The view from the high land above the cove is one of great beauty, with St. Michael's Mount rising abruptly from the waters of the bay, and beyond it the clustered houses of Penzance.
Kynance Cove is an equally charming place that lies one and a half miles to the north-west of the Lizard. The bay is studded with a quantity of scattered rocks, which rejoice in such curious names as Devil's Bellows, Devil's Throat, the Letter Box, &c. At Landewednack in the parish of Lizard Point, the last sermon in the ancient Cornish language is said to have been preached in 1678. The church is one of the most beautifully situated along these wild southern shores.
The first view of Penzance from Marazion (known locally as Market Jew) is one that is never forgotten. Right before us, rises the famous St. Michael's Mount, capped with its architectural adornment; to the right the bay swings round in a semicircle to Penzance, beyond which is the harbour of Newlyn, the village that has played so great a part in the history of our modern school of painting.
Certainly nowhere else in England is found the like of St. Michael's Mount, with its curious mingling of a mediæval fortress and modern residence; of antiquarian treasures and up-to-date conveniences. At the foot of the rock is a tiny harbour and a cluster of cottages, and here also is a kind of station for the railway, which carries coal, provisions, and luggage up to the top of the Mount. When the tide is out the Mount can be reached along a causeway, but the road is very rough for walking, as one would expect from its peculiar position on the bed of the sea.
The Mount is really a pyramidical mass of granite, a mile in circumference, capped by a cluster of castellated buildings. The steep ascent up the side of the rock is commanded by a cross-wall pierced with embrasures, and a platform mounting two small batteries. The house itself has a few interesting points and an excellent chapel with some good details of the Decorated and Perpendicular periods. From the summit of the rock a superb panorama of the Cornish coast and the wide-spreading Channel may be obtained. The mythical legends and traditions that have grown up around this solitary rock bear much resemblance to those that are told about its French counterpart, the Mont St. Michel of Normandy. The romantic legends of both concern great heroes and super-terrestrial beings doing battle with evil dragons and fiendish monsters.
ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT
The Mount is certainly a very attractive spot, and, by the kindness of the owner, access to the castle is generally allowed. The building has been much modernized during recent years, but many of its original features remain. Some alterations at the chapel led to the discovery of a blocked-up Gothic doorway, which, being opened, revealed a flight of stone steps terminating in a dark vault, wherein lay the skeleton of a man. The old refectory of the monks is the most distinctive feature of the present house. The Mount is a parish without a public-house, the only one which ever existed there having been closed a few years ago.
In an old volume on Cornwall, published in 1824, we learn that "Turbot are caught in great plenty during the Summer Season. In Mount's Bay there have been instances of 30 being taken in an evening with the hook and line. When plentiful, they are sold from 4d. to 6d. per pound." Leland writes: "Penzantes about a mile from Mousehold, standing fast in the shore of Mount Bay, is the Westest Market Town of all Cornwall, Socur for botes or shypes, but a forced pere or Key. Theyr is but a Chapel yn the sayd towne, as ys in Newlyn, for theyr paroche Chyrches be more than a mile off."