Arthur, King -- Homes and haunts -- England -- Cornwall (County); Cornwall (England : County) -- Antiquities, Celtic
But it is Arthur, and Arthur only, who is commemorated at Cadbury Camp
to-day. There may be seen his Round Table, and the local superstition
runs that within the charmed circle the king may be seen sitting with
his knights behind barred golden gates. The great intrenchment is
called the site of King Arthur’s Palace; in the field below is King
Arthur’s Hunting Causeway; and it is King Arthur’s Well which springs
from the hillside and bubbles up in the fourth ditch. These recall the
wondrous past, the golden days, when the fame and splendour of Arthur’s
Court were on all tongues, and the poet could long afterwards ask--
“Like Camelot what place was ever yet renown’d,
Where, as at Caerleon, oft he kept the Table Round,
Most famous for the sports at Pentecost so long,
From whence all knightly deeds and brave achievements sprong.”
It was at Camelot that, when Arthur “let make a crie” the lords,
knights, and gentlemen of arms gathered, and “there the King would let
make a counsoile generall, and a great justes.” It was to Camelot that
Sir Pellinore came “passing sore” and told his saddest of stories; and
it was to Camelot that King Arthur turned after wearying combat and
hot adventure, certain there to enjoy rest and to find his queen and
the barons “right glad of his comming.” “What tidings at Camelot?”
asked one knight of another whom he encountered. “By my head,” said
the other, “there have I beene, and espied the court of King Arthur,
and there is such a fellowship that they may never be brok, and wel
nigh al the world holdeth with King Arthur, for there is the flower of
chivalry.” Such was the renown of Camelot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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