It has been fortified, though the situation of it makes it
so difficult of access that, like the Bass in Scotland, there needs
no fortification; like the Bass, too, it was once made a prison for
prisoners of State, but now it is wholly neglected.
There is a
very good road here for shipping, which makes the town of Penzance
be a place of good resort.
A little up in the county towards the north-west is Godolchan,
which though a hill, rather than a town, gives name to the noble
and ancient family of Godolphin; and nearer on the northern coast
is Royalton, which since the late Sydney Godolphin, Esq., a younger
brother of the family, was created Earl of Godolphin, gave title of
Lord to his eldest son, who was called Lord Royalton during the
life of his father. This place also is infinitely rich in tin-
mines.
I am now at my journey's end. As to the islands of Scilly, which
lie beyond the Land's End, I shall say something of them presently.
I must now return SUR MES PAS, as the French call it; though not
literally so, for I shall not come back the same way I went. But
as I have coasted the south shore to the Land's End, I shall come
back by the north coast, and my observations in my return will
furnish very well materials for another letter.
APPENDIX TO LAND'S END.
I have ended this account at the utmost extent of the island of
Great Britain west, without visiting those excrescences of the
island, as I think I may call them--viz., the rocks of Scilly; of
which what is most famous is their infamy or reproach; namely, how
many good ships are almost continually dashed in pieces there, and
how many brave lives lost, in spite of the mariners' best skill, or
the lighthouses' and other sea-marks' best notice.
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