{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_49563/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_49563","id":"gutenberg_49563","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49563","summary":null,"tags":["Arthur, King -- Homes and haunts -- England -- Cornwall (County)","Category: History - British","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Cornwall (England : County) -- Antiquities, Celtic"],"text":"THE LOST LAND OF KING ARTHUR\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nKING ARTHUR\u2019S CASTLE AND EXECUTION ROCK, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_Frontispiece_]\n\n\n\n\n  THE LOST LAND\n  OF KING ARTHUR\n\n  BY\n  J. CUMING WALTERS\n\n  \u201cOn the one hand we have the man Arthur, ... on the other is a\n  greater Arthur, a more colossal figure, of which we have, so\n  to speak, but a torso, rescued from the wreck of the Celtic\n  Pantheon.\u201d--PROFESSOR RHYS.\n\n  \u201cThere is truth enough to make him famous besides\n  that which is fabulous.\u201d--BACON.\n\n  _WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS_\n\n  LONDON\n  CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD.\n  1909\n\n\n\n\n  RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,\n  BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND\n  BUNGAY, SUFFOLK\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nWithin a small area in the West Country may be found the principal\nplaces mentioned in the written chronicles of King Arthur--places\nwith strange long histories and of natural charm. In these pages an\nimpressionist view is given of the region once called Cameliard and\nLyonnesse. We have ventured into by-ways seldom entered, and we trust\nto have gathered a few details which may not be wholly without interest\nin their place. Facts are meagre about King Arthur, and romance has\nso overlaid reality that his realm seems now to be veritably a part\nof fairy-land. In this respect the journey is profitless, save that,\nby taking Malory as a guide, we are led to a few delightful and\nhalf-forgotten localities out of the ordinary route, from which romance\nhas not been wholly dislodged and where tradition survives and is\nstrong.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAP.                                            PAGE\n\n     I. OF THE KING AND HIS CHRONICLERS               1\n\n    II. OF LYONNESSE AND CAMELIARD                   32\n\n   III. OF ARTHUR THE KING AND MERLIN\n          THE ENCHANTER                              61\n\n    IV. OF TINTAGEL                                  86\n\n     V. OF CAERLEON-UPON-USK                        113\n\n    VI. OF THE ROUND TABLE AND KING\n          ARTHUR\u2019S BATTLES                          130\n\n   VII. OF CAMELOT AND ALMESBURY                    159\n\n  VIII. OF ST. KNIGHTON\u2019S KIEVE AND THE\n          HOLY GRAIL                                183\n\n    IX. OF CAMELFORD AND THE LAST BATTLE            194\n\n     X. OF GLASTONBURY AND THE PASSING OF\n          ARTHUR                                    216\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                           _Facing page_\n\n  King Arthur\u2019s Castle and Execution Rock,\n  Tintagel                                _Frontispiece_\n\n  The Rocky Valley, Tintagel                          40\n\n  Merlin\u2019s Cave, Tintagel                             70\n\n  King Arthur\u2019s Castle, Tintagel                      96\n\n  The Elephant Rock, Bossiney Cove                   102\n\n  Barras Head, Tintagel                              110\n\n  The Rocky Valley, Tintagel                         150\n\n  St. Knighton\u2019s Kieve, Tintagel                     184\n\n  St. Knighton\u2019s Glen                                192\n\n  Mouth of Rocky Valley and Long Island, Tintagel    202\n\n  St. Michael\u2019s Tower, Glastonbury                   218\n\n  The Olde Pilgrim\u2019s Inn, Glastonbury                222\n\n  St. Joseph\u2019s Chapel, Glastonbury Abbey             224\n\n  Wells Cathedral                                    236\n\n  The Abbey Barn, Glastonbury                        248\n\n  Ruins of St. Joseph\u2019s Chapel, Glastonbury          254\n\n\n\n\nTHE LOST LAND OF KING ARTHUR\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nOF THE KING AND HIS CHRONICLERS\n\n \u201cWhat an enormous camera-obscura magnifier is Tradition! How a thing\n grows in the human Memory, in the human Imagination, when love,\n worship, and all that lies in the human Heart, are there to encourage\n it!\u201d--_Carlyle._\n\n\nNo pretence can be made that a complete or exhaustive history of King\nArthur is given in this and the following chapters. Only parts of his\nstory and parts of the story of his most illustrious knights are woven\ninto this mosaic of fact and fiction. Sometimes only a few threads of\nthe romance are to be discovered; at other times many are gathered into\nthe fabric.