The church is situated in a pleasing and retired vale, watered by a branch of the Fowey river, and abounding with trees; while the country surrounding it, on almost every side, is even now little cultivated, and must in former times have been a desert. No situation could be more adapted for the retreat of an anchorite; and monkish legends inform us that St. Guevor, or Guervier, or Guerer, fixed his abode at this place; and in after times, the sound of his name being found to somewhat resemble the French verb Guerir, to heal, tales were invented of his performing miraculous cures; and in particular of his having enabled King Alfred to sit on a horse at the precise moment when his presence in the field became indispensably necessary to oppose the pagan Danes. If St. Guerir ever resided here at all, he must have very opportunely made way for St. Neot, since it is well ascertained that he also occupied this retreat in the reign of his brother or relation the Great Alfred. St. Neot, having withdrawn from the Abbey of Glastonbury, founded by St. Joseph of Arimathea, retired into this solitude; where he adopted the singular penance of plunging himself daily into a well of cold water, and there remaining immersed to his neck till he had repeated the whole Book of Psalms. The miraculous powers however bestowed on him by the Almighty, in recompense for conduct so conducive to the happiness and well-being of his creatures, forbad St. Neot to remain secreted. Multitudes flocked to him from all parts; he founded a monastery, and repaired to Rome for a confirmation and for blessing at the hands of the Pope: these were readily obtained. He returned to his monastery, where frequent visits were made to him by King Alfred, on which occasions he admonished, instructed, and informed the great founder of English liberty; and finally quitted this mortal life on the 31st of July, about the year 883, in the odour of sanctity so unequivocal, that travellers all over Cornwall were solaced by its fragrance. Nor did the exertions of our Saint terminate with his existence on earth; he frequently appeared to King Alfred, and sometimes led his armies in the field. But if the tales of these times are deserving of any confidence, the nation is really and truly indebted to St. Neot for one of the greatest blessings ever bestowed on it. To his advice, and even to his personal assistance as a teacher, we owe the foundation by Alfred of the University at Oxford.