f driven races, pushed
further and further westward by new encroaching hordes, it is certain
that the Land's End district offers more relics of prehistoric
antiquity than any other equal tract of land can show.

[Illustration: PENZANCE.

_Photo by Gibson & Sons._]

When Defoe came to Penzance, he seems to have been surprised to find
it so civilised and so comfortable, "being so remote from London,
which is the centre of our wealth." That is the remark of a true
Londoner, showing an attitude of mind towards the provincial that is
not quite extinct. He says: "This town of Penzance is a place of good
business, well built and populous, has a good trade, and a great many
ships belonging to it, notwithstanding it is so remote. Here are also
a great many good families of gentlemen, though in this utmost angle
of the nation." It is clear he expected to find a village of savages.
As a matter of fact Penzance now, with its admirable train service,
seems nearer to Paddington than many places that are not half so far
off; every express that comes westward brings a savour of the great
city with it, just as each train that leaves Penzance carries material
evidence of Cornwall's existence into the very heart of old London.
All the flowers from Scilly go by this route, and the Penzance
neighbourhood has many flowers, fruits, and early vegetables of its
own to dispatch to Covent Garden, together with a considerable
quantity of fish. The railway is carried by viaduct across Marazion
sands; in 1869 a large portion was shattered by the sea, and the
line had to be removed further back. Sea and winds remain as untamable
as they were when men of the Stone Age broke each other's heads at
Chysauster. In Alverton Street (retaining the name of the old
Alwaretone estate, mentioned in Domesday) are the museums and
buildings of the Natural History, Antiquarian, and Cornish Royal
Geological Societies, with the Guildhall, and a public room for
meetings; but the Penzance Library, containing about 25,000 volumes,
many of great rarity, is kept at Morrab House. There are Schools of
Art and of Mining--both subjects strongly to the front in Cornwall.
Immediately below the domed market-house, once the Town Hall, is a
statue of the town's most famous son, Sir Humphry Davy, born here in
1778, his father being a wood-carver. He was educated partly at Truro,
and early evinced that taste for poetry and angling that never left
him. After serving with a Penzanc