Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/125

 Legends of Parishes, etc. 1 1 3 Queen Elizabeth, and is called Hugh Town ; before that Old Town was the principal village. At the east of Old Town Bay is Tolman Point (a corruption, I suppose, of T61 Men, the holed stone). Of it an old legend says when Scilly was under the monks of Tavistock, and Old Town the only port of St. Mary's, that they drew a chain from " Tollman head " across the entrance, and levied a toll from all who embarked and landed there, not ex- cepting the fishermen. It was abolished by Richard Plantagenet, who, coming disguised to the port, was not recognized by the friar in charge, who demanded from him his dues. Upon which Earl Richard, in a fit of passion, struck him dead at his feet. According to Leland, " Inniscan longid to Tavestock, and there was a poor celle of monkes of Tavestock. Sum caulle this Trescau." There was a settlement of Benedictine monks here long before the Norman Conquest ; their cell was dedicated to St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas, as well as St. Peter, is the patron saint of fisher- men ; the former also takes school-boys under his protection. Fragments of Tresco Abbey which was then founded still exist. It was independent until the reign of Edward I., when it was joined to Tavistock. The same monarch, Edward I,, made Ranulph de White Monastery (supposed to be Ranulph de Blank- minster, or Randolph de Blancheminster), according to an old archive, constable of these islands, with the castle of Ennor, in Old Town, on his " Paying yearly, at the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, 300 birds, called puflins, or 6^-. %d!' Traces of these monastic visitors are to be found in a pile of rocks at St. Mary's, called Cam Friars (a farm near by bears the same name), and one of the most highly cultivated and sheltered spots, where a few trees grow, is known as Holy Vale. Whitfield places a nunnery there, and says Holy Vale takes it name from a miracu- lous rosebush that grew in it, and that " One of its flowers was deemed to have the power, if worn, to preserve its bearer from mortal sin," but no other authority mentions it. Giants, of course, frequently played a great part in the history of Scilly. Buzza's Hill, just beyond Hugh Town (St. Mary's),