Majestic Michael rises, he whose brow Is crown’d with Castles, and whose rocky sides Are clad with dusky ivy; he whose base, Bent by the storms of ages, stands unmov’d Amidst the wreck of things—the change of time. That base, encircl’d by the azure waves, Was once with verdure clad; the towering oaks Here waved their branches green; the sacred oaks, Whose awful shades among the Druids stray’d, To cut the hallow’d Mistletoe, and hold High converse with their Gods. Footnote 25: See page 23. Footnote 26: _Carew_ states, that “during the Cornish Commotions, divers Gentlemen with their Wives and Families fled to the protection of this place, where the Rebels besieged them, fyrst wynning the playne at the hill’s foote by assault, when the water was out, and then the even ground on the top, by carrying up great trusses of Hay before them to blench the defender’s sight, and dead their shot, after which they could make but slender resistance, for no sooner should any one within peep his head over those unflanked walls, but he became an open mark to an whole shower of arrows. This disadvantage together with Woman’s dismay, and decrease of Victuals forced a Surrender to these _Rakehells_ mercey, who nothing guilty of that effeminate Vertue, spoyl’d their goods, imprison’d their bodies, and were rather by God’s gracious providence, than any want of will, purpose or attempt, restained from murdering the principal persons.”—Lady Catherine Gordon, wife of the noted Perkin Warbeck, the impostor and pretender to the crown, was taken prisoner at St. Michael’s Mount, and when it surrendered in 1646, to the Parliamentary Forces under Colonel Hammond, after great resistance, a considerable quantity of ammunition and stores were taken. Footnote 27: Penzance is thus noticed by Leland.—“Penzantes about a mile from Mousehold, standing fast in the shore of Mount Bay, is the Westest Market Town of all Cornwall, Socur for botes or Shypes, but a forced pere or Key—Theyr is but a Chapel yn the sayd towne, as ys in Newlyn, For theyr paroche Chyrches be more than a mile off.”—Penzance is noticed in history as having been destroyed by fire in the year 1595, by a party of Spaniards, who landed at Mousehole, but were soon prevented from effecting further mischief, by the bravery of the Cornishmen. Footnote 28: Crosses are very prevalent in Cornwall. Almost every village contains one or more. They consist in general, of a shaft of granite, and a torved head, with the figure of a cross in relief. The most remarkable ones, are the cross in Mawgan church-yard, Lanhivitt, and Frier Hole Cross, on the side of the road leading from Bodmin to Launceston. Footnote 29: