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)
He reached the Brittany coast at Cleder, and there he remained till
the discord broke out between Arthur and Mordred, when Kea returned to
Britain, and endeavoured, but in vain, to reconcile them. After the
death of Arthur, it was Kea who told Queen Gwenever some unpleasant
home-truths, and induced her to retire into a convent. Then, in 542,
he returned to Cleder, where he died shortly after at an advanced age.
But this story of his connection with Arthur and Gwenever is very
problematical, indeed impossible to reconcile with his history, if he
was converted in 433. In Brittany he is called S. Kay, or Kea, as in
Cornwall.
A little lower down the river is the wooded slope of Polgerran, and
an ancient chapel stands above it. Gerran, or Geraint, was King
of Cornwall, and married Enid, daughter of the Count-in-Chief of
Cærleon. Tennyson has revivified her charming story. After the death
of Arthur, he seems to have been elected Pendragon, or high king,
over the Britons, and his life was spent in fighting the Saxons along
the frontier from the Roman wall down to the Severn. S. Senan, of the
Land’s End, was on good terms with him, and there is a story told in
the life of that saint concerning Geraint. The king had a fleet of six
score vessels in the Severn, and the fatal battle in which he fell was
at Langport on the Parret, whither at that time vessels could ascend.
His palace was at Dingerrein, in the parish of S. Gerrans in Roseland.
His tomb is shown at Carn Point, where he was said to lie in a golden
boat with silver oars, an interesting instance of persistence of
tradition in associating him with ships. When the tumulus was broken
into, in 1855, by treasure-seekers, a kistvaen was discovered and
bones, but no precious metal. As Geraint fell at Langport he would
hardly have been brought to Cornwall for interment. But there were two
other princes of Cornwall of the same name, who reigned later.
The long Restronguet Creek enters the estuary of the Fal where that
estuary becomes wide and a fine sheet of water. The peninsula is
Roseland, the old Rosinis--Moorland Isle.
Restronguet Creek has been choked with the wash coming down from the
mines and kaolin works. At one time it was a fine long arm of water.
Immediately opposite each other are Mylor and S. Just, the latter
hidden in a lovely creek and buried in trees. The interesting little
church stands by the water-side. It was founded by Just, or Justin,
one of the sons of Geraint. By an odd mistake, over the north porch is
inscribed, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us _go up_ unto the
house of the Lord,” whereas the congregation have to descend to it some
two hundred feet, and the churchyard gate is level with the ridge of
the roof.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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