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MINCAMBER, MAIN-AMBER, OR AMBROSE'S STONE.

MIGHTY Logan Stone was poised and blessed by Ambrose Merlin, not far from Penzance. "So great," says Drayton in his "Polyalbion," "that many men's united strength cannot remove it, yet with one finger you may wag it."

Merlin proclaimed that this stone should stand until England had no king; and Scawen tells us,

"Here, too, we may add what wrong another sort of strangers have done to us, especially in the civil wars, and in particular by the destroying of Mincamber, a famous monument, being a rock of infinite weight, which, as a burden, was laid upon other great stones, and yet so equally thereon poised up by nature only, that a little child could instantly move it, but no one man, or many, remove it. This natural monument all travellers that came that way desired to behold; but in the time of Oliver's usurpation, when all monumental things became despicable, one Shrubsall, one of Oliver's heroes, then governor of Pendennes, by labour and much ado, caused to be undermined and thrown down, to the great grief of the country, but to his own great glory, as he thought; doing it, as he said, with a small cane in his hand. I myself have heard him to boast of this act, being a prisoner under him."

So was Merlin's prophecy fulfilled.

replacing this immense rock in its natural position." The glory of Goldsmith and of Shrubsall, who overturned another large Logan Rock, is certainly one not to be desired.

"Ambers or Main Ambers, which signify anointed or consecrated stones."-C. S. Gilbert, Historical Survey. See also Scawen's "Dissertation on the Cornish Language," Stukeley's "Stonehenge," and Jabez Allies's "Worcestershire." Appendix (L.), Petræ Ambrosiæ.

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ZENNOR COITS.

TAYLOR STEPHENS, lately deceased, who was for some time the rural postman of Zennor, sought, in his poem, "The Chief of Barat-Anac," to embody in a story some descriptions of the Zennor coits and other rock curiosities.

I employed this man for some weeks to gather up for me all that remained of legendary lore in Zennor and Morva. He did his work well; and from his knowledge of the people, he learnt more from them than any other man could have done. The results of his labours are scattered through these volumes. C. Taylor Stephens wrote me on the subject of the cromlechs as follows:

Superstitious belief respecting the Quoits.

"I was in the neighbourhood of Zennor in 1859, and by accident came across the Zennor cromlech, and was struck with the mode of its construction, (not having heard of its existence before,) and thinking it bore some resemblance to the Druidical altars I had read of, I inquired of a group of persons who were gathered round the village smithery whether any one could tell me anything respecting the heap of stones on the top of the hill. Several were in total ignorance of their existence. One said, 'Tes caal'd the gient's kite; thas all I knaw.' At last, one more thoughtful, and one who, I found out, was considered the wiseacre and oracle of the village, looked up and gave me this important piece of information,—‘Them ere rocks were put there afore you nor me was boern or thoft ov; but who don it es a puzler to everybody in Sunnur (Zennor.) I de bleve theze put up theer wen thes ere wurld wus maade; but wether they wus or no don't very much mattur by hal akounts. Thes I'd knaw, that nobody caant take car em awa; if anybody was too, they'd be brot there agin. Hees an ef they wus tuk'd awa wone nite, theys shur to be hal rite up top o' th hil fust thing in morenin. But I caant tel ee s' much as Passen can; ef you'd zea he, he'd tel he hal about et.'"

In one of the notes received from the poet and postman he gives a curious instance of the many parts a man played in those remote districts but a few years since :—

"My venerable grandpapa was well known by all the old

people, for he was not only a local preacher, but a charmer, a botanist, a veterinary surgeon, a secretary to a burial and sick benefit society, and, moreover, the blacksmith of the neighbourhood."

THE MEN-AN-TOL.

OT more than two miles from Penzance stands the cele

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brated cromlech of Lanyon-often pronounced Lanine. This, like all the other cromlechs, marks, no doubt, the restingplace of a British chieftain, many of whose followers repose within a short distance of this, the principal monument.