\n\nI have taken those portions only of the Arthurian fable, built upon a\nsmall substratum of historic fact, which suited the immediate purpose\nin view; the rest, a huge mass, which it would have been unprofitable\nto introduce, has perforce been omitted. The primary object has been\nsimply to call attention to the reputed relics of the great hero, to\nmark some of the floating traditions of his power, and to speak of a\nfew of the localities which bear his name or are associated with his\ndeeds; and I have striven to add a little to the living interest in\nthe mouldering monuments, to brush away a little of the dust of ages\nfrom existing evidences, to lift a little the veil of mystery which\ndarkens, disguises, or shrouds the lineaments of the king. As we find\nhim in history, and as he is represented in romance, he is so noble a\nfigure that we should dread to lose him or the conjuring influence of\nhis name. The proud and triumphing Roman reeled for a time under the\nshock of Arthur\u2019s hosts. The Saxon felt his almost invincible power.\nChristendom hailed his noble order and rejoiced in his imperial sway.\nNow, where he ruled and made his kingdom, are submerged cities, fallen\ntowers, the wash of waters, the \u201ctrackless realm of Lyonnesse.\u201d The sea\nhas swept over his territory, and the deep shadows of centuries have\nfallen upon his deeds. His fame has been made imperishable by mighty\npens, and many a mountain fastness holds his name and gives it forth\nto the world; many a towering rock preserves his story; many a frowning\nheight perpetuates his deeds; many a wild torrent proclaims his name.\nSo by a hundred contrivances does the memory of King Arthur endure, and\nhe looms, a giant, behind the mist of ages. Six hundred localities in\nthe British Isles alone, it has been computed, cherish traditions of\nKing Arthur, and his praise is sung by a multitude of voices, and in\nevery region where Celtic influence has been felt. Such an influence as\nthis cannot proceed wholly from the dry bones of fiction, or from the\ngolden toys of romance. Legends gather about a great name, just as ivy\ncovers the ruined column of old time; but the underlying base is there.\nThose who contend that King Arthur never lived are open to the charge\nof allowing the leaves of fable to hide from their eyes the ruined but\ngiant pillar beneath.\n\nIn the early unwritten history of this island the invading Brythonic\nrace mastered the inhabitants, the Goidels or Gauls, who had\namalgamated with the Neolithic race, and gave the country the name of\nBritannia. To them is attributed the building of Stonehenge and the\nround barrows in which the dead were interred. The Cambrians, the\nWelsh, and the people of Brittany are their linguistic descendants. So\nhardy, stalwart, and venturesome were the Brythons that they gradually\nspread themselves over the greater part of the country and penetrated\nfar to the north. They offered determined defiance to the Romans three\ncenturies before the Christian era, and successively resisted Norsemen\nand Saxons until five centuries of the Christian era had passed. Driven\nfirst to the west, they took up their abode in the wilds of Wales, and\nin Cornwall and Devon, and only succumbed at last to the exterminating\ncampaign of the Saxons, who first cut off the Britons of the north\nand the south, and then defeated the two divisions of the race, first\nat Chester and then at Bath. The crucial battle between Briton and\nSaxon was under the leadership of the last of the British chiefs, the\nArthur of history and romance, and Cerdic the victorious leader of\nthe \u201cPagans.\u201d Cerdic, sailing across the channel in his chiules, or\nlong ships, had landed at the Isle of Wight, fought King Natanleod\nof Hampshire, with whom he maintained a five years\u2019 campaign, and,\ntriumphant at last, and reinforced by the followers of his son and his\nnephews, had established the West Seaxe, or Wessex Kingdom.\n\nBut, if defeated by the British at Mount Badon, the Saxons were not\nlong in reversing the issue, and Cerdic\u2019s son Cymric, and his nephews\nStuffa and Whitgar, lived to see their rivals well-nigh exterminated.\nAt Wodensbury in Wiltshire the remnants of the British race joined with\nthe Angles in driving the hated Saxon from the sovereignty of Wessex,\nbut this, too, was without permanent result; for Cerdic\u2019s next of\ndescent, Cadwalla, restored the supremacy of his house and race.\n\nCerdic is said to have died in 534, a date of some importance as\nhelping us to fix the true Arthurian era. The history of many of his\ncontemporaries is almost as vague as Arthur\u2019s own, but Cerdic stands\nout as a man of no uncertain history, and he serves the purpose of\nallowing us to test the probabilities of Arthur\u2019s reputed career. That\nCerdic\u2019s record should be more definite, though extremely brief, is\ndue to the fact that he was a conqueror; that Arthur\u2019s record should\nbe less definite, though extremely long, is due to the fact that he\nwas vanquished, and that his story became mixed with the fables of a\ngeneration which did not know him. In the one case we have concrete\nfacts duly preserved; in the other we have merely a name which fires\nthe imagination, and a few events which in the course of time are\nmagnified by romance. Allegory is but truth\u2019s shadow, and the very\nsongs we deem idle, even the loosely-strung nursery rhymes, may have\ninner significance, as Carlyle has told us; men never believed in\nsongs that were meaningless, and \u201cnever risked their soul\u2019s life on\nallegories.\u201d Real history and precious lore are bound up in these\nshrunken shrouds of withered myths, and it is safe to assume that the\nname that is enshrined in a folk-song is the name of a transcendent\nhero, a truly great man deemed more than human, merged into the\npreternatural, the ideal, or the divine. And, like the student at the\nWayside Inn of Sudbury Town, we can--\n\n  \u201cLove the twilight that surrounds\n  The border-land of old romance,\n     *    *    *    *\n  Where mighty warriors sweep along,\n  Magnified by the purple mist,\n  The dust of centuries and of song.\u201d\n\nHere it is that--\n\n  \u201cThe chronicles of Charlemagne,\n  Of Merlin and the Mort d\u2019Arthure\n  Mingle together.\u201d\n\nBut how the romance of King Arthur originated, how it came to be\nwritten, how it was developed and elaborated, how from a simple history\nit came to be invested with special significance and to be impregnated\nwith spiritual meanings--to explain this, it is necessary in some\nmeasure to trace the course of early English literature and to mark the\nadvance of the English race. The story leads us back to dim times and\nsmall beginnings. It recalls the semi-barbarism of the first centuries,\nthe fierce conflicts of contending tribes, the domination of Rome, the\nlast supreme encounters between Briton and Saxon, and the making of\nthat race which we believe inherits the hardy and heroic qualities of\nboth. No doubt the substratum of fact is overlaid with superstitions,\nand fantasy has reared her airy edifices upon the frailest of history\u2019s\nfoundations. The narrow track leading backward to the times of Arthur\nis often undefined and irretraceable, and the traveller finds that\nunstable bridges have been cast across the gulfs which have broken up\nthe way. Very seldom, therefore, can a strong foothold be obtained,\nand one is often disposed to abandon the pursuit of truth as hopeless.\nThe tendency has ever been to strain facts to uncertain conclusions in\norder to fit the exigencies of romance.\n\nAs discoverable error ever leads to general doubt, there are not\nlacking those who deny that King Arthur ever existed. He is declared to\nbe a myth, a type, a symbol, an allegorical figure. Even Caxton, in\nprinting Malory\u2019s history, was obliged to confute the sceptics by the\nmention of what he deemed unassailable facts. It was \u201cmost execrable\ninfidelity,\u201d said he, to doubt the existence of Joshua, David, Judas\nMaccab\u00e6us, or Alexander; all the world knew there was a Julius C\u00e6sar\nand a Hector; \u201cand,\u201d he demanded to know with just indignation, \u201cshall\nthe Jewes and the heathen be honoured in the memory and magnificent\nprowesse of their worthies? Shall the French and German nations\nglorifie their triumphs with their Godfrey and Charles [Charlemagne],\nand shall we of this island be so possesst with incredulities,\ndiffidence, stupiditie, and ingratitude, to deny, make doubt, or\nexpresse in speech and history, the immortal name and fame of our\nvictorious Arthur? All the honour we can doe him is to honour ourselves\nin remembrance of him.\u201d\n\nHaving thus made it a point of national pride and honour with us to\naccept and believe in King Arthur, Caxton proceeded to advance the\nproofs of his existence, which were that his life was written in \u201cmany\nnoble volumes,\u201d while his \u201csepulture\u201d might be seen at Glastyngburye\n[Glastonbury], that the print of his seal was preserved in Westminster\nAbbey, and that \u201cin the castel of Dover ye may see Gawayn\u2019s skulle and\nCradok\u2019s mantel; at Wynchester, the rounde table; in other places,\nLancelotte\u2019s sworde, and many other thynges.\u201d These irrefutable facts\nadmitted, to his thinking, of but one conclusion. \u201cAll these thynges\nconsydered, there can no man reasonably gaynsaye but there was a King\nof thys lande named Arthur.