ESTIMATES DIFFER 133 be used. A copy of this print is to be seen in the offices of the Mining Company at the Botallack Mine. The point itself looks very much like the Land's End; indeed, the formation is the same. Blocks and blocks of stern, sterile, massive granite are piled up by nature, one on top of another in wild confusion, and yet apparently not quite devoid of order. No doubt, softer stone in the interstices once existed which has been washed away or decomposed, leaving the harder material separate or separable. To a primitive people absolutely ignorant of natural causes such weirdly wild spots seemed the result of the operations of giants or the devil. The old Celts in Cornwall preferred to refer these strange freaks of nature to giants. The Irish Celts prefer to attribute them to the devil. This is just one of those subtile differences between the two branches of the race. The stone is a more or less rectangular cube, not on the top of the headland, but one amongst several others equally big, on the south side of the last little valley. It has been variously estimated to weigh ninety tons (Stockdale), sixty to seventy tons (Blight), sixty-five tons (Redding), over seventy tons" (Tregellas). Such is the value of expert, or would-be expert, evidence! Just behind it is a group of rocks which looks startlingly like an enormous turtle-truncated head, body, and all complete. The bore-holes in the rocks around and remains of iron bolts still are there to prevent the lieutenant's silly feat sinking into oblivion. The stone can be moved by placing your shoulder under its south-west corner, and the ascent-an extremely difficult one-is rendered more arduous by reason of the smoothness of the rocks acquired by the constant friction of the sightseers going up and down. I advise those desirous of reaching the actual rock to wear rubber-soled shoes, as those cling best to such slippery surfaces. An iron bolt underneath the rock now prevents it from being pushed over again. Most people content themselves with viewing the stone from the eminence overlooking the final valley, which also is worn smooth from the constant friction of thousands of feet each year. From here the view is magnificent. All around in the immediate vicinity lie incipient logan rocks in slow process of formation. On the right, at the end of the headland, is a Marconi's pole, thin and attenuated and weirdly out of place. In a bay right round to the west is the lovely sandy cove, nearly quite enclosed by precipices, Porth Curnow, where the Eastern Telegraph cables emerge from the sea and are waited on by some four hundred servants. Ships constantly pass and repass in the offing; the Lizard stretches out as a far low-lying point on the left as you face the ocean. It is said the Princess of Wales' ventured down into the valley and visited the Logan Stone ; but if a similar expedition be much desired by the masses it would be quite easy to run a short iron bridge across right to the stone itself, and judging by the number of persons visiting the spot, a toll of a penny or twopence would soon repay the outlay. Nearer the land end of Treryn Castle on the western side is the Lady Logan Rock, which sways more easily than the other and can be pushed with one hand into motion. This monolith is oblong, broad, and narrow, bifurcated for some three feet at the top, and stands some twelve feet high from its basin on the granite block beneath. There are many other logan and rocking stones, such as that at Boisistan and Zennor, and I have seen a much bigger one in the Scilly Isles, where there are so many that they are not thought much of. Henry Belasyse wrote a small work in 1657, called An English Traveller's First Curiosity, on the Knowledge of His Own Country, in which he refers to the Logan Stone as one of the curiosities of England in this quaint way: "There are many varietyes in England both for art and nature. For nature the stone called Main Amber, neare the markett towne of Pensan, which though very great may be stirred with a finger, but not carried away even by a great many hands." Mr. Belasyse had clearly never seen the Logan Stone, and, like so many old writers, repeated as ascertained facts much second-hand gossip. Still it is worth noting that he places the first "Chiefe richyes looked after by strangers" as English'cloth, and next in national value 1 Now Queen Mary, CLIFF CASTLES 135 tin-"The next is our tinn or pewter, which is so excellent in Cornewell that it's only not Sylver." Castle Treryn is one of the best typical examples of the fortified promontory so common all over this part of Cornwall. Most of the cliffs about the Land's End are fortified towards the land by walls and ditches, thus cutting off their extreme promontories from communication with the land, as they are by nature inaccessible from the sea. They may have been, and probably were, originally planned by the Celts, and afterwards taken possession of and even made stronger by the Romans and Saxons. The original fortification at Castle Treryn consisted of three circular embankments, one within the other, and the visitor to the Logan Rock passes through the openings in these lines of defence. Dr. Borlase was of opinion the Danes made them. These marauders were, we know, invited to land by the Celts of Cornwall to aid them against the Saxons, and may have entrenched and fortified their landing-places, and though in alliance with the natives, perhaps were not quite sure of their friendliness. After Athelstan's conquest of Cornwall, the Danes, at any rate, turned out enemies to the Cornish, and may have made these cliff castles into their strongholds. Polwhele inclined to the view that they were built by the Irish. This I doubt very much, for the Irish Celts do not seem to have similarly fortified headlands in their own country. Another wild theory is that they were hoardingplaces for tin from the rapacity of foreign freebooters. If this were so, ingots of that metal would be found in them, but so far as I know, never have been. It has also been advanced that they are Roman remains, and in proof thereof it is said that a Roman coin was once found near Treryn, which is no more an argument in support of the theory than the finding of a French penny in Dover Castle would prove the French had built it. These delightfully picturesque Cornish cliff castles are enwrapped in mystery as they are so often by sea mist. The latter, however, is never permanent, but flits away at the first glint of the warm sun. The mystery of the fortifications, however, seems impenetrable, and likely to be permanent. CHAPTER XIV CROWS-AN-WRA, THE BEEHIVE HUTS, ST. EUNY'S WELL TAKI MAKING the motor 'bus from Land's End, which leaves the hotel there at 8.15 a.m. and Sennen at 8.20 a.m., and passing the Quakers' Burial-ground, the cross-roads at Crows-an-wra are soon reached. This is a good place to get off and see some of the interesting antiquities which lie thickly strewn about in the immediate neighbourhood. This interesting hub in an antiquarian wheel is four and a half miles from Land's End, three from St. Just, and five and a half from Penzance. At the cross-roads of Crows-an-wra, or Crowz-an-wra ("Cross by the Wayside "), one sees at once whence the name is derived. An old cross here stands out in the roadway on a pedestal of two steps. It is grey-lichened, and much weather-worn. Few crosses are so roughly executed, and it is difficult to say whether the outline of the head was originally left in its present chipped condition or became so afterwards. On the front facing the road the head has an embossed Celtic cross of four equal arms, with a slight inclination to the left, looking like a conventional Maltese cross, and at the back, facing the little Wesleyan chapel, a Latin cross has been cut or incised into the granite. This Latin cross, I imagine, was cut later than the other. The height of this most interesting and venerable relic, from the top of the pedestal or platform upon which it stands, is 4 feet 6 inches, and the diameter of the rounded head 2 feet 4 inches. Cheek by jowl with this relic of prehistoric ages is the comparatively (only) modern milestone, or directing granite block, which is more ornate than is usual. Evidently the cutter or maker of this wayfarer's blessing expended some artistic labour in its production over and above the minimum recording work he was paid for. The angle towards Pen |