(Distance walked thirty-four and a half miles.)

Saturday, November 18th.

We had ordered breakfast much later than usual to suit the convenience of our friend, but we were out in the town at our usual early hour, and were quite astonished at the trees and plants we saw growing in the grounds and gardens there, some of which could only be grown under glass farther north.  Here they were growing luxuriantly in the open air, some having the appearance of the palm-trees we had seen pictured in books.  We had been favoured with fairly fine weather for some time, and although we had passed through many showers, we had not encountered anything in the nature of continuous rain, although Cornwall is naturally a humid county, and is said to have a shower of rain for every day in the week and two for Sunday.  We kept near the edge of the sea, and the view of the bay, with St. Michael’s Mount on one side and the Lizards on the other, was very fine; but the Mount had assumed quite a different appearance since yesterday, for now it appeared completely isolated, the connection with the mainland not being visible.  We were sure that both St. Michael’s Mount and Penzance must have had an eventful history, but the chief event in the minds of the people seemed to have been the visit of the Spaniards when they burnt the town in 1595.  The Cornishmen made very little resistance on that occasion, owing to the existence of an old prophecy foretelling the destruction of Penzance by fire when the enemy landed on the rock of Merlin, the place where the Spaniards actually did land.  Probably it was impossible to defend the town against an enemy attacking Penzance from that point, as it was only about a mile distant.

We returned to our hotel at the time arranged for breakfast, which was quite ready, the table being laid for three; but where was our friend?  We learned that he had gone out into the town, but we had got half-way through our breakfast, all the while wondering where he could be, when the door opened suddenly and in he came, with his face beaming like the rising sun, although we noticed he glanced rather anxiously in the direction of the remaining breakfast.  He apologised for being late, but he had not been able to obtain the conveyance he mentioned to us last night, as it was engaged elsewhere.  He had, however, found another which he thought might suit our purpose, and had arranged for it to be at the hotel in half an hour’s time.  He also brought the pleasing intelligence that we might expect a fine day.  The trap duly arrived in charge of the owner, who was to act as driver; but some difficulty arose, as he had not quite understood the order.  He thought he had simply to drive us to the Land’s End and back, and had contemplated being home again early, so our friend had to make another financial arrangement before he would accept the order.  This was soon negotiated, but it was very difficult to arrange further