With all the sharp and bitter aggravations
Of such a vast transition.
It is a very curious circumstance that the name of these wretched people, having been kept back at first from compassion towards their relatives, it is now actually unknown.
This parish has been peculiarly fortunate in its succession of clergymen. The Rev. John Penrose, who died in 1776, after being thirty-five years Vicar, has left the reputation of learning, of piety, and of all the virtues which adorn a clergyman. Mr. Temple bore a very high reputation as a man of letters; Mr. Howell was universally esteemed; and the present vicar, Mr. Sheepshanks, ranked in the first lists of science and of literature at Cambridge, and became a distinguished tutor in a college, which continues to support the rank bestowed upon it by the greatest of philosophers.
The town, lying on the back of a sharp ridge of land dividing two deep vallies, has great beauty of situation, and deserves in other respects the praises bestowed by Mr. Tonkin. To travellers, however, all the circumstances are quite different; the main street descending with the ridge is scarcely safe for carriages; and the great road from London through Truro to Falmouth, passing directly across the ridge, has to go up and then down through streets so steep and narrow, and in parts so turned, as to make the safe-passage of the mail-coach a matter of wonder; these defects have been, however, completely remedied by a road carried round the point and accommodated with a drawbridge; thus reducing the road to a level, and preserving the communication by water; this improvement was made about the year 1830.
This parish measures 2,271 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. | s. | d. | |||
| The Parish | £.3951 | 0 | 0 | |||
| The Town | 5117 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 9068 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Poor Rate in 1831: | ||||||
| The Parish | 584 | 3 | 0 | |||
| The Town | 1162 | 8 | 0 | |||
| 1746 | 11 | 0 | ||||
| Population,— | ||||
| in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831, | |
| The Parish, | 624 | 714 | 745 | 969 |
| The Town | 2324 | 2713 | 2933 | 3521 |
| 2948 | 3427 | 3678 | 4490 | |
giving an increase on the Parish of 55⅓, on the Town 51½, on both 52¼,—per cent. in 30 years.