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)
If the menhere (as has been conjectured from being found in
pairs, bearing nearly east and west) were intended to mark the
times of the equinox or solstice, these seasons being sacred
festivals of Baal or the Sun, the desire of the early Christians to
obliterate all remembrances of Pagan rites may account for the
prostration or destruction of such objects as must have been
regarded with religious veneration, from their importance to show
the times to sow the grain, and do various kinds of work pertaining
to pastoral life; and, above all, to denote the sacred festivals of[31]
our forefathers, which we still commemorate in our Midsummer
bonfires. These long stones at Boleigh are the more interesting
because there are not many of the original pairs to be found
standing in the west. There is another pair near Newbridge,
and one may be seen lying prostrate in Escols lane, Sennen, at
a short distance from the stile on the pathway to Escols village.
There is a tradition that this menhere was taken down from
where it stood, in the middle of the field, by a giant, who lived
in Escols, by him rolled into the hedge, and his son, ten years of
age, placed the trigg (propping stone) as we may still see it.
An old lady of Escols informed me that the other stone of the
pair was in a hedge at no great distance, prostrate also. The
erection of these huge monoliths proves that the animal powers
and mechanical skill of our ancestors were of no mean order.
Holed Stones, &c.
Continuing on the road towards Boskenna, a minute's walk
from the Menheres brings us to a holed stone standing in the hedge
on the right hand side. This stone has been removed a considerable
distance from its original site to form the side of a
gateway. The upper portion of the stone is very much broken,
and is irregular in shape, yet its head appears to have been
triangular and worked to an angle similar to the Men-an-tol at
Lanyon.
In the lane near the holed stone is an ancient cross, seemingly
placed in the midst of the Druidic monuments to sanctify what
the old Celts would not permit the Christian teachers to remove.
There is another holed stone near by, in Rosemodrass lane,
placed head downwards, and it serves for the hanging-post of a
gate. The form of the head of this stone cannot be easily
ascertained, as it is buried so deeply in the ground that only a
small portion of the hole is to be seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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