The life of a seaport can never be dull with the hopeless insipidity of an inland town, and Falmouth especially, possessing a harbour which formed an unequalled station for watching the French coast, had its share of excitement in the coming and going of the warships. But in the vessels belonging to the port, the Falmouth Packets, there was an even greater and more enduring interest. For the Packets were the regular vehicles of news. Their commanders were under orders to inform themselves of the situation of affairs in every country at which they touched; and wherever military or naval operations were being conducted, it was to them that everybody looked for a full and accurate plan of the campaign. Thus the news for which all England was waiting reached Falmouth first, and was ventilated and discussed in every tavern in the town a full day at least before it was in the hands even of Ministers in London. A look-out man was constantly stationed on the Beacon Hill above Falmouth, whence the returning Packets could be seen for a great distance coming up the coast. As soon as one was sighted the watchman hastened down and spread the news about the town, receiving in accord with regular custom a shilling from every woman whose husband was on board; and then the people crowded out towards Pendennis to see the Packet sailing in, speculating and guessing as to whether she had spoken with the fleet, whether a battle had occurred, watching anxiously to see whether the sides or rigging of the vessel bore any marks of shot—for it was a common thing for them to fight their way across the ocean. Then the gigs from the hotels, well manned with sturdy rowers, would shoot out from the inner harbour, racing as eagerly as in a regatta to catch the first of the passengers; and in a little while the Market Strand, which was the usual landing-place, would be packed with people pushing and struggling to congratulate the home-comers, to hear how stoutly the Packet had beaten off a Privateer, to understand exactly where the great battle of our fleet was fought, and how many French ships had been taken. On such occasions the town seethed with excitement, and it was a frequent thing to close the day’s proceedings by a dance on the deck of the Packet as she lay at anchor in the harbour. A Spanish traveller, Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella, who visited England in 1808, has left in his published letters an amusing account of the noise and racket which went on in Falmouth immediately after the arrival of the Packet from which he landed.