Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/352

 346 THE CORNWALL COAST He gives us the words of Arthur, when the listeners " hush their hearts to hear the king " : — "I would not be forgotten in this land : I yearn that men I know not, men unborn, Shall find, amid these fields. King Arthur's fame. Here let them say, by proud Dundagel's walls — ' They brought the Sangraal back at his command, They touched these rugged rocks with hues of God,' So shall my name have worship, and my land." And after the king had spoken : — ' ' That night Dundagel shuddered into storm — The deep foundations shook beneath the sea." And we have the grand final picture : — "There stood Dundagel, throned ; and the great sea Lay, a strong vassal at his master's gate, And, like a drunken giant, sobb'd in sleep." There was a time when Trevena, with Bossiney and Trevalga, formed a borough, and sent members to Parliament, of whom Francis Drake was one. It needed little apology to disfranchise such a small corporation as this, but the first Reform Bill had to deal with far greater anomalies. Bossiney has other attractions than such memories as this, having a delightful cove protected by the fine headland of Willapark. The fishing hamlet is close to an ancient burial-mound or barrow, from which election writs were once read and the local mayor proclaimed. From this cove we can pass upward into the glorious Rocky Valley, with its broken crags, its tangled foliage and rushing stream, its old mill. It is just a little like the