Perkin Warbeck, about whom we had heard at Exeter, and who in 1497 appeared in England with 7,000 men to claim the English throne, occupied the castle on St. Michael’s Mount for a short time with his beautiful wife, the “White Rose of Scotland,” whom he left here for safety while he went forward to London to claim the crown.  He was said to be a Jew, or, to be correct, the son of a Tournai Jew, which possibly might in some way or other account for the Jewish settlement at Marazion.  His army, however, was defeated, and he was hanged at Tyburn, November 23rd, 1499, while his wife was afterwards removed to the Court of Henry VII, where she received every consideration and was kindly treated.

We soon covered the three miles which separated us from Penzance, where we went to the best hotel in the town, arriving just in time for dinner.  There was only one other visitor there, a gentleman who informed us he had come from Liverpool, where he was in the timber trade, and was staying at Penzance for a few days.  He asked what business we were in, and when we told him we had practically retired from business in 1868, and that that was the reason why we were able to spare nine weeks to walk from John o’ Groat’s to Land’s End, he seemed considerably surprised.  We did not think then that in a few years’ time we should, owing to unexpected events, find ourselves in the same kind of business as his, and meet that same gentleman on future occasions!

We shall always remember that night at Penzance!  The gentleman sat at the head of the table at dinner while we sat one on each side of him.  But though he occupied the head position, we were head and shoulders above him in our gastronomical achievements—­so much so that although he had been surprised at our long walk, he told us afterwards that he was “absolutely astounded” at our enormous appetites.

He took a great interest in our description of the route we had followed.  Some of the places we had visited he knew quite well, and we sat up talking about the sights we had seen until it was past closing-time.  When we rose to retire, he said he should esteem it an honour if we would allow him to accompany us to the Land’s End on the following day to see us “in at the finish.”  He said he knew intimately the whole of the coast between Penzance and the Land’s End, and could no doubt show us objects of interest that we might otherwise miss seeing.  We assured him that we should esteem the honour to be ours, and should be glad to accept his kind offer, informing him that we intended walking along the coast to the end and then engaging a conveyance to bring us back again.  He thought that a good idea, but as we might have some difficulty in getting a suitable conveyance at that end of our journey, he strongly advised our hiring one at Penzance, and offered, if we would allow him, to engage for us in the morning a trap he had hired the day before, though we must not expect anything very grand in these out-of-the-way parts of the country.  We thankfully accepted his kind offer, and this item in the programme being settled, we considered ourselves friends, and parted accordingly for the night, pleasantly conscious that even if we did not walk at all on the morrow, we had secured our average of twenty-five miles daily over the whole of our journey.