Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second SeriesBottrell, William
General
Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second Series
Bottrell, William
Cornwall (England : County) -- Social life and customs; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
"We are already within it," replied the venerable guide, "and
have passed the outer wall through a breach where it is levelled
and the ditch filled in to make a road. I ought to have pointed
it out to 'e. The outer mound is little short of half a mile long.
Hundreds of cartloads of stones have been carried away from the
walls for building houses and hedges. Yet on Kaerkeis side,
where it isn't easily reached, some of it is still pretty perfect;
except, indeed, where our youngsters have bowled the stones over
cliff for their Sunday afternoon's sport; and it would be just as
well, or better, 'seeman' to me, that they were allowed to have
their wrestling and hurling-matches at such times, to keep them
from doing mischief, like they had in their great-grandfars' days,
when folks were quite as good, and to my 'seeman,' better than
they are now, for all that constables do and duffans say."
We can't follow the old guide through the long story he used
to relate of what passed between him and the Armorican gentleman.
Having shown the Castle and related the legends of giants,
small people, &c., connected with this enchanted spot, they
passed along the cliff to St. Levan Church. Service was over
and the congregation dispersed, but the church-door key being
kept at the inn, they inspected the church to see if any memorial
of the I'ans was to be found, but nothing connected with them
was observed in carved shields or bench-ends, nor elsewhere.
Parish registers—if any remained two centuries old—he had no
opportunity to see.
They also visited St. Levan's Well and Chapel. The old man
pointed out a long flight of steps that may still be traced best
part of the way from the spring to the ancient chapel's site. The
gentleman took particular interest in the ancient cliff oratories,
with their holy wells, and in every spot along their way hallowed
by saintly legend. In returning from Chapel-Curno, as the
little oratory over Parcurno used to be called, they were met at
the foot of Carnole hill by a gentleman of Penzance, who used
occasionally to preach at the Methodist Chapel in Sowah. This
gentleman often returned thence to Treen (where he usually remained
over night) by way of St. Levan Church and along the
cliffs. He knew Uncle George very well; for they often disputed
about what the old man styled a new-fashioned religion.
Yet they were always great friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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