Nooks and Corners of Cornwall

by C. A. Dawson Scott

Trevalgue

Beyond St. Columb Porth lies the island known as Trevalgue. On the land side this has six lines of entrenchment and about and upon it, as at Trevose, lie a quantity of flint chips. These chips are mostly worked. Here also are a large blow-hole and several interesting caverns. At Glendorgal, further along the cliff, a barrow was opened some years ago and found to contain a remarkable burial urn with two handles and on it a rough chevron pattern. The two barrows on the summit of Trevalgue were opened in 1842. They proved to contain a very ancient interment. The country people declare them to be the graves of two kings who fought all day long on the headland until at last each killed the other, and was buried where he fell.

"Burn me in my armour, all that is mine, and pile for me a cairn on the shore of the grey sea, the memorial of a luckless man, that men unborn may enquire concerning me."—Beowulf.

A Good Centre for Crantock, St. Cubert, and Trerice

Newquay, which is like the definition of a line—length without breadth—is hardly either a nook or a corner. It is marvellously well situated and consists mainly of large hotels. To stand on its beach, looking outward along the hazy cliffs and over the sparkling water, makes you feel as if you could forgive anything but the proximity of man and his immediate works. However Newquay, like Bude and Tintagel, is an excellent centre from which to go out and survey the land.

Legend says—what doesn't legend say?—that Crantock was once a seaport with seven churches, and "that the place was drowned in a deluge of sand, brought upon the wings of the wind." That wind has certainly blocked up the Gannel and put an end to any trade it may once have had. This Gannel is a tidal river flowing through a gorge in the hills, and it can be crossed at low tide by a plank bridge, while horse vehicles splash through the ford. It is, however, a dangerous place, for the tide flows swiftly and strongly, and lives have been lost through attempting the crossing a little late. The place is said to be haunted by a disembodied spirit, locally known as the "crake," the hoarse shriek of which acts as a warning; and it is certain that no countryman who fancied he had heard it would persist in an attempt to cross—although it is five good miles round by Trevemper!

Crantock was a college with a dean and canons at least as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor, the buildings having stood in what is now a walled garden, easily recognised by the old ship's figurehead which serves as a lintel to its gateway. The collegiate church which stands on a green slope looking towards the sea is one of the most interesting in Cornwall. There are several remains of Norman work, as for instance the inner doorway of the porch and part of the central tower arch and piers. In the church are preserved several pieces of carved alabaster, the intention of which is not known, and in the graveyard lies a large stone coffin. The vicar brought himself into notice some time since by objecting to the presence in his church of women who were not wearing hats. Courage is a fine thing, but it is generally understood that the difficulty nowadays is not to discourage people from attending service, but to get them to come.

It is not generally known that when the Black Death more—much more—than decimated Bodmin, the bodies were carried to Crantock and buried in a field on the north coast. Hundreds of years have passed, but the surface of this piece of ground is still uneven, and the people believe that if any one disturbs the earth the disease will break out again. So antiquarians—in search of the lost city of Langarrow—beware! The well of St. Carantocus is in the centre of the village, beneath a rough covering of stone; but it cannot compare either for beauty or renown with another well a mile or two distant. Under the high and rugged cliffs of Holywell Bay is a spring of fresh water, approached by a flight of fifteen worn steps that have been cut in the rock. Only accessible at low tide, it is in a beautiful cave of many strange sea tints, and the water drips from one lovely basin to another. In other days mothers brought their deformed or sickly children to be dipped in the wonder-working well—which, however, is now known to be of no medicinal value.

Between Kelsey Head and Penhale Point lies a wild region of blown sand. Inland are many deserted mines, the ruins of these "knacked bals" giving the strange countryside a deserted and desolate appearance, so that the tapering spire of Cubert Church, which forms a useful landmark, is welcome. Beyond this is more sand, the wide and dreary waste of Perranzabuloe (St. Piran in the Sands). The early oratory of this saint was buried by the blown sands, and so long lost that only the tradition of it remained. Early in the last century, however, the winds uncovered it again, and when the oratory was cleared from sand, the headless skeleton of a big man was discovered beneath the altar. Now St. Piran was the patron saint of tinners, and it was known that in 1281 the church had possessed a box in which his head was kept and a hearse on which his body was carried in procession; indeed, the commissary of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter reported in 1331 that "the parishioners continue as before to carry the relics of St. Piran in an unwarrantable manner to various and even distant places," and as late as 1433 Sir John Arundell bequeathed ten shillings "for enclosing the saint's head honourably." If these matters are so, the skeleton discovered cannot have been that of St. Piran, for the oratory was said to have been buried in the sand about 900 a.d., and, as we have seen, the relics were being carried about by the parishioners as late as 1281.

The oratory, like that of St. Constantine, is concealed among the sandhills, and by no means easy to find. At the edge of the dunes is a heath upon which, north of St. Piran's Well, is the Round, a turfed amphitheatre. This ancient open-air theatre has a rampart about 10 ft. high, rising in seven steps, of which traces remain. The area will hold about two thousand spectators, and in the middle ages miracle plays were doubtless performed here. These plan-an-guare, or playing-places, were probably constructed in very early times for games or contests after the manner of the Romans, and seem to have been in use for the performance of sacred dramas up to the fifteenth century or even later. At Perran a ditch formerly ran across the floor, and it has been suggested that this was for boats, &c., used in scenic effects, but it may have had other, possibly grimmer, uses.