-house; the quay being well protected from the south-westers, by a lofty parapet. I counted ten brigs and other vessels of burden in the harbour. From the quay, standing by the light-house, you have a pretty view of the town; looking across the harbour, and shipping which lies at anchor. Here you have an amphitheatrical view; the sea, and Marazion, and St. Michael's Mount to the east; Newlyn Bay,-(famous for beautiful fisherwomen, and for being the native place of Sir Humphrey Davey) to the south; and to the north, Penzance itself, built on a rise. The town consists of several streets, and contains many well-built and respectable houses. Here is said to be the best Wesleyan chapel in Cornwall; the front, which was all I saw of it, is remarkably

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well-built of hewn granite, and looks handsome it was built in 1814. The church is peculiarly elegant, and its tower forms a principal feature in this view. It is, however, not generally seen to advantage; being at the lower part of the town, near the quay. But towering above, stands the town-hall, a handsome and capacious edifice, whose roof, crowned by a large cupola, makes a noble finish to the scene. Having reviewed the town, I egressed by its western outlet, which is a pretty road, with tastefully-built houses and cottages on either side, and adorned with trees and shrubs of luxuriant growth. I saw at Penzance a myrtle ten feet high, trained against a wall; and an arbutus of fifteen feet height. Hydrangeas of considerable height were common. The air of Penzance is mild and salubrious, and is often compared with that of Italy; which causes the place to be much resorted to in consumptive cases, visitors generally deriving much benefit. It is ten miles from Land's End,

and 233 from the metropolis. It has a mayor, aldermen, assistants, and recorder: and is the westernmost market town and port in South Britain. There is a notable tin mine, situate a few furlongs to the south of Penzance, called the Wherry mine. This "Wherry mine" is sometimes called the "wheal wherry" or the "huel wherry" or huel ferry. The general opinion is that the word wheal or huel is Ancient British, Gaelic, Celtic, or Erse; and is known to this day in Cornwall and Wales, and in Erin (Ireland) and the Highlands, including the Hebrides. I find the word "wheel," in 'my Bailey" expounded "fire, ignis rota (among chemists,) a fire for the melting of metals, &c. which covers the crucible, copper or melting pot, entirely over, at top, as well as round the sides.” But the Cornish men tell me that "wheal" means "mine" or "riches," which is reconcileable with our use of "weal," wealth, or well being. The origin of this mine was as follows. Upwards of a century since, veins of tin

were discovered in some rocks at low water, and several attempts were made to work them; when a poor miner employed three summers in sinking a pit. He could work but two hours a day, namely the last hour of ebb and the first hour of flood, and necessarily had to empty the part excavated every time he resumed his work. To prevent the daily toil of emptying the pit, occasioned by this repeated aqueous intrusion, the persevering adventurer ingeniously erected a wooden tower, or small dam, round the pit, which kept out the sea; and at length he established a mine; by which, in half a year, he made 6007. He died in 1790, aged 70, his mine having produced, during the last season, 3000%. The mine, though the lodes be rich, has been for years abandoned; as dangerous to the miners: it being feared that the sea would come in upon them. It was, some years since, inundated, from the accident of a ship, during a storm, striking against the tower, and destroying it. There are several mines in

Cornwall, which are partially worked under the sea, the lodes being traced thither; but there is no other mine in that county which is thus entered from the midst of the sea, and whose excavated ores were wholly submarine where the miners, working below the deep, heard the roar of the falling waves; and where, in the raging storm, large fragments of granite were rolled over their heads, along the rocky bed of the sea; producing more noise, and creating more terror, than the dreadful thunder of heaven.

The Cornish spade, is a triangular tool; with a straight handle, 4 or 5 feet long, like that of a pitchfork; the iron being so bent, that this triangle and the wooden handle form an obtuse angle of about ten degrees. The shovel is the same shape, but the iron-work is thinner, and wider. This Cornish spade or shovel seems the universal tool;-I did not see a London spade or shovel in the county. With this tool I saw scavengers cleansing the roads, men spreading materials on the roads, peasants