By 1795 turnpikes had made travel much quicker even through Cornwall. The diarist entered Cornwall on June 10th at Launceston and from thence initially followed what would later become the A30 route by way of Five Lanes, Bodmin and Indian Queens. This was followed by a detour to Truro, which is well described, then on via Redruth and Camborne to Penzance on June 17th. The seven day journey through Cornwall was quite leisurely, with several overnight stays.

A description of Penzance follows later as the travellers, as many still do, first went somewhere else - in this case, Land’s End. On the way, they saw a large number of sheep feeding on short grass. It is noted that the owners marked their sheep, in some cases by making a slit in their ears, or cutting off half their ears, and that some were left with no ears at all! The houses seen were of mud (cob?) with ‘scarce any windows.’ There also gentlemen’s houses, most of which ‘have their ceilings made in an Arch ornamented with a variety of figures.’

By Unknown author - http://www.wilson-benesch.com/newsblog.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3862675

It was advisable to take your dinner with you to the ‘last house’ (then as now in Sennen Churchtown), as the hospitality offer there was limited to fish, ‘and sometimes not even that.’ Our travellers took with them ‘a couple of roasted chickens, and a tongue, some roles and a bottle of red port.’ The people that lived at the Land’s End are described as ‘very illiterate, very idle and live partly upon the plunder of wrecks.’ If they were so dependent on shipwrecks they would hardly have welcomed the building of the Longships Lighthouse, built 11 years previously in 1784. There is no mention of deliberate wrecking - but the locals could gain from ships that came to grief, and also from the very bad condition of some of the roads where coaches were overturned.

At one village, where the road was particularly narrow and very bad, the writer was informed that the people were ‘so wicked,’ that they would not ‘permit this part of the road to be filled up and repaired.’ The hope was that a carriage would be overturned and that the villagers would be well rewarded for the assistance they would render in righting the vehicle. The village concerned was on the road from Land’s End to St. Buryan where the ‘ tourist attraction’ was the Logan Rock. Readers might care to indulge in a spot of guesswork…

The travellers did not venture to the Isles of Scilly with its 140 small islands. The diarist was told, however, that some of islands ‘are overflowed at high water and some of them ‘bear good corn, while others abound with rabbits, cranes and herons.’ One claim that cannot be substantiated from literature or archaeology is that the islands had formerly been ‘rich in tin mines.’ This might have arisen from the belief that the Scillies were the Cassiterides or ‘tin islands’ of ancient geographers, but that identification is very uncertain. Although tin is present in the islands, it would have been impossible to mine it by any methods known to the ancient world. Nevertheless some were attracted by the reputation which they believed to have been established by the ancients, and there was even a short lived mine on St. Mary’s in 1791/2. However, it was always uneconomic to mine there.

The church of St. Buryan is described, pointing out that it headed an independent Deanery which included three parishes (St.Buryan, St.Levan and Sennen). In the church, the diarist notes the ‘remarkable large and long screen, richly carved to represent all the beasts and birds that entered in Noah’s Ark.’ The ‘Ship,’ in which they dined on chicken and tongue, is no longer in existence.

© Copyright Michael Garlick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

 
On the next day, Thursday 18th June, the travellers were back in Penzance which they found well built and populous, ‘with some of the houses built upon a very ancient plan.’ The centre of the town was and still is the area around the Market House and by raising eyes above roof level it is still possible, in 2021, to see old chimneys above the nineteenth -century facades. The visitor saw the town standing on a hill, ‘pleasantly situated ‘ and commanding ‘a fine view of the whole bay from St. Clements Point across to the Lizard Point which is 21 miles.’ Assuming that this visitor was standing at a point near the bottom of Causewayhead and looking towards the sea, such a complete view would be impossible today - but development since 1795 will have changed the view from ground level.

