The reader of this Guide, therefore, must thoroughly understand that in the arrangement of the subsequent "Excursions," the various objects of interest, to which it directs him, are described in an order best adapted to the convenience of the resident at Penzance.
Penzance is the most western market town in the kingdom; about ten miles from the land's end, and 282 miles W.S.W. of London. It is beautifully situated on the north-west shore of the Mount's Bay, on a declivity jetting into the sea. The lands in its vicinity having a substratum of hornblende rock and slate, are not exceeded in fertility by any soil in the kingdom; a belt of land around the town, which consists of about a thousand acres, producing an annual rent of £10,000! The town is well defended by surrounding hills from the fury of Atlantic storms. It is large and populous, containing more than six thousand inhabitants. The Corporation[10] consists of a mayor, recorder, eight aldermen, and twelve common-council men; by whose funds,[11] unaided by any parliamentary grant, a very commodious pier was erected about fifty years ago, and which has lately been considerably extended, so that it is now more than 600 feet in length, and is the largest pier in Cornwall. It has, moreover, received the addition of a light which is displayed every night, from half flood to half ebb, and is consequently extinguished as soon as there is less than nine feet of water within the pier. At high water there is now at Spring tides 22 feet[12] of water, which is about five feet more than that at the pier of Saint Michael's Mount. The expenses incurred by these late improvements are to be paid by a new tariff, established by an act passed in the year 1817.
The mother church is situated at Madron, but there is a chapel of ease in the town, dedicated to Saint Mary, the simple and unassuming spire of which forms a very interesting object in the bay.
Besides the established church, there are several places of religious worship. The Wesleyan Methodists' chapel, built in the year 1814, is the most complete and capacious meeting-house in the county. There are, moreover, appropriate places of worship for the Independents, Baptists, and Quakers, and a synagogue for the Jews.
Penzance is one of those towns to which the tinners bring their tin to be "coined" as it is called, that is, to be assayed and licensed by the officers of the Duchy, who take off a piece from the corner[13] of each block; and if they find it sufficiently pure, stamp the former with the Duke's arms. The stranger will be much struck by the singular sight of many thousand blocks of Tin, which lie in heaps, like worthless rubbish, about the street,[14] each weighing about 320 lb. and may perhaps be worth from £18 to £20. The Tin intended for the Mediterranean trade is here formed into bars, while that designed for exportation to the East Indies is cast into ingots.
There is a Public Dispensary, supported by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants, aided occasionally by the donations of those invalid strangers, who, grateful for the reestablishment of health in themselves, eagerly adopt this mode of contributing to its restoration in others. Few institutions for the accomplishment of a similar object, have proved more extensively beneficial; and none, we will venture to add, were ever superintended with more humane attention.
To the scientific visitor, Penzance possesses an interest of no ordinary degree. In the year 1814, Dr. Paris, who was at that time the resident physician, succeeded, through the support of the nobility, gentry, and mine agents of the county, in establishing a society for the cultivation and promotion of mineralogical and geological science; and, when we consider the immense advantages of its locality, the ability of its members, and the zeal and munificence of its patrons, we cannot be surprised to find that the short period of nine years has been sufficient to raise it to a respectable rank amongst the eminent institutions of this country. His present Majesty, having graciously condescended to become its patron, it is now denominated the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. The Marquis of Hertford, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and The Right Honourable Lord De Dunstanville, are its Vice-Patrons, and Davies Gilbert, Esq. M.P., the President; while amongst its officers and members it has enrolled the names of many individuals of the first rank and science in the kingdom. Two volumes of the Society's Transactions are already given to the public, from which a fairer estimate may be formed of the value of its labours, than from any sketch which the limited pages of this "Guide" could possibly afford; we shall, however, for the information of our scientific readers, present, in the Appendix, a list of the different memoirs which each volume contains. The splendid and extensive series of minerals, already exceeding four thousand specimens, which are deposited in an elegant and spacious museum,[15] offers a most honourable and durable testimony of the zeal and talent with which this department has been conducted; while to the student in mineralogy it affords a most desirable and solid system of instruction; indeed it has already excited such a spirit of inquiry among the miners, as to have led to the discovery of several minerals before unknown in Cornwall.