If we pursue the coast, and, turning round the western extremity of our island, trace its outline as it proceeds northerly, and then easterly to the Bay of St. Ives, a very different country presents itself; instead of the undulating curves, and luxuriant herbage of the southern shores, the land is generally high,—the vallies short, narrow, and quick of descent, and the whole landscape affords a scene of incomparable cheerlessness; on the summit of almost every hill the granite is to be seen protruding its rugged forms in the most fantastic shapes, while the neighbouring ground is frequently covered for some distance with its disjointed and gigantic fragments, tumbled together in magnificent confusion; scarcely a shrub is seen to diversify the waste, and the traveller who undertakes to explore the more desolate parts of the district, will feel as if he were walking over the ruins of the globe, and were the only being who had survived the general wreck; and yet Ulysses was not more attached to his Ithaca, than is the Cornish peasant to his wild and cheerless dwelling.
"Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,
"And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms."
Nor let the intelligent tourist despair of amusement, for he will find much to interest, much to delight him. There is not perhaps a district in Great Britain which presents greater attractions to the mineralogist or geologist; and there is certainly not one which, in so small a compass, has produced so many species of earthy and metallic minerals, or which displays so many geological varieties. At the same time the antiquarian may here occupy himself with the examination of the rude relics of antiquity, which lie scattered on all sides—nothing is more pleasing than that sacred enthusiasm which is kindled in the mind by the contemplation of the faded monuments of past ages, and surely no spot was ever more congenial to such sensations. But to return from the digression.
The Climate of Mount's Bay is the circumstance which has principally contributed to its celebrity, and is that which renders its shores so beneficial to invalids. Its seasons have been aptly compared to the neap tides, which neither ebb nor flow with energy; for, notwithstanding its southern latitude, the summer is never sultry, while the rigour of winter is so ameliorated, that thick ice[1] is rarely seen; frost, if it occurs, is but of a few hours duration; and the snow storms which, coming from the north and east, bury the fields of every other part of England, are generally exhausted before they reach this favoured spot, or their last sprinkling is dissolved by the warm breezes which play around its shores.
The records lately collated and published by Dr. Forbes, from the meteorological journals of Messrs. Giddy, eminent surgeons at Penzance, afford abundant proof that this neighbourhood enjoys a mean summer temperature under, and a mean winter temperature greatly above, the mean of places similarly situated as to latitude, but differing in the latter being placed at a distance from the sea; for the mass of water held in the vast basin of the ocean preserves a far more even temperature than the atmosphere, and is constantly at work to maintain some degree of equilibrium in the warmth of the air; so that in the summer it carries off a portion of the caloric from it, while in the winter it restores a part of that which it contains.[2]
The same registers have, moreover, recorded a fact with respect to the Penzance climate which renders it still more acceptable to the invalid,—the comparatively small annual, monthly, and daily range of its temperature. Nor are the indications of the thermometer the only test upon which we need rely,—the productions of nature will furnish striking elucidations, and amply confirm the justness of our meteorological observations. From the vegetable kingdom we derive conclusive evidence of the mildness of our winter, since all green-house plants may be preserved with far less care and attendance than in any other part of England; myrtles[3] and geraniums, even of the tenderest kind, and many other exotics, are here constantly exposed during the winter, and yet they flower most luxuriantly in the summer. The Hydrangea attains an immense size in our shrubberies, as does also the Verbena Triphylla. The great American aloe (Agave Americana,) has flowered in the open air at Mousehole, at Tehidy park, and in the Scilly islands. To these we may add a long list[4] of tender exotics, all of which are flourishing in the neighbourhood of Penzance, and it has been justly remarked that were ornamental horticulture to become an object of attention in this neighbourhood, as it is in many other parts of England, this list might be very considerably extended. Amongst the rare indigenous plants of this district, the Sibthorpia Europæa may be particularised as affording a remarkable proof of the mildness of our winter. This elegant little plant when transplanted into the midland counties is killed even in the most sheltered gardens. Nor must we pass over unnoticed the more substantial proofs of the same fact, as furnished by our winter markets, for at a season when pot-herbs of all kinds are destroyed by frost in the eastern counties, our tables are regularly supplied in abundance;[5] and so little is the progress of vegetation checked during the months of winter, that the meadows retain their verdure, and afford even a considerable supply of grass to the cattle.
Nor is the animal kingdom deficient in proofs of the congenial mildness of western Cornwall. We are indebted to the Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allesley, Warwickshire, for the following remarks, which were communicated by him to Dr. Forbes of Penzance, and published by that gentleman in his Observations on the Climate of this neighbourhood.