66 CHAPTER XIII 66 ST. BURYAN'S NEIGHBOURHOOD, THE MERRY MAIDENS, ́ THE TWO FIDDLERS, TREWOOFE, LAMORNA, THE LOGAN STONE THE HE neighbourhood of St. Buryan is very rich in antiquarian remains, and the village may well be made a centre for exploration. The "Merry Maidens," the "Fiddlers," several old Celtic crosses, the picturesque and ancient building at Trewoofe, and pretty Lamorna Cove, are all within the compass of a drive or even of a long day's walk. After a drive by the side of fields chiefly pasture, a prominent old Celtic cross is met with where the roads meet on their ways to Lamorna, Logan Rock, and St. Buryan. It stands on a pedestal, and is 4 feet 9 inches in height from the base, which is circular, and 3 feet 2 inches in diameter. Upon it is a rudely embossed crucifixion, much defaced by time and exposure. The crosses about this part of Cornwall are, I think, without exception, all embossed. That is, the cross is upon the surface of the cut and circular-shaped granite block, the portions around having been carved away, leaving the sacred emblem standing out in relief. Consequently, it is easy to recognise what an immense amount of labour must have been expended in shaping these sacred emblems, particularly when one considers the hard nature of the granite. We may be, however, grateful to the exceptional hardness of the stone, for that quality is doubtless the reason why so many of these most interesting relics of former times remain to this day in Cornwall. Time, weather, and malicious hands have wrought their worst, and yet luckily with little effect. But perhaps another influence has also fortunately been at work in aid of the preservation of these crosses. There is, or was, at any rate, a wholesome superstition abroad among the country people, which prevented 66 their desecrating their ancient monuments. It is doubtful if this retarding influence will continue, and therefore it becomes more than ever imperative that each and all of these priceless memorials of the past should be conserved by the State. Still the following story related in the Quarterly Review (July, 1867, p. 63) shows that at that period, at any rate, some of the good old leaven of superstition still existed in the Cornish mind. "Near Carleen, in Breage," says the writer, an old cross has been removed from its place, and now does duty as a gate-post. The farmer occupying the farm where the cross stood set his labourer to sink a pit in the required spot for the gate-post, but when it was intimated that the cross standing a little distance off was to be erected therein, the man absolutely refused to have any hand in the matter, not on account of the beautiful or the antique, but for fear of the old people. Another farmer related that he had a neighbour who' haeled down a lot of stoans called the Roundags, and sold 'em for building the dock at Penzance. But not a penny of the money he got for them ever prospered, and there wasn't wan of the hosses that haeld 'em that lived out the twelvemonth; and they do say that some of the stoans do weep blood, but I don't belive that.' The Cornish are partly descendants from the ancient Damnonii, "the old men," or "old people," as miners call them, of the western peninsula of Britain, whose memory still lingers amongst the inhabitants, hence the prevalence of this belief. Leaving this interesting relic at the cross-roads, and taking the main track to Paul, on the right-hand side in the upper part of a pasturage meadow we come to the 66 Merry Maidens." They are often spoken of as the "Nine Maidens," a loose way of speaking, and a shortened form of "Nineteen Maidens," for these Cornish circles all had originally, I believe, nineteen standing stones. Circles elsewhere consist of the same number of erect monoliths. At Stonehenge the inner oval consists of precisely nineteen stones; so too the temple of Classerniss, in the island of Lewis, consists of an avenue of nineteen stones on each side, leading into a circle of twelve others. This number, nineteen, seems to have had some ancient value, or was associated with |