He reached the Brittany coast at Cleder, and there he remained till the discord broke out between Arthur and Mordred, when Kea returned to Britain, and endeavoured, but in vain, to reconcile them. After the death of Arthur, it was Kea who told Queen Gwenever some unpleasant home-truths, and induced her to retire into a convent. Then, in 542, he returned to Cleder, where he died shortly after at an advanced age. But this story of his connection with Arthur and Gwenever is very problematical, indeed impossible to reconcile with his history, if he was converted in 433. In Brittany he is called S. Kay, or Kea, as in Cornwall.
A little lower down the river is the wooded slope of Polgerran, and an ancient chapel stands above it. Gerran, or Geraint, was King of Cornwall, and married Enid, daughter of the Count-in-Chief of Caerleon. Tennyson has revivified her charming story. After the death of Arthur, he seems to have been elected Pendragon, or high king, over the Britons, and his life was spent in fighting the Saxons along the frontier from the Roman wall down to the Severn. S. Senan, of the Land's End, was on good terms with him, and there is a story told in the life of that saint concerning Geraint. The king had a fleet of six score vessels in the Severn, and the fatal battle in which he fell was at Langport on the Parret, whither at that time vessels could ascend. His palace was at Dingerrein, in the parish of S. Gerrans in Roseland. His tomb is shown at Carn Point, where he was said to lie in a golden boat with silver oars, an interesting instance of persistence of tradition in associating him with ships. When the tumulus was broken into, in 1855, by treasure-seekers, a kistvaen was discovered and bones, but no precious metal. As Geraint fell at Langport he would hardly have been brought to Cornwall for interment. But there were two other princes of Cornwall of the same name, who reigned later.
The long Restronguet Creek enters the estuary of the Fal where that estuary becomes wide and a fine sheet of water. The peninsula is Roseland, the old Rosinis--Moorland Isle.
Restronguet Creek has been choked with the wash coming down from the ancient tin mines. At one time it was a fine long arm of water. Immediately opposite each other are Mylor and S. Just, the latter hidden in a lovely creek and buried in trees. The interesting little church stands by the water-side. It was founded by Just, or Justin, one of the sons of Geraint. By an odd mistake, over the north porch is inscribed, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go up unto the house of the Lord," whereas the congregation have to descend to it some two hundred feet, and the churchyard gate is level with the ridge of the roof.
Mylor Church is interesting as possessing old crosses with Celtic interlaced work. There were formerly curious frescoes in the church. It is dedicated to a prince of the blood royal. His father, Melyan, was brother of the ruffian Tewdrig, who carried off S. Kea's cows and killed some of the Irish colonists. His uncles were S. Oudoc, Bishop of Llandaff, and Ismael, a favourite pupil of S. David. But he had another, an ambitious uncle named Howel, who asked Melyan to meet him, and suddenly and treacherously stabbed him, in 537. This probably took place not far from Par, where are a Lan-melyan and a Merthan close together, indicative of a place of martyrdom, and a chapel to the martyred prince. Howel at once assumed the crown over Cornwall and Devon. In order to incapacitate his nephew Melor, son of the murdered Melyan, from menacing his throne, he had his right hand and one foot cut off, as by Celtic law no cripple or disfigured person is qualified to become a chief or a prince. Melor was sent into Brittany. But there he became such an object of interest and sympathy, that Howel was afraid, and had him also secretly assassinated.
The wonderful harbour of Falmouth now bursts on the view, almost closed between the jaws of Pendennis Point and S. Anthony's Head.
A creek runs up to the right to Penryn, and on the left, another penetrates deep into Roseland.
Falmouth is a modern place with a modern name. Anciently it was but a fishing hamlet--Penycomequick, i.e. Pen-y-cwm-wick, the village at the head of the valley--with another, Smithick, hard by about a forge. But the Killigrews had a fine place and deer-park at Arwenack.
Leland (about 1520), who mentions every place worth notice, including every "praty" and every "pore fisching town," says nothing of Falmouth beyond it being "a havyn very notable and famox."
Arwenack and the fortifications of Pendennis are noticed by Carew, but nothing is said of Falmouth.