Beyond the village of Lanyon, on a "furzy down," stands the Mên-an-tol, or the "holed stone." For some purposeit is in vain to speculate on it now-the bardic priesthood employed this stone, and probably the superstition which attaches to it may indicate its ancient uses.

If scrofulous children are passed naked through the Mênan-tol three times, and then drawn on the grass three times against the sun, it is felt by the faithful that much has been done towards insuring a speedy cure. Even men and women who have been afflicted with spinal diseases, or who have suffered from scrofulous taint, have been drawn through this magic stone, which all declare still retains its ancient virtues.

If two brass pins are carefully laid across each other on the top edge of this stone, any question put to the rock will be answered, by the pins acquiring, through some unknown agency, a peculiar motion.

THE CRICK STONE IN MORVA.

F any one suffering from a

IF

"crick in the back" can pass

through this forked rock, on the borders of Zennor and Morva, without touching the stone, he is certain of being

cured. This is but a substitute for the holed stone, w it is admitted, has much more virtue than the forked st

In various parts of the county there are, amongst granitic masses, rocks which have fallen across each leaving small openings, or there are holes, low and na extending under a pile of rocks. In nearly every case of kind, we find it is popularly stated, that any one suff from rheumatism or lumbago would be cured if he cra through the openings. In some cases, nine times are ins on "to make the charm complete."

Mrs Bray, in her "Traditions of Devonshire," gives se examples of the prevalence of this superstition over granitic district of Dartmoor.*

THE DANCING STONES, THE HURLERS, &c.

N many parts of Cornwall we find, more or less per

Tradition, and the common people, who have faith in all their fathers have taught them, tell us another tale. T stones are everlasting marks of the Divine displeasure, b maidens or men, who were changed into stone for wicked profanation of the Sabbath-day. These monumen impiety are scattered over the county; they are to be fo indeed, to the extremity of Old Cornwall, many of t circles being upon Dartmoor. It is not necessary to m them all. Every purpose will be served if the touris directed to those which lie more directly in the route w is usually prescribed. In the parish of Burian are "Dawns Myin" or Mên-the dancing stones-comm

"Creeping under tolmens for the cure of diseases is still practis Ireland, and also in the East, as is shewn by Mrs Colonel Elwood in Travels."-Gentleman's Magazine, July 1831.

called "The Merry Maidens ;" and near them are two granite pillars, named the "Pipers." One Sabbath evening some of the thoughtless maidens of the neighbouring village, instead of attending vespers, strayed into the fields, and two evil spirits, assuming the guise of pipers, began to play some dance tunes. The young people yielded to the temptation; and, forgetting the holy day, commenced dancing. The excitement increased with the exercise, and soon the music and the dance became extremely wild; when, lo, a flash of lightning from the clear sky transfixed them all, the tempters and the tempted, and there in stone they stand.

The celebrated circle of nineteen stones,-which is seen on the road to the Land's-End,-known as the "Boscawen-ûn circle," is another example. The "Nine Maids," or the "Virgin Sisters," in Stithians, and other "Nine Maids,” or, as called in Cornish, Naw-whoors, in St Colomb-Major parish, should also be seen, in the hope of impressing the moral lesson they convey yet more strongly on the mind.*

The following quotations are from Davies Gilbert. It must not be forgotten that this gentleman was President of the Royal Society, and therefore a sceptic in local traditionary story:—

"On the south-west part of the parish of Stithians, towards Gwendron, are still to be seen nine stones set perpendicularly erect in the earth, in a direct manner, about ten feet apart, called the Nine Maids, probably set up there in memory of nine religious sisters or nuns in that place before the fifth century; not women turned into stone, as the English name implies, and as the country people thereabout will tell you."

"The Nine Maids-in Cornish, Naw-voz, alias the nine sisters-in Cornish, Naw-whoors—which very name informs us that they were sepulchral stones, erected in memory either of nine natural, or spiritual sisters, of some religious house, and not so many maids turned into stones for dancing on the Sabbath-day, as the country people will tell you. Those stones are set in order by a line, as is such another monument, also called the Nine Maids, in Gwendron, by the highway, about twenty-five feet distance from each other."

1ST SERIES.

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