PAUL, a parish in the hundred of PENWITH, county
of CORNWALL, 2 miles (S. by W.) from Penzance, containing
3790 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in
the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter,
rated in the king's books at £ 13. 11.0., and in the patronage
of the Crown. In this parish are the villages
of Mousehole and Newlyn, both situated on the coast of
Mount's bay, and numerously inhabited by fishermen.
The pilchard and mackarel fisheries are carried on to a
great extent. The various kinds of fish that frequent
this part of the channel are sent in abundance to Penzance
and several of the other Cornish towns; and the
London market, in the early part of the season, is chiefly
supplied with mackarel from this place, by way of Portsmouth.
Mousehole, otherwise called Port Enys, wafc
anciently a port of considerable importance, a new quay
having been constructed so early as 1392; it was also a
market-town, but the market has been discontinued since
that place and Newlyn were burned by the Spaniards
in 1595; it is still defended by a battery. There is an
almshouse for six poor men, founded in 1709, by Captain
Stephen Kitchens, and endowed with land now producing
about £70 per annum.