Penzance.  The prison of the Hundred of Penwith is an appurtenance to the manor of Connerton, which is the property of Lord Arundel, who, in right of the manor, is bound to provide such prison. This right is delegated by his Lordship to his Steward, or his Bailiff ; who gives security for the safe custody of all prisoners confined there for debt, taking the whole responsibility upon himself.  This wretched prison which is in the back-yard of a public-house is 12 feet square and 6 feet high, with a necessary in one corner, the floor is very damp, and paved with stones like the middle of the street, without a fire-place and lighted and ventilated by one small iron-grated window, without case-ment or glass to keep out the cold.  No court-yard. No water.   In December 1801, two debtors, viz.  Nicholas Basset, and Thomas Nicholas, were released from this miserable gaol by our Society* after suffering twelve months imprisonment.  The average number of debtors committed to this prison is about 10 or 12 in the year.  
The last wretched inhabitant was Thomas Hoskin, farmer of Madron parish, aged 64.  He was committed the 25th of  March 1803, for the debt of 20l. or thereabouts, and released the 6th May following.  Here is no allowance, even for bread ; so that if his friends and some neighbours had not been charitable, he must have perished with hunger.   He never but once was let out for fresh air, and then only for half an hour, to speak with his children.   The Gaoler lives half a mile off ; and in case of sudden illness, or fire, he might of perished before relief  could come.  His provisions were given to him through the centre bars of the small iron grating (five inches asunder), and so the Keeper had no occasion to come near, he had a bed supplied by his friends, but otherwise must have slept on the scanty pittance of straw on the floor, and not withstanding his bed, the prison was terribly cold even in April and May.  The place in which it is situated is a yard for horses, and where twenty horses are crammed on market days : T HOSKIN declares, that the damp of the floor,  the stench of the privies and horse-yard, so affected his health at the time, that he feels the fatal affects to this day.  He complains of a cold, and oppression at the breast on breathing, so that he cannot walk half a mile in an hour  upon rising ground without frequent stopping to take breath.  Before he was put in prison he was as strong as most men of his age  : but he verily believes that his confinement there will shorten his days.
A respectable clergyman of the neighbourhood thus expresses himself to me on this subject : "This man, for a debt unavoidably contracted, an honest, working, good man, but unfortunate, was put in a worse place than he would have been if by any crime he had deserved imprisonment in the county gaol.  He is a man, to my knowledge of good character ; and he is now pale and haggard, and strangely altered for the worse. " 
Struck with compassion for the sufferings of this unfortunate man, a benevolent lady** frequently sent him broth ; but the space betwixt the bars (5 inches) was too small to admit a middle sized basin.
I cannot conclude my account of this prison without expressing my graeful sense of the honour conferred upon me by the acting Magistrates  for this division, by their vote of thanks, politely transmitted to me by their clerk, and for the great attention paid to my remarks on Prisons and Prisoners.

*for then relief of prisoners confined for small debts.
** Mrs. Pascoe