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)
ON passing over a stile and entering the moor in
which the well is situated, cross the moor at a right-angle
to the hedge, and a minute's walk will bring
one to the noted spring, which is not seen until very
near, as it has no wall above the surface, nor
any mark by which it can be distinguished at a distance.
Much has been written of the remarkable cures effected by its
holy waters, and the intercession of St. Madron, or Motran;
when it was so famous that the maimed, halt, and lame, made
pilgrimages from distant parts to the heathy moor.
[240]
It is still resorted to on the first three Wednesdays in May, by
some few women of the neighbourhood, who bring children to
be cured of skin diseases by being bathed in it. Its old repute
as a divining fount has not yet quite died out, though young folks
visit it now to drop pebbles or pins into the well, more for fun
and the pleasure of each other's company, than through any
belief that the falling together, or the separation of pins or
pebbles, will tell how the course of love will run between the
parties indicated by the objects dropped into the spring; or that
the number of bubbles which rise in the water, on stamping
near the well, mark the years, in answer to any question of time;
but there was not such want of faith, however, half a century
ago.
A short time since I visited an elderly dame of Madron, who
was a highly reputed charmer for the cure of various skin ailments;
I had known her from my childhood; and my object was
to glean what I could about the rites practised, within her
remembrance, at Madron Well, the Crick-stone, and elsewhere.
She gave the following account of the usages at Madron Well
about fifty years ago. At that time, when she lived in Lanyon,
scores of women from Morvah, Zennor, Towednack, and other
places, brought their children to be cured of the shingles, wildfires,
tetters, and other diseases, as well as to fortify them against
witchcraft or being blighted with an evil eye.
An old dame called An' Katty, who mostly lived in the Bossullows,
or some place near, and who did little but knitting-work,
picked up a good living in May by attending at the well, to
direct the high country folks how they were to proceed in using
the waters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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