A Book of Quaker SaintsHodgkin, L. V. (Lucy Violet)
Religion
A Book of Quaker Saints
Hodgkin, L. V. (Lucy Violet)
Society of Friends
_Cornish boys and girls know better. They will explain that in their
far Western corner of England there has always been an idea, and a
very good idea it is, that a name should really describe the place to
which it belongs, and should tell the hearer something about its
character. Thus it comes to pass that on one tidal river a certain
creek, covered with salt sea-water at high tide, but showing only an
expanse of muddy flats at low water, is called 'Cockles' Peep Out.'
Another creek, near by, is known as 'Frenchman's Pill,' because some
French prisoners were sent there for safety during the Napoleonic
Wars. Then, too, a busy sea-port was once called 'Penny Come Quick,'
with good reason; and another out-of-the-way place 'Hard to Come By,'
which explains itself. Most romantic of all, the valley where King
Charles's army lost a battle long ago is still known as 'Fine and
Brave.' There, the country people say, headless ghosts of defeated
Cavaliers may still be seen on moonlight nights riding up and down,
carrying their own plumed-hatted heads under their arms. All over the
county these story places are to be found. The more odd a Cornish name
sounds at the first hearing, the more apt it will often prove, when
the reason for it is understood._
_Thus it is not strange that a lonely, shut-in valley, folded away
between two steep hills, should be known as 'Come-to-Good,' since, for
more than two centuries, men and women, and little children also, have
'Come to Good' in that remote and hidden place. There, surrounded by
sheltering trees, stands the little old Meeting-house. Its high
thatched roof projects, like a bushy eyebrow, over the low white walls
and thick white buttresses, shading the three narrow casement windows
of pale-green glass with their diamond lattice panes. The windows are
almost hidden by the roof; the roof is almost hidden by the trees; and
the trees are almost hidden by the hills that rise above them.
Therefore the pilgrim always comes upon the Meeting-house with a
certain sense of surprise, so carefully is it concealed;--like a most
secret and precious thought._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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