Falmouth Harbour, situated within thirty miles of the Land’s End, is without all comparison the most advantageous station for packets, maintaining a regular communication with Lisbon, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean. It has also been found admirably adapted for receiving smaller ships of war; a squadron of frigates, under the command of Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour, of Admiral Pellew, &c. cruised from hence against the French during a part of the great contest following the Revolution; but, although the largest ship may enter the port, and anchor there in safety, yet it is very inferior for their accommodation either to Plymouth or to Portsmouth. Falmouth is also a great resort of vessels coming from foreign countries, to receive orders as to their ultimate destination; and this is not only owing to the western situation of the harbour, but, in a very considerable degree, to the residence of a family which has maintained the highest reputation through a long series of years, as merchants, as men of integrity and of talent. They are said to be lineal or collateral relatives of the patriarch George Fox. On their first arrival in Cornwall, this family settled themselves at Par, near St. Austell; but afterwards removing to Falmouth, they have mainly contributed towards the prosperity of the whole county, as merchants, as manufacturers, as spirited and enlightened adventurers in mines, and in the fisheries. Among many so eminent, it would be absolute injustice not to mention particularly Mr. Robert Ware Fox, who has most successfully employed his leisure in the philosophical investigation of geology and of chemistry, in connexion with mechanics, not only by his own exertions, but as the judicious and liberal encourager of similar pursuits in others. Many individuals have acquired wealth in Falmouth by a very peculiar species of commerce, carried on with Lisbon by means of the packets. The interchange of various commodities was legally prohibited, but at the same time practically allowed, by both Governments; and to such an extent did this half-contraband trade arise, that a Mr. Nowell, who kept a retail shop at Falmouth, is said to have made a fortune, by which his son became Sheriff of the county in 1787, chiefly as a carrier of these goods to and from London on packhorses; and a fortune still larger has been made by Mr. Russell, of Exeter, by conveying increased quantities in waggons over improved roads, through Devonshire and Cornwall.