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To the Editor of the European Magazine. SIR, Penryn, Cornwall, July 2, 1818. AVING finished my last letter to you with the account of Illogan, in this county, I now resume my pen, after the lapse of many, months, to give you what further remarks I made on the scenery and objects I saw in my jaunt through these western parts. At the western end of the bank of white and beautiful sand, which takes its rise near the parish of Illogan, and continues its course through Gwithian and Phillack, already described, stands Hayle Copper-bouse, where the river of that name pours its mineral stream into the ocean. This place, within the last half century, is become a place of considerable commerce: here is a company formed for smelting copper ore. This company made trial of a question, which occupied the attention of miners much, when mining was in its infancy, whe ther it was more advantageous for the smelter to carry his copper ore to the coal, or to bring the coal to the copper: the majority of smelting houses having taken their station on the opposite side of the channel, and there being only one on this side of the water, whilst the eleven on the other side seems to determine the question in favour of carrying the copper ore to the coal.

The exchange of coal and copper engages an active communication by shipping between this place and Wales, as it does with Portreath.

Hayle presents to the tourist a very active and agreeable stene: a fine flat of sand of several miles extent, forined by the tide, affords a pleasant ride for equestrians; though care is necessary to avoid the quicksands, which are numerous on the right of your journey towards Penzance. The scenery is rendered highly interesting by the shipping which line the mouth of the river, a large sluice which pours a rapid and roaring flood at low water, down the course of the river, to deepen the channel, and squadrons of mules passing and repassing, employed to convey coal to the mines and bring back copper ores to the port: with cumbrous lighters scattered here and there for the conveyance of coal up to the quays which surround this flat. Coming out of a city where your view is bounded by houses, and clouded by smoke, you feel quite alive, new sensibilities seem to enter the soul, and you are as one transported into a region where Europ. Mag. Fol. LXXIV. Aug, 1815.

a succession of objects crowd upon the eye, in every respect dissimilar and discordant, yet affording the highest delight.

The sale of coal is as extensive here as at Portreath.

Copper ore, previous to its being transported to Wales, undergoes considerable preparation, which miners call dressing, partly on the mine, and partly at stamping mills; that part of the ore dressed on the mine is of the best qua lity, the most solid of which is bruised by sledges, by a process they call spal ling, and bucking and cobbing; the first operation is performed near the shaft where it is raised, by men; the latter by women under pent-houses, who pound it on iron plates, or hard rocks, with a sort of iron mallet, to the consistence of gravel. In some

cases, where the ore is raised in a small gravelly dry state, it is passed through an iron wire sieve; the better part of which is fit for immediate sale, without further preparation, the coarser part is washed and picked, and then bucked. The halvan or refuse, together with the less friable ore, is sent to the stamping mills, which are worked by water wheels, or steam-engines; the mill itself is composed of three stamp heads of iron, from three hundred and a half to four hundred weight each, which are affixed to as many poles, and worked by an axle and cogs set in motion by the wheels. Steam mills have eighteen heads of the same description; a man is provided to supply the mill with halvan, and to attend to the working of it. When it is pounded sufficiently small, and washed as clean as possible from the earth with which it was combined, it is carried back and sold with other ores at the mine. The manner in which the sale is conducted is this: the ore is divided into different piles according to its quality (some, however, mix all their ores promiscuously, about twenty or thirty tous each, which they call doles. A day is then fixed for sampling, which is monthly: the samplers assembled (for each company keeps a sampler), two men are prepared with shovels to make a trench through each pile or dole, when the samplers collect a little here and a little there, they put it on an iron plate, where they pound it very small, when each sampler fills a small canvass bag, and carries it to the essay-master of the company, who having ascertained the quantity

of fine copper a given quantity of ore produces, finds the value of a ton of ore, and makes his offer accordingly. This they do with great accuracy; though sometimes impositions are attempted by the tributers, who raise the ore at a poundage, according to the richness of the lode, by prilling the sample, or dropping very rich bits of copper from the sleeves of their coats into the sample as they pound it: but this seldom escapes detection; and the of fenders are sure of being punished.

