Adventure and adventurers > Black's guide to the counties of Dorset, Devon, & Cornwall

360
FROM PLYMOUTH TO PENZANCE.
Route 1.
greenstone, supported on clay slate, called the Chapel Rock.
A small fishing village lies at the base, skirting a harbour which
has sufficient depth of water for vessels of 500 tons, and the hill
towers magnificently above it, bare, precipitous, and rugged.
The body is of granite, resting, on the north side, on a substra¬
tum of slate, and streaked on the south-east by veins of glitter¬
ing quartz. The ascent is commanded by a cross-wall pierced
with numerous embrasures, and a platform defended by two
small batteries. In the castle itself there is little to be seen :
the ancient Hall, now called the Chevy Chace Room, is enriched
with an animated cornice representing the fox, stag, boar, wild
bull, and other animals appropriated to the huntsman’s sport;
the Chapel exhibits details both of Decorated and Perpendicular,
and is enlivened with some modem stained glass. From the
tower, or the stone lantern, erroneously called St. Michael’s
Chair—a point somewhat difficult to reach, and very difficult
to return from—a noble panorama of the Cornish coast and the
wide-spreading Channel, seen usually under the most picturesque
aerial effects, may be commanded. It is said by the gossips that
the husband or wife who first sits in St. Michael’s Chair will
obtain the highly-prized privilege supposed to be conferred by
the first draught of the waters of St. Keyne’s Well. But the real
“ St. Michael’s Chair” is a rude, rough crag on the west side of
the rock.
“ Who knows not Michael’s mount and chair, the pilgrim’s holy vaunt;
Both land and island twice a day, both fort and port of haunt
Returning to Marazion, and resuming our places in our rail¬
way-carriage (the station, by the way, is about 1^ mile north¬
west of Marazion-town), we pass Ludvan and Gulvale (see
post), and running along the shore for a mile or so, enter the
beautiful market-town of Penzance, the southern terminus of the
great iron roads of England.
PENZANCE.
[Hotels—On the Esplanade, The Queen’s and Mount’s Bay House; in the town,
Western, Union, Star, Three Tuns.
283 in. from London ; 10 m. from the Land’s End; 27J m. from Truro; 82J m.
from Plymouth; 3 m. from Marazion; 7 m. from St. Ives; 12 m. from Helstone;
and 24 m. from Falmouth.
Banks : Messrs. Batten and Co.; Messrs. Bolithos and Co.
Market-Days : Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
/WSteamers to Falmouth, Plymouth, Liverpool, the Scilly Isles, and London.
Boarding - Houses : Royal Bath House, and Beachfleld House, both on Es¬
planade.]