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)
Such is the substance of what the dame related; and she
regarded the due observance of ancient customs as a very solemn
matter.
In answer to the questions of "What was the reason for going
round the well nine times? Leaving bits of clothing? Following
the sun, &c.?" It was always the same reply, "Such were the
old customs," and everybody knew it was unlucky to do any such
work, and many things besides, against the sun's course; no
woman, who knew anything, would place pans of milk in a dairy,
so as to have to unream (skim) them, in turn, against the sun,
nor stir cream in that direction to make butter.
By following down the well-stream or hedge, mentioned above,
we come to the Chapel. In its southern wall may be noticed an
opening for letting water from the brook, which runs near it,[242]
flow into a baptistry in the south-western corner of the Chapel.
Entering the doorway, on the northern side, one may remark
that this primitive fount appears to have been arched over, after
the manner of our old bee-hive huts, by the upper rows of stones
slightly over-hanging. The altar table-slab, or mensa—still
remaining at the east end—has a square pit worked in its centre,
probably to mark the spot—over reliques—on which the monstrance
was placed. A step makes the division between the little
nave and sacrarium; there are also the remains of stone seats
which were carried all around against the walls.
Let no rude hand remove,
Or spoil thee; for the spot is consecrate
To thee, and thou to it.
The Crick-Stone, or Men-an-tol.
IN a croft belonging to Lanyon farm, and about half a mile
north of the town-place, there is a remarkable group of
three stones, the centre one of which is called by
antiquaries the Men-an-tol (holed stone), and by country
folk the Crick-stone, from an old custom—not yet extinct—of
"crameing" (crawling on all fours) nine times through the
hole in the centre stone, going against the sun's course, for the
cure of lumbago, sciatica, and other "cricks" and pains in the
back. Young children were also put through it to ensure
them healthy growth.
Antiquaries are undecided with respect to the purpose for
which these mysterious stones were erected. Some hold that it is
a sepulchral monument, as well as the Men Scryfa (inscribed
stone) half a mile further on, because there is a tradition that a
little below, in Gendhal moor, there was once so great a battle
that the streams ran with blood. Others think the object
of its erection was for the computation of time; among the
latter is Professor Max Müller, who, in the Quarterly Review,
for August, 1867, after stating that the three stones are in a line
bearing nearly east and west, says:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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