Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/87

 Legends of Parishes, etc. 7 5 the old name for a large flat stone, the Table Men (pronounced Mayon), at Sennen, near the Land's End, and seven mythical Saxon kings are said to have dined at it when on a visit to Cornwall, a.d. 600. "Around it old folk went nine times daily, from some notion that is was lucky and good against witchcraft." — (Bottrell.) Off the Land's End is a very striking rock rising out of the sea. It is known as the Irish Lady, from the fact that an Irish vessel was once wrecked on it, and out of all on board one poor lady alone managed to scramble up to the top ; but no boat could get to her, and, exhausted by fatigue, she fell into the water, and was drowned. Her spirit still haunts the spot. This is most probably a fanciful tale, as the rock bears some resemblance to a human figure. "During a dreadful thunderstorm and hurricane on the 30th January, 1648, the day on which King Charles was beheaded, a large stone figure of a man, called the ' Armed Knight,' which stood in an upright position at the extremity of the Land's End, forty fathoms above the level of the sea, was thrown down. On the same day a ship riding in St. Ives Bay, having on board the king's ward- robe and other furniture belonging to the royal family, bound for France, broke from her moorings, and ran ashore on the rocks of Godrevy Island, where all on board, about sixty persons, were drowned, except one man and a boy." — G. S. Gilbert's Cornwall. The name of Armed Knight has been transferred to another pile of rocks ofi" the Land's End. The "stone figure" thrown down was most probably a natural formation, as one of the rocks there now bears the fanciful name of Dr. Johnson's Head, from a sup- posed likeness. Other versions of this legend say "that the Armed Knight was only ninety feet high, with an iron spire on its top." Porthgwarra in olden times was known as Sweethearts' Cove from the following circumstance : The daughter of a well-to-do farmer loved a sailor, who was once one of her father's serving-men. Her parents, especially her mother, disapproved of the match ; and when the young man returned from sea and came to see his sweetheart, he was forbidden the house. The lovers however met, and vowed to be true to each other, Nancy saying, " That she would never marry any other man," and William, " That, dead or alive, he would