The Cornish peninsula upon approaching its termination divides into two,
with the semicircular sweep of Mount's Bay between them. To the
southward juts out the Lizard, and to the westward Land's End. While the
latter is the westernmost extremity of England, the Lizard is usually
the earliest headland that greets the mariner. The Lizard peninsula is
practically almost an island, the broad estuary of the Helford River on
one side and a strange inlet called Loo Pool on the other narrowing its
connecting isthmus to barely two miles width. To the northward of the
Helford River is the well-known port of Falmouth. Inland are the great
Cornwall tin-and copper-mines, the former having been worked for
centuries, while the latter are now probably of the greater importance.
Competition and the costlier working of the tin-mines have caused many
of them to be abandoned. These metals are mostly mined on the black
moorlands, which offer little attraction to the tourist, who gladly
avoids them for the picturesque shores of Falmouth harbor. A broad
estuary guarded by bold headlands forms Carrick Roads, and the western
one of these also guards the entrance to Falmouth harbor, which Leland
describes as being in his day "the principal haven of all Britain."
Though long frequented, however, no town stood on its shores until the
seventeenth century. When Raleigh came back from his voyage to Guiana
there was but a single house on the shore, where his crew were lodged,
and he, being impressed with the advantages of the location for a port,
laid before Queen Elizabeth a plan for the foundation of a town. But it
was a long while before anything came of it, and the place was not named
Falmouth or incorporated until the reign of Charles II. It became a
post-office packet-station for the Atlantic ports in the last century,
and Byron in his day described it as containing "many Quakers and much
salt fish." Its Cornish name is Pen-combick, meaning "the village in the
hollow of the headland," which has been corrupted by the mariner into
"Penny-come-quick," because on one occasion the landlady of the solitary
inn sold the liquor engaged for a party of visitors to a parcel of
thirsty Dutch sailors who had just landed, and, being taken to task for
it explained that the "penny come so quick" she could not deny them.
Pendennis Castle guards the entrance to Carrick Roads, and was built by
Henry VIII., being enlarged by Elizabeth. It and Raglan were the last
castles holding out for King Charles. Lightning greatly injured
Pendennis in the last century. On the opposite portal of the harbor
stands St. Mawe's Castle. The ramparts of Pendennis afford a view of
extreme beauty.
[Illustration: PENDENNIS CASTLE.]
[Illustration: MULLYON COVE]
[Illustration: LION ROCK--MULLYON IN THE DISTANCE.]
[Illustration: CAVE AT MULLYON.]
On the narrow neck of land uniting the Lizard peninsula to the mainland
stands Helston, formerly guarded by a castle that has long since
disappeared, and named, we are told, from the great block of granite
that once formed the portal of the infernal regions. The master of those
dominions once, when he went abroad, carried his front door with him,
and was met in this neighborhood by St. Michael, whereupon there was a
"bit of a fight" between the two adversaries. His Satanic Majesty was
defeated, and, dropping his front door, fled. The great boulder, which
thus named the town, is built into a wall back of the Angel Inn, and
they hold an annual festival on May 8th to commemorate the event. Loo
Pool cuts deeply into the land to the westward of Helston, and the
district south of it is an elevated plateau, bare and treeless
generally, but containing many pretty glens, while the shore is lined
with sequestered coves. Here grow the Cornish heath-flowers, which are
most beautiful in the early autumn, while the serpentine rocks of its
grand sea-cliffs, relieved by sparkling golden crystals and veins of
green, red, and white, make fine ornaments. Upon the coast, southward
from Helston, is Mullyon Cove, a characteristic specimen of the Lizard
scenery. A glen winds down to the sea, displacing the crags to get an
outlet, and disclosing their beautiful serpentine veins. A pyramidal
rock rises on one hand, a range of serpentine cliffs on the other, and a
flat-topped island in front. In the serpentine cliffs is the portal of a
cave that can be penetrated for over two hundred feet, and was a haunt
of the smugglers in former days, the revenue officers generally winking
at them for a share of the spoils. We are told that in the last century
the smugglers here had six vessels, manned by two hundred and
thirty-four men and mounting fifty-six cannon--a formidable fleet--and
when Falmouth got a collector sufficiently resolute to try to break them
up, they actually posted handbills offering rewards for his
assassination. At one place on shore they had a battery of six-pounders,
which did not hesitate to fire on the king's ships when they became too
inquisitive. The coast is full of places about which tales are told of
the exploits of the smugglers, but the crime has long since become
extinct there because it no longer pays. South of Mullyon are the bold
headlands of Pradanack Point and Vellan Head, while beyond we come to
the most noted spot on the Lizard peninsular coast.
[Illustration: PRADANACK POINT.]