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CLICKITOR ROCKS,

about a mile on the right of the road from Looe to Liskeard, are worth seeing. It has lately been discovered that many of these rocks are serpentine, and some of them contain asbestos. Perhaps the name, Clickitor, or Clivacker, may be a corruption of the Saxon word Cliviger, which signified a Rocky District; and probably Kellick, the stone with which fishermen moor their boats, may be of Saxon origin. The Erica Vagans, or Didyma, so abundant on the serpentine formation near the Lizard, is said to be found here.

ST. KAYNE'S WELL.

About four miles from Looe is the famous Well of St. Kayne, described by Carew as follows: "Next I will relate you another of the Cornish wonders, viz. St. Kayne's Well; but lest you make a wonder first at the Saint before you take notice of the Well, you must understand that this was not Kayne the Manqueller, but one of a gentler spirit and milder sex-to wit, a woman*. He who caused

* St. Kayne was a holy virgin of the British Blood Royal, daughter of Braganus, Prince of Brecknockshire; she lived about the year 490. Her festival was celebrated on the 30th of September. She is said to have gone a pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, and to have made no short visit there; for she staid long enough, by the sanctity of her life and

the Spring to be pictured added this rhyme for an

exposition :

In name, in shape, in quality,

This Well is very quaint :
The name to lot of Kayne befell,

No over holy Saint.

In shape, 4 trees of divers kinds,
Withy, Oak, Elm, and Ash,

Make with their roots an arched roofe,
Whose floore this Spring doth wash.

The quality, that man or wife

Whose chance or choice attaines

First of this sacred Stream to drink

Thereby the mastry gains.

the miracles she was thought to have performed, to ingratiate herself with the inhabitants; for, some years after this, St. Cadoc, making a pilgrimage to the same place, found here, to his great surprise, St. Kayne, his aunt by his mother's side: at which rejoicing, he endeavoured to persuade her to go back with him to her native country, Brecknockshire (the intercourse between Cornwall and Wales being then frequent and familiar); but the people of the country interfering would not endure her removal; at last, having had an express command from above, the Saint, obedient to the Heavenly monition, retired to her own country.

Keynsham, a parish in Somersetshire, on the South bank of the river Avon, and about midway between the cities of Bristol and Bath, is said to have derived its name from Keyna, daughter of Braganus, Prince of the Province of Wales, now called Brecknockshire, who lived towards the end of the fifth century. This lady, we are informed by Capgrave (a writer of the fourteenth century), was, in her youth, much famed for her beauty, and sought in marriage by many distinguished personages, all of whom, however, she rejected, and devoted her life to virginity.

Mr. Norden (in his Topographical and Historical Description of Cornwall) speaking of this Well, says, "It is a Spring rising under a Tree of a most straunge condition, for, beyinge but one bodie, it beareth the braunches of four kindes, Oke, Ashe, Elm, and Withye. This Kayne is sayde to be a Woman Saynte, of whom it taketh name; but it better resembleth Kayne the Devill, who had the shape of a Man, the name of an Apostle, the quallytie of a Traytor, and the handes of a Bryber."

Hence she acquired the name of Keyn-wyryf, or Keyna the Virgin. Travelling from her native home to seek some solitary spot, where she might indulge her religious contemplations undisturbed, she passed beyond the Severn, and requested permission from the Chief of this part of the country to reside at Keynsham, then a desert wood. The Prince said he would readily comply with her request; but added that it was impossible for any human being to live in that neighbourhood, as it swarmed with serpents of the most venomous species. Keyna, who had great confidence in the efficacy of her prayers, answered the Prince, that she would soon rid the country of that poisonous brood. Accordingly, the place was granted to her, and by her prayers all the snakes and vipers were converted into stones. And to this day (continues Capgrave's translator) the stones in that country resemble the windings of serpents, through all the fields and villages, as if they had been so formed by the hand of the engraver.

This is one of the instances in which natural phænomena are referred, by superstitious monks and impostors, to miraculous The stones alluded to are examples of that curious but well-known lusus Naturæ the Cornua Ammonis, or Snake Stone, which abounds in the quarries of this parish.

causes.

Those trees spoken of by Carew and Norden were blown down in the great November storm of 1703, and it is said that the present trees were planted by Mr. Rashleigh, father of the late Philip Rashleigh, Esq. of Menabilly, some years after that event. The present trees are five in number, Oak, Elm, and Ash, they grow over the Well in a very odd manner, and are well worth seeing. The Well itself is arched with stone; the trees grow over the arch, or rather on it, and appear all united at the stock or root; on standing between the trees over the Well you can touch the trunks of all of them with your hand, without moving from the centre. According to my recollection there are two Oaks, two Ashes, and one remarkably fine grown Elm, very lofty, and, about five feet from the ground, seven feet in circumference. One or two of the trees droop over the Well like a weeping willow; and they all together form a very beautiful tuft. I sent a Sketch of the Trees and Well to the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, and it is engraved in that work for 1799, vol. LXIX. p. 193.

The following humourous Verses on this Well made their appearance, a few years since, in several periodical publications. publications. I understand they were written by Mr. Southey, the present Poet Laureat.

* Another Ballad on the same subject may be seen in the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1822, vol. XCII. p. 546.

A Well there is, in the West Country,

And a clearer one never was seen; There is not a wife in the West Country But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.

An Oak and an Elm tree stand behind,

And beside does an Ash tree grow;
And a Willow from the bank above
Droops to the water below.

A trav❜ler came to the Well of St. Keyne;
Pleasant it was to his eye,

For from cock-crow he had been travelling,
And there was not a cloud in the sky.

He drank of the water so cool and clear,
For thirsty and hot was he;

And he sat down upon the bank

Under the Willow tree.

There came a man from the neighbouring town,

At the Well to fill his pail;

On the Well side he rested it,

And bade the stranger hail.

"Now, art thou a Bachelor, stranger?" quoth he;

"For if thou hast a wife,

The happiest draught thou hast drank to day

That ever thou didst in thy life.

"Or has your good woman, if one you have,

In Cornwall ever been?

For an if she have, I'll venture my life

She has drank of the Well of St. Keyne."

"I have left a good woman, who never was here,"

The stranger he made reply.

"But that my draught should be better for that, I pray you answer me why."