A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County)
The neighbourhood of Padstow abounds in interest; the cliffs are
superb, towering above a sea blue as a peacock’s neck, here and there
crowned with cliff castles. In the sand-dunes or Towans is the buried
church of S. Constantine, a convert of S. Petrock, Duke or King of
Cornwall, who was so ballyragged by Gildas. There are old Cornish
mansions, such as Treshunger, lying in dips among trees; and churches
on wind-blown heights, their towers intended as landmarks.
But this is not a guide-book, and such details must be passed over.
On no account should Pentyre Point be missed. It is a grand and
glorious cliff, and a projection called the Rumps is occupied by a
well-preserved cliff-castle. Porth Gaverne, Porth Isaac, Porthquin,
Polzeath are all delightful little bays. The pilchard cellars cut in
the rocks should be noticed. Porthquin was once a flourishing little
place, but in a terrible storm nearly every man connected with the
place, being out fishing, was lost, and it has never recovered.
Porth Isaac--let not those amiable faddists who hold that we are
Anglo-Israelites fasten on the name--means the Corn Port, Porthquin the
White Port, from the spar in the rock, and Porth Gaverne the Goat Port.
A curious fact, to be noted, is that there exists an extensive ancient
cemetery close to where is now rising a cluster of new houses at
Trevose. Bones are continually turned up by the sea as it encroaches,
but all record of a church with burial-ground there is lost. There is a
ruined chapel of S. Cadoc, but that is half a mile distant. Cadoc was
an elder brother or cousin--it is not certain which--of S. Petrock of
Padstow. He must have come here to visit his kinsman.
The story goes that he had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and he
brought back with him some of the water of Jordan, and this he poured
into a well at this place, which thenceforth possessed marvellous
powers. The well is not now easily traced, but bits of carved stone of
the chapel lie strewn around. Cadoc was for a while in an island of
the lagoon d’Elet, near Belz, in the Morbihan, where he constructed a
causeway to the mainland, of which traces remain. He was one of the
most restless beings conceivable, and no sooner had he established a
monastic centre in one place than he tired of it, and started off to
found another somewhere else. He played a scurvy trick once on a South
Welsh chief, who with a large party came down on him and imperiously
demanded meat and drink. They took all they could get, and got drunk
and incapable on the spot. Cado shaved half of their heads and beards
as they thus lay, but, worse than this, cut off the lips of their
horses. He was a violent-tempered man, of tremendous energy in all
he did. According to one account he fell a victim to his rashness or
enthusiasm; he tried to carry the Gospel to the Saxons, but was cut
down by their axes at the foot of the altar.
CHAPTER XII.
THE TWO LOOES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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