rom Marazion to Penzance
there are three miles of flat, uninteresting road--perhaps the dullest
bit of coast-road in all Cornwall, were it not for the beauty of the
Bay.

CHAPTER IX

THE PENZANCE DISTRICT

Whatever claims other places may set up, Penzance is truly the
business capital of western Cornwall, the metropolis of the Land's End
district. It is first and foremost a market-town. Of course, it is
also a coasting port and fishing port and a watering-place; but none
of these things so wholly absorb it as do the weekly markets, when
countryfolk from all the neighbouring villages throng Market-Jew
Street with their conveyances, their parcels and packages, their
cattle, their eager chatter. These people and their forbears have made
Penzance what it is; they have not sought to beautify it much--a
reputation as a holiday resort has been thrust on the place by its
convenience, its commanding position as the gate-town of Land's End;
Penzance did little to advertise itself, but the visitors have come,
and are coming, and the town is doing its best to give them a fair
entertainment. Though from the coast or the sea it often makes a fine
appearance, the town is one of utility rather than of adornment. It
feels that its existence is fully justified, without having to resort
to artificial attractions. It builds no pavilions or glass-houses or
aquarium, it needs no constructed lakes to retain its sea, nor towers
to emulate rocks that Nature has denied. Primarily a place of business
rather than of pleasure, one soon learns to admire and to respect it;
there is nothing garish and little that is fashionable about it. Not
many of its buildings are calculated to make an impression on the
visitor, except the Market Hall that makes Market-Jew Street a rather
striking thoroughfare, and the church of St. Mary, which has at least
a charm of position. The Municipal buildings are a handsome piece of
architecture; but it is not in these features, nor in the Morrab
Gardens, in spite of their subtropical vegetation, that the charm of
the town lies. That charm is a certain homely friendliness in the
aspect of the place, the bustle, the soberness and geniality of its
people. Further, Penzance is a good place to get away from--which
sounds like a left-handed compliment, but has really quite other
meaning; it is a fine centre for the whole far west of Cornwall.

As a town Penzance cannot claim great antiquity, though its district
is