After all this is done, the copper ore is sold, at what is called a ticketting, where the copper company agents meet the mine agents, with the prices they mean to offer previously written on tickets, which gives name to the sale itself. They take their stations on chairs around a large table, with a chairman at the head; to whom each company hands, through their agent, their ticket, numbered 1, 2, 3, &c. according to the seniority of the company from their formation; each ticket is read in this order by the chairman, and the parcel of ore sold to the highest bidder when the same price is offered by two bidders, the elder company has the preference. After the sale, mules and carts are employed to bring it down, by the agents of the respective companies, to their depots at this place or Portreath, these being the only ports, on the north coast, from which copper is exported to Wales. Like most other manufactories, the mines employ all ages, men, women, and children: men with a small proportion of boys work the mines and break the ore. The facility of pursuing the process of discovering and working the ground in search and raising of ores, is in proportion to the hardness of the ground, through which they prosecute their labour: much is performed by blasting with gunpowder, and much with the pick and gad, the latter being a small iron wedge well-tempered to sever rocks in their joints. Their labour is chiefly task, or contract, with a poundage, by the fathom; thus a passage six foot high, and three or four wide, which is called an end or an adit, is to be driven through the earth, 20, 100, or 200 fathoms under the surface, in search of ore, or to carry off the water: the miner's contract is 51. 61. or even 101. or 20l. per fathom, according to the hardness of the ground; sometimes with the addition of is. or

2s. 6d. in the pound for the ore discovered. At other times, when the ore is in sight, he receives from 6d. to 10s., without any consideration for breaking the ground, according to the apparent value of the ore: sometimes, when they have contracted at a considerable poundage, it has been known, that miners have realized from 2007. to 4001. in the course of a fortnight, which often lays the foundation of wealth in families. But this only happeus where success is attended by pru dence. Their labour is attended with danger, from the use of gunpowder to blast the rocks, their ascending and descending to and from their labour by ladders, the decay of the props under ground, the breaking of kibbals (or buckets), stones falling, and various other accidents, that must naturally attend labour prosecuted so deep upder the surface, where materials are constantly exposed to decay from the wet, and other accidents that cannot be provided against by any foresight. Miners are a short-lived race; they are peculiarly subject to asthma and consumptions, from breathing mineral airs in their employment, and seldom exceed the age of fifty. Boys of six or seven years commence their career as miners at the stamping-mills and buddle; the buddle being a small pit, seven feet long and three wide, through which a small stream of water runs, where they place the halvan ore after it is stamped, and stir it with a shovel, to facilitate the fall of the ore to the bottom, whilst the same process promotes the ascent of the lighter earths to the top to be carried off by the water. The best of the ore thus washed lies at the head of the buddle, the poorest at the end. The same process is followed, with little variation, in washing tin.

The occupation of women in preparing copper ore is by cobbing and bucking, though they employ girls in washing and picking it. They give an air of cheerfulness to labour, accompanying the ring of their hammers with some love ditty or national song, which by its wildness and sweetness rivals, in my opinion, the Italian squall and trill of Catalani herself, after whom our nobility and gentry, some little while since, were running mad, for no other reason than because she was an Italian, and it was the fashion to admire her.

It is very perceptible, their note accelerates and sweetens labour, for the louder they sing, the faster and more sedulously they work they compose a motley group some with patched bedgowns, pieced in all the varied colours of the rainbow, make it difficult to ascertain the original texture or colour of the pristine garment:-whilst others lie about in all the tatterdemallion of rags and negligent indifference of dress; others again are careful of dressing according to the precisest costume of the day, with a fashionable shape, short waists, and short sleeves; with hair buckled up in the stiffest curl: they carefully guard their necks against burning of the sun by large neckkerchiefs tied loosely round them, though they are not always equally fortunate to preserve their persons from copper browning. On Sundays they exhibit their smartest attire, white gowns, straw bonnets decked off in knots and bows of ribbons, unless here and there you observe a demure sister of the Wesleyan persuasion in a poke bonnet, with no decoration in the way of knot or bow, as they hold it an abomination: but let it not be supposed that these are negligent of appearances either, they are as studious of copying the costume of their own ritual, as the arrantest belle is the fashions of the day. The women in general are handsome and well-proportioned: though it is to be deplored, that their early occupation at the mines does not cou. tribute to make them always good housewives. The patient and solitary progress of sewing and knitting and spinning are relinquished for the social labour of the mines. Man, for the most part, is a social animal, and fond of herding with his species, and women inheriting his nature, are organized with the same disposition and feelings. Did ball-maids (the title by which they are usually designated) pay greater attention to the household deities, it would improve the condition of their homes, and make their husbands fouder of them yet still it must not be concluded but that many is the laudable exception; as many of their habitations are so neat and well managed, that the most fastidious of our gentry may feel no disparagement to enter and take their repasts in them: for neater dwellings I never saw, thau are some of them. No character has been less understood, or more misrepre.