Courtesy of Morrab Library photo archive

The other centre of importance, which is not mentioned, is the Quay. Nearby, however, what is wrongly called ‘The Parish Church’ and then more correctly ‘or Chapel of Ease’ is noted: ‘an ancient and very neat building, kept in very good order, and with some very ancient monuments.’ The chapel of St. Mary was a chapel of ease for Madron parish which included Penzance at that time. What the diarist finds ‘very remarkable’ is an apple tree growing within the church ‘near one of the windows.’ This is said to be ‘above 100 years old… flowers annually and some seasons bears fruit. I saw it - the leaves are fine and green.’ From the churchyard there is a view across the bay which is enhanced by a number of ships ‘waiting for a fair wind’ to carry them in the direction of the port to which they are bound.

There is also a reference to the ‘very handsome Octagon Chapel belonging to Lady Huntingdon.’ This would have been in South Parade and near the top entrance to Morrab Gardens. The Countess of Huntingdon formed a body of preachers who were Calvinistic Methodists and differed from John Wesley, and the Octagon was one of their chapels.

After a brief mention of Newlyn with its ‘small and good harbour, with a pier’ attention turns to the Wherry Mine which ‘is one of the greatest curiosities in England.’ The mine which runs under the sea has been well described elsewhere. Here there is a description of the bridge running out to the headgear of the mine and the tube down which the miners were lowered into the pit. The visitors saw the steam engine, installed in 1792, on the shore and this operated the pumps by a series of flat rods along the bridge to keep the mine dry. It was noted that the water pumped up from the mine ‘is salt.’ Did the writer expect fresh water from that depth?

http://www.cismas.org.uk/diaries.php

The mine was doing well when they saw it but would shortly afterwards fall victim to a storm – and, it has been said, to an American ship which had broken from its mooring - and be flooded. The Wherry Mine closed in 1798. Several attempts were made to re- open it, but prosperity did not return and final closure came in 1836.

The visitors were in Penzance on 18th June and, being a Thursday, it was (and would remain until recent times) the main market day. On sale would have been a range of farm produce - but the main interest of the diarist was fish, of which there was a great variety. There was a large amount of mackerel and pilchard, as we would expect - but also mullet, and large conger eels weighing upwards of 70 lbs. Whiting, pollack, John Dories, halibut, plaice, flounders, lobsters, crawfish, large crabs and a variety of other fish were also on sale. The fish was very cheap; in fact what would cost one shilling (5p) here would cost have half a guinea (about 55p) in London.

Marazion was reached on the next day (19th June) and the only comment is that it ‘consists of one long street.’ If not of interest in itself , the town at least had ‘a delightful sea view of the whole bay and of the surrounding mountains’ (for this writer, hills are often ‘mountains’).The tourists would have been much more interested in St. Michael’s Mount which the writer regards as the proper name for the island rather than the ‘Cornish Mount’ as the seamen called it. It was a home of the St. Aubyn family when this diary was written ; their main residence at the time was Clowance.

The importance of the Mount as a harbour is now forgotten but the author mentions ‘a noble and capacious pier, or mole, in which are a number of merchant’s ships.’ The writer would have seen the harbour of 1727, and there were to be further extensions of the pier in 1821. Later in the nineteenth century the harbour at Penzance was expanded and this led to the demise of the port at St. Michael’s Mount.

© 2019 Robin Stevens, rejs@cynic.org.uk licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.

As the weather was stormy, even in June, the travellers were not able to cross to the Mount. Leaving Marazion, they followed ‘ten miles of excellent roads’ until they reached Helston, travelling on from there to Penryn and Falmouth, then Truro, Grampound and St. Austell. They left Cornwall by way of Callington and then continued to Tavistock.
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It is a pity that there are no details about the authorship or current whereabouts of the original diary manuscript. We would be delighted to hear of any further information!

Cedric Appleby May 2021

References:

IMPRESSIONS OF THE OLD DUCHY Book 1. 1795 Through Cornwall by Coach ed I.D. Spreadbury; Mevagissey Kingston Publications 1971

For the latest research on the Wherry Mine see http://www.cismas.org.uk/diaries.php