\u201d The quaint prologue to Malory\u2019s romance\nabundantly testifies that serious arguments must have been already\nadvanced against Arthur\u2019s existence in order to call for so spirited a\nrebuke and so complete an answer. But, as a matter of fact, the truth\nof the histories referring to his exploits had been challenged from\nthe first, and in spite of the immense popularity they enjoyed and the\ninfluence they possessed, they seem never to have been implicitly and\nunanimously accepted as veracious records.\n\nThree Welsh poets are supposed to have been the first to celebrate the\ndeeds of Arthur--the full-throated Taliesin, Aneurin, and Llywarch H\u00ean.\nThe two latter bards commemorated the heroes who fell at the battle of\nCattraeth, in the year 603. Aneurin\u2019s poem, \u201cGododin,\u201d about a thousand\nlines in length, is preserved in a manuscript of the thirteenth\ncentury. The writer, who was present at the battle he describes, is\nsupposed by some to have been Gildas, the first historian; others say\nhe was the son of Gildas.[1] The poem is of a most obscure character,\nand doubt has actually arisen as to the particular battle to which it\nrefers, a theory having been advanced that it celebrated a disaster\nwhich befell the Britons at Stonehenge in 472. But Cattraeth is\nsupposed to have been Degstan, or Dawstane, in Liddlesdale, at which\nthe Saxons were defeated; and when such divergencies as these are\npossible in regard to locality, persons, and dates, the value of\nAneurin\u2019s poem as history may easily be estimated. The principal fact\nwhich Aneurin tells us is that of \u201cthree warriors and threescore and\nthree hundred, wearing the golden torques,\u201d only four escaped \u201cfrom\nthe conflict of gashing weapons,\u201d one being himself. Another of those\nwho escaped from Cattraeth was Kynon, known as \u201cthe dauntless,\u201d whose\nlove for the daughter of Urien supplied the bards with a theme. Urien\nhimself fell in this great battle, and it was the poet Llywarch H\u00ean\n(buried, it is said, in the Church of Llanever, near Bala Lake) who\nwrote his elegy. Llywarch H\u00ean passed his younger days at King Arthur\u2019s\nCourt as a free guest and a counselling warrior. His career is well\nsummarised by George Borrow in _Wild Wales_, Chapter LXXIII.\n\nOf the third and most important prophet and bard, Taliesin, Prince\nof Song, we are told that he was the son of Saint Henwg; that he had\na miraculous birth; that he spake in wonderful verse at his nativity\nand sang riddling tales; that he was invited by King Arthur to his\nCourt at Caerleon; and that, having presided over the Round Table as\na \u201cgolden-tongued knight,\u201d he became chief of the Bards of the West.\nA cairn near Aberystwyth marks the site of his grave. The story of\nthe bard of the radiant brow, of his wonderful delivery from pirates,\nand of his poems, which excelled those of all others, has always\nbeen a popular one, but the sifting of truth from fiction is no easy\ntask. His allusions to Arthur probably have no superior value to the\nreferences of Aneurin and Llywarch H\u00ean, and we are forced therefore to\ndismiss them from account. Sir Walter Scott, in the introduction to one\nof his poetic romances, justly reminded his readers that the Bards,\nor Scalds, were the first historians of all nations, and that their\nintention was to relate events they had witnessed or traditions that\nhad reached them. \u201cBut,\u201d he added, \u201cas the poetical historian improves\nin the art of conveying information, the authenticity of his narrative\ninvariably declines. He is tempted to dilate and dwell upon events that\nare interesting to his imagination, and, conscious how indifferent\nhis audience is to the naked truth of his poem, his history gradually\nbecomes a romance.\u201d Such were the early historians, as well as bards,\nupon whose records the English chroniclers relied.\n\nThese chroniclers were Gildas and Nennius, of whom no very certain\nbiographical facts can be discovered, though the latter is said to have\nbeen a monk at Bangor. Gildas is the reputed author of a treatise, _De\nExcidio Britanni\u00e6_, blindly copied by Bede, which supplied a history\nof Britain from the time of the Incarnation to the year 560 A.D. But\ndarkness enshrouds the historian, of whose country, parentage, and\nperiod much is surmised and little is discoverable. The erudite author\nof _Culture in Early Scotland_, Dr. Mackinnon, believes that the writer\nof the gloomy and pessimistic work on the destruction of Britain was\na Romanised Briton, who migrated to Brittany to escape the pitiless\nseverity of the Saxons, and there founded the monastery of Ruys. It\nhas even been claimed that Gildas was a native of Clydesdