Visiting Penzance today it is not difficult to see why the place had such a hold on the affections of Maria and Elizabeth. The oldest part of the town is Chapel Street, where the Branwell home lay within a few hundred yards of the sea to front and rear. The street is built along the ridge of a rocky promontory protruding into the vast sweep of Mount’s Bay. Then, as now, the eye was immediately drawn to the spectacular outline of the island castle of St Michael’s Mount a couple of miles away. The long sandy beaches and fertile agricultural land around the bay remain unchanged,