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sented, than the miner, by tourists, sta◄ tistical writers, or religious journa!. ists. John Wesley's accounts of them are little better than a libel; this his journalists continue to do, to enhance their conversion amongst them. They are a fine race of men, with quick ap prehensions, and possess minds susceptible of the most generous affections. In character, they resemble our sailors; and if they earn their money with great hazard and personal exertion, they as thoughtlessly spend it. In times of dearth, they exhibit occasionally a riotous disposition; but when the cause has been removed, they quietly return to their occupations. hunger stirs up the most uncontrollable passions; and the man whose daily pro, vision is supplied in luxurious abundance, is incapable of knowing the an ger and despair that scarcity will produce in the famishing inmates of an hungry cottage.

Severe

As you cross the mouth of Hayle River, you catch a very pleasing view of the borough of St. Ives, which of a fine day looks pretty; it stands at the foot of a range of hills, which run in a south-westerly direction from this place. On the top of these hills a gentleman of rather a whimsical turn thought proper to fix for his burying place; so singular a determination, is not easy to be accounted for;-perhaps the gentleman might have thought the whole quite a joke when surveyed in the hayly-gaily days of youth, with death at a distance; yet as it drew nearer, he surveyed it in a more serious point of view, and altered his intention, and had his bones lodged safely in consecrated ground. It could not have arisen from infidelity, for he has inscribed two of the most momentous articles of the Christian creed on it; the side facing the east is inscribed with Resurgam, on the west with "I know that my Redeemer liveth" bis preferring to deposit his remains in a church-yard, is evidently the result of maturer reflection. The spire, with a stone coffin designed for his burying-place, remains, and forms a good sea-mark, being built with that durable granite which abounds in Corn. wall. By his will, he has bequeathed an estate to perpetuate his memory by a dance round it, every five years, of ten girls under the age of fourteen, and an old woman, who assists in the cere. mony to preserve decorum : the whole is closed with a boat-race and a dinner.

I do not think it fair to question the motives of men, however extravagant, if not attended by any injurious result. Vanity is often a powerful principle of action: perhaps some of our best institutions arise in a motive no better. The man who builds an hospital or founds a seminary of learning is building a monument to hand down his name to posterity, as he thinks; and undoubtedly he has as good pretensions to fame as he who wins a battle or rules

a senate.

Around the extensive flat, which I have attempted to delineate, are several towns and villages, and some snug boxes and churches.

Among the latter stands Lelant, a very pleasing feature in the landscape, on a sand-bank, preserved from being overwhelmed, by the common preven tive of planting rushes. It is a fine shell, the roof supported by large massy Saxon columns; and the walls, penetrated by every description of Gothic windows, denote, by their mixed orders, a higher date in architectural antiquity than the neighbouring

churches afford.

A little further on, at the foot of a hill, called Torcroven, which rises suddenly and boldly from its base, stands Trevethow, the seat of the Praeds, a pretty box, much embellished by the father of the present gentleman, but now, with its paddock and grounds, abandoned to the inevitable ruin of time and desertion. Its possessor is,

Dives posilis in fœnore nummis!

Its overlooking Hayle river at high water has an enchanting effect; the morning that sees its surface covered with troops of mules, carts, and travelling carriages, in the afternoon sees it covered with vessels of light_burthen, boats, and lighters: this variety is one of the pleasing effects of an estuary whose scene is ever shifting and new.

A few miles to the south of this, two hills of conical structure exalt their heads in the air with majestic sublimity as you approach them, some scattered trees remain to inform the traveller of its being once the seat of hospitality and distinction. The name of Godolphin awakens many pleasing recollections in the minds of the natives: their family held distinguished Consequence in this county and gave to the boroughs in the vicinity many

a worthy representative: and to Government one highly distinguished statesman, whose name is associated with Marlborough in an administration, equally distinguished with that of the Wellesleys of the present day, in curbing the exorbitant ambition of France. The remains of the old mansion mark sufficiently its departed consequence and hospitality; the old hall, with its four oak tables, in four angular compartments, point out where once stood the smoking sirloins and substan tial rounds of beef, and good strong nut-brown ale: but now good cheer and merriment are banished, and nothing but meagre economy, and screechowls and bats tenant the deserted chambers: consigned to the paring and parsi. monious pinching of stewards and underlings, the place is no longer capable of regaling its tenantry. The frippery of French manners and French cookery have long since superseded English bospitality and plain English fare; and now, instead of seeing the halls of our nobility and gentry filled with their tenants, you see their place supplied by powdered, silver-laced lacqueys, in a costume almost designed to caricature our species. The state bed-room, in which it was said the unfortunate Charles once slept, shewed with pride by the sedulous domestics, has disappeared, together with the park, ball, and good cheer, and "Like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaves not a wreck behind." The bravery of Sir Francis Godolphin is recorded by one of the oldest and best historians of Cornwall, in repelling the invasion of the Spaniards in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who inflicted unnecessary and wanton vengeance on the fishingtowns of Mousehole and Newlyn. Cruelty and intolerance are ever the attendants of bigotry: Catholics are not changed: the support that they have found amongst our Jacobinical Whigs is not so extraordinary, when one recollects, that power in the hands of democrats, despots, and Catholics, has invariably been converted into tyranny, and the destruction of the human species. The sight of an old family mansion mouldering into ruin, awakens very unpleasant sensations: it

