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from Bristol and Wales, which bring iron and coal for the mines, and lime-stones for flux, and load back with copper; as many of the proprietors find it less expensive to export the ore to Wales for smelting, than to manufacture it on the spot. This, however, is not the case with all the ore; a part of which is smelted at Heyl, and then rolled into flat sheets at the pounding-houses, about three miles to the southward of this place. The processes of roasting and refining the ore at Heyl, during which it passes through six or seven furnaces, are highly interesting; but the pleasure arising from a sight so curious to those who are not familiar with it, is greatly damped by the appearance of the workmen engaged in it. Nothing indeed can be more shocking than this scene, as an humane and enlightened Tourist has observed. "So dreadfully deleterious "are the fumes of arsenic constantly impregnating "the air of these places, and so profuse is the per

*

spiration occasioned by the heat of the furnaces, "that those who have been employed at them but "a few months become most emaciated figures, and "in the course of a few years are generally laid in "their graves. Some of the poor wretches who

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were lading the liquid metal from the furnaces to

* Maton, vol. i. P. 233.

"the moulds, looked more like walking corpses than "living beings. How melancholy a circumstance

to reflect upon, and yet to how few does it occur that in preparing the materials of those numerous "utensils which we are taught to consider as indis66 pensable in our kitchens, several of our fellow 66 creatures are daily deprived of the greatest bless❝ing of life, and too seldom obtain relief but in "losing life itself!"

Having obtained very particular directions, and collected all our caution, for both are necessary in this passage, we crossed Heyl river over its sands, which, when the tide is out, are left bare for a few hours'; not indeed without some little apprehension, as many instances are remembered of travellers having been entrapped by these treacherous Syrtes, and reduced to great danger, if not entirely suffocated, before they could be extricated from them. Theseunpleasant considerations however were quickly dissipated by the beauty of the view at Lelant, which embraced the mouth of Heyl river; the busy picture of Phillack creek, and the deep and capacious bay of St. Ives, formed by Godrevy head and island to the east, and the black promontory which rises over St. Ives, to the west. A view of the same kind, but more diversified, occurred again at Tregenna, the seat of

Stephens, esq; which crowns the summit of a

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hill half a mile from St. Ives. The house is modern, and built in imitation of a castle. Though this stile of architecture may in general be pronounced as little less than absurd when adopted in modern mansions, yet in the case of Tregenna, we allowed that it was justified by its situation. Its appearance from the Channel must be formidable; and might possibly assist in deterring an enemy from attempting to land on an exposed coast, by holding out the semblance of defensive strength, which in fact it does not possess. Independently, however, of this mock fortress, St. Ives has a slight protection in its battery, consisting of twelve pieces of ordnance, placed on the promontory to the north-east of the town; from which it is separated by a sandy isthmus. This is a fine abrupt steep, ribbed with romantic rocks, against which the waves dash with prodigious fury when the wind is to the northward.* A strong gale blew from that quarter when we visited it, and threw a terrible sea into the harbour. In general, we were informed, this noble basin was considered as very safe anchorage, though storms have occurred which covered its surface with wrecks. On the 14th day of the preceding November, a

* It has also a beacon, and a small chapel dedicated to St. Michael, a sea-mark, kept in repair by the Corporation.

melancholy scene of this kind had been exhibited to the inhabitants of St. Ives; when th ee vessels were thrown upon the rocks of the harbour before their eyes, totally destroyed, and the greater part of their crews swallowed up. The affect ng sight made its proper impression on some of the spectators, who immediately endeavoured to raise a subscription for building and maintaining a life-boat, to prevent in future the most dreadful consequences of such shipwrecks, the loss of the unhappy seamen ; but so insensible were the merchants of the place to the dangers and sufferings of the hardy race who fill their coffers, that the philanthropic attempt was frustrated by the impossibility of raising the poor pittance required for the purpose! As we had this information from a merchant of St. Ives, I take it for granted that it is correct. Should it not be so, I must crave pardon of its affluent inhabitants for a representation so disgraceful to their feelings. The town is large but irregular; intersected by narrow streets which run in the most intricate and capricious directions. It is said by wild tradition to have received its name from St. Ivo, a Persian bishop, who came hither from Ireland, and converted its Pagan inhabitants. St. Leonard also was a patron of the town, at the north end of which was a chapel dedicated to him, where

prayers were formerly read to the fishermen before they went to sea, to beg success on their undertaking, by a friar who was stationary here. The congregations are said to have paid him for his trouble, with a part of their fish, when they returned. The form appeared to us to be even now kept up by a poor fanatic, whom we found addressing this incorrigible race of men upon the Quay. His congregation, however, did not appear to be very attentive to him, nor could we wonder at his eloquence being thrown away upon them, when we learnt that he was generally drunk, and, at his intervals of inebriety, always mad.

The trade of St. Ives was, and I hope will be again, very considerable. Coals from Wales, salt from Liverpool, and wares from Bristol, were its chief imports; for which it exported an immense quantity of pilchards. Till of late years the bay was remarkable for the plenty of this fish caught in it; but owing to some unknown, though doubtless powerful cause, few pilchards have been taken here latterly. Busy preparations, however, continue to be made every year for the fishery, in the hope that they may again visit the shore; and a man is stationed in a little cottage on an elevation at the bottom of the bay to look out for and give notice of the approach of a shoal of pilchards, which

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