In the reign of James the First it belonged to the Harrisons of Mount Radford in Devonshire, and from them it passed by marriage to the Rashleighs. Mr. William Rashleigh, of Menabilly, is now the proprietor of the whole or nearly the whole of this parish, and in it of the celebrated well, which Mr. Carew notices in the following manner, p. 305, Lord Dunstanville’s edit. “Next I will relate to you another of the Cornish natural wonders, viz. Saint Keyne’s Well; but lest you make wonder, first at the Saint before you notice the well, you must understand that this was not Kayne the Manqueller, but one of a gentler spirit and milder sex, to wit, a woman. He who caused the spring to be pictured added this rhyme for an explanation: In name, in shape, in quality, This Well is very quaint; The name to lot of Kayne befell, No over holy Saint. The shape, four trees of divers kind, Withy, oak, elm, and ash, Make with their roots an arched roof, Whose floor this spring doth wash. The quality, that man or wife, Whose chance or choice attains, First of this sacred stream to drink, Thereby the mastery gains.” Mr. Tonkin quotes this passage from Carew, and adds: “Did it retain this wondrous quality, as it does to this day the shape, I believe there would be to it a greater resort of both sexes than either to Bath or Tunbridge; for who would not be fond of attaining this longed-for sovereignty?” And Mr. Tonkin adds further, “since the writing of this the trees were blown down by a violent storm; and in their place Mr. Rashleigh, in whose land it is, has planted two oaks, an ash, and an elm, which thrive very well; but the wonderful arch is destroyed.” For a most interesting account of St. Keyne’s Well, and of all that portion of Cornwall, the reader is referred to Mr. Bond’s “Topographical and Historical Sketches of East and West Looe, and of the Neighbourhood,” 1 vol. 8vo. 1823, printed by John Nichols and Son, No. 25, Parliament Street, Westminster. Mr. Bond says that the trees were blown down by the great storm of November 1703, and that Mr. Philip Rashleigh, who succeeded his father in the property about that time, planted soon afterwards the trees which have now acquired their full growth, and probably equalled those which stood there before them. Mr. Bond has also printed the beautiful as well as humorous lines composed by Mr. Southey, and referred to other verses on the same subject in the Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1822, vol. XCII. i. p. 526. Mr. Southey’s lines cannot be too frequently reprinted. SAINT KEYNE’S WELL. BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. (_From Carew’s History of Cornwall._) A well there is in the West Country, And a clearer one never was seen; There is not a Wife in the West Country, But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.