reminds us of the instability of all sublunary things: but it is really to be lamented for one consideration in particular, which affects our nobility and gentry, the loss of that influence which

gives order and regularity to those parts where their property is situated; they ought to be the source of charity and order. Where rents are ex. acted with an unsparing hand, and this through the hands of stewards who have no power to pay back any part of it in good cheer or acts of favour, such as tenants have a right to expect, breaks a link in the chain of dependence: they lose their influence amongst their tenantry, and some neighbouring democrat will be sure to cajole them into his party as soon as this is effected, the commonalty will be desirous of new masters. Will our nobility never learn a lesson from the French Revolution? Will the disorganization, murder, pillage, and assassination, exemplified in that devoted country, and all the hellish abominations practised there by an infuriate rabble, never teach them wisdom? Had they wisdom, they might recollect, that their interest could not be better consulted, than by spending a portion of their time with their tenantry in the country, and distributing some part of that wealth they received from their estates in hospitality and charity, which they now indiscreetly lavish on the vainest and cruellest people in Europe, who are their bitterest enemies, and can never be on cordial terms with England, or any thing that belongs to her. I understand Breage, in consequence of the loss of the Godolphin family, has become one of the most disorderly parishes in the west of Cornwall, being noted for WREEKERS, a lawless rabble, who are active in frequenting ships in distress, and plundering the defenceless at their greatest need, who have the strongest claim on the humanity and protection of all reasonable people. The ancient mansion of Godolphin stands at the foot of a very high hill of that name; another hill immediately connected with it is called Tregoning; these form the highest land in the West, and are the first objects seen by ships coming up the channel. On Tregoning bill is a circular Roman fort, surrounded by a Vallum of loose stones: a little while since, some copper coins of Antoninus were found in the Vallum, which decides beyond doubt the station to have been Roman. Its commanding situation during last war was with great propriety fixed upon as a signal-post.

On the west side of these hills, you command a most beautiful view of that

Paradise of the West, Mount's Bay; in whatever view surveyed, its beauty is unrivalled. In scenery, the essential quality of this bay is beauty; though when acted upon by a tempest, it approaches to the sublime. Its form from the sea-side is semicircular; its shores from the land-side gradually slope down to the water's edge. On the eastern side stands Marazion (which I have previously alluded to, as the mart formerly of our fin trade with the Phenicians, Jews, and Romans), in immediate contact with St. Michael's Mount: on the opposite, which is the western side, stand Mousehole, Newlyn, and Penzance: each place having derived to itself consequence, at different periods, from its fisheries. Penzance, at present, is by far the most considerable place in the bay, and enjoys a corporation, and a coinage for tin, and is much frequented by invalids, and those who feel pleasure in breathing a soft and salu. brious atmosphere, after inhaling the mephitic air of our metropolis. The scenery around is enchanting; its gardens produce the earliest fruit, its fields the earliest crops of potatoes; which its climate, from its mildness, is propitious to their being planted when other parts are covered with snow: its markets are replenished with the best fish of every kind. St. Michael's Mount stands preeminent in the bay, whether as an object for the delighted eye to rest upon, or for retirement and meditation: and it is no wonder that religion should have sought seclusion here: the brain, oppressed with the continual din of cities, the rolling of carriages, and the buz and hum of venders of all kinds of wares; the oppositions and wrang. lings excited by clashing interests; the cupidity of man urging to the most lawless impositions by day and the most violent depredations by night; render a place like this, the seat of peace and quiet, particularly inviting: here you can be at peace with all the world, if you can be at peace with your own restless self. The majesty and innate grandeur of the scene fills the mind with the most agreeable associations. It was here, where once chanted the religious recluse his matins and vespers, and the baron buckled on his armour and prepared for the contest ; for in the varying changes and chances of this life, it has been both the seat of religion and arms. Nor, in an age when the world is divided between

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