For some unknown reason he left Ireland and visited Wales, where he tarried for a while. Then he went further through Britain till he reached the Fal estuary, then called Hir-drech, or the long tidal creek. As he lay there on the grass where is now Tregothnan, he heard men talking on the further side of the creek. Said one to another, “Have you seen my cows anywhere?” The other replied, “Aye, I have; I saw them yesterday in Rosinis.” Then Kea remembered having heard a voice come to him in a dream, which said, “Settle where you hear the name Rosinis called.”
So he crossed the water along with his comrades, and they set to work to build huts where now stands Old Kea.
Now the king, or prince, lived at Goodern, where are still mounds of a lis, and he was by no means pleased to hear that foreign monks had settled on the river-bank without his permission.
He sent and had seven of the oxen and a cow belonging to Kea taken from him. The legend says that seven stags came from the forest, and allowed Kea to yoke them and make them draw the plough. But this is a fabulous addition to the history. What is really true is that he went to Goodern and remonstrated with the prince, who was none other than Tewdrig, who behaved so roughly to the colony of Irish saints in the Land’s End district. Tewdrig flew into a passion and struck Kea in the mouth, so as to break one of his front teeth.
However, shortly after this Tewdrig fell ill—caught a heavy head-cold perhaps—and, thinking that he had been “ill-wished” by Kea, hastily reconciled himself with the saint, and restored his oxen. The Rosinis in the narrative is Roseland, but the Kestell Carveth, or Stag’s Castle, where Kea made his first settlement, cannot be identified by name, though it was probably what is now called Woodbury.
But the relations with Tewdrig continued strained, and the condition of affairs was worse when the king fell from his horse and broke his neck. Kea, fearing lest this should be imputed to him, as occasioned by his “ill-wishing,” resolved on flight to Brittany. He went to Landegu, i.e. Landege, the old name of the place, as we learn from Bishop Stapleton’s Register (1310). Here was a merchant about to send a cargo of corn to Brittany, and Kea, with his companions, were permitted by the merchant to depart in the grain ship.
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 Cærleon. 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 mines and kaolin works. 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.