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

Route 1.
KAMBLES BOUND PENZANCE.
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echoing with the music of the birds. Here the village of GULVAL (population,
1668) nestles in a tranquil solitude. On the hill beyond rises its ancient Church,
distinguished by some Early English details; its churchyard graced with a hoary
cross. Prom thence we may climb to the mossy rocks of Gulval Carn for the sake
of the sea-view which their elevated position commands, and turning oif to the
north-east make across the fields to LUDGVAN (population, 2960), where sleeps the
erudite and amiable Borlase (1696-1772), historian of Cornwall, and rector of the
parish for 52 years. He was bom at Pendieu, about 2 miles further. There are
memorials in the interior of the old Norman Church to members of the Davy family.
Facing now to the north-west, we may catch sight of the rugged outline of bleak
old Castle an Dinas, a ruined tower and an ancient camp on its summit, 735 feet
2. MADBON (population, 2977) is the mother-church of Penzance. The road
thither passes York House, the Cemetery; and Nancealveme, and then crosses the
meadowy uplands. Away to the right lies Hea (pron. Hay), where the Wesley
Bock Chapel enshrines the granite rock from which John Wesley proclaimed the
gospel to the wondering Comishmen. Madron Church is placed 350 feet above the
sea, is Early English in character, and contains some old memorials. A tombstone
commemorates George Daniell, the founder of the schools,—
“ Belgia me birth, Britaine me breeding gave,
Cornwall a wife, ten children, and a grave.”
Bemark the wayside cross in the neighbouring hedge, and look for its pedestal in
the village street. Madron Well, 1 mile north, is a chalybeate well, once highly
esteemed for its curative properties in cases of lameness and scrofula, and its pro¬
phetical powers in respect to love and marriage. The latter were tested by young
men and maidens, who flung pebbles or crooked pins into its waters, and read in
the consequent bubbles the indications of their future fates. The mouldering walls
of the ancient Baptistry afford an excellent shelter for trailing ivy, mosses, lichens,
and parasitical climbers. Prom hence to Lanyon Cromlech, or the Giant’s Quoit, is
some twenty minutes’ walk. The upper slab is 18 feet long, its breadth is 8 feet,
and three rude masses of stone about 5£ feet high support it. A similar cromlech
may be seen in a field adjacent to Lanyon Farm. The Men-an-tol, or Holed Stone,
is but a few paces further; and to the left lies the remarkable Men Scryffen, or
Written Stone, 8 feet long, and bearing the inscription—“Rialdbran Cunovan tit."
It probably dates from the era of the Boman occupation of Britain. Standing here,
and looking towards the east, the tourist will just be able to discern the Boskednan
Bing or sacred Druidical arch—68 feet in diameter, and composed of 11 stones,
three of which now lie upon the sward.
3. This, of all the rambles we have indicated, is the most delightful, and one that
no tourist to Penzance can any more think of missing than a countryman in London
would fail to see Buckingham Palace or “ the Bank.” The road to Mousehole is a
noble “Marine Parade;” a terraced walk along the sea-coast, commanding
fanciful views of the “guarded Mount,” and the shifting billows, and the wind¬
swept headlands which tower against the eastern sky. Opposite a clump of cottages
called Wherry Town, a Cornish miner, one Thomas Curtis, actually sunk a mine,
720 feet from the shore, forcing his iron shafts into the porphyritic rock, 100 feet
beneath the waves. Considerable quantities of ore had been raised, when the machi¬
nery was accidentally destroyed by a ship which had drifted from her moorings (1798).
An attempt was made to re-open the mine in 1836, but the speculation was aban¬
doned on account of its cost.