A Pleasant Time at Penza^ice, 6 1 



Alas ! it is said that Messrs. Bolitlio can now pur- 

 chase ore from AustraHa, dehvered at their smelting 

 works in Penzance, at a lower price than it can be 

 raised and sold at a profit from the mines hard by. 



I roam through the town, and find it in a state 

 of excitement. No fewer than ten omnibuses are 

 standing in a row, just arrived from Camborne, 

 Ruan, Redruth, and other towns lying a few miles 

 distant, bringing many passengers, some to sell 

 butter, eggs, and poultry, others to buy the different 

 commodities that are exhibited for sale in the stalls 

 in the street and the market house, amongst which I 

 noticed carrots and crockery-ware, highlow boots, 

 sticks of tripe, gigantic gone-to-seed cucumbers, 

 sturdy sticks of rhubarb, colossal vegetable mar- 

 rows, lollypops, limpets, periwinkles, pilchards, con- 

 ger eels, butter, cheese, and meat. After which I 

 dine at the Star, where an excellent dinner is pro- 

 vided by the clever hostess of this capital inn, and 

 I am supposed to be visiting the borough with a 

 view to represent it in the next Parliament. I may 

 — but we shall see ; at any rate, I allowed the in- 

 ference to remain uncontradicted. It gives one an 

 idea of the solvency of one's appearance to be sup- 

 posed to be in a condition to contest a Cornish 

 borough. 



Of Penzance, as a place of residence for invalids 

 during the winter months, I think there is much to 

 be said. It is a clean, well-built town ; it has excel- 

 lent hotels — the Queen for one ; lodgings of superior 

 description are obtainable at an extremely moderate 

 cost. There are excellent shops of all descriptions ; 

 a clever medical man, possibly more, but I can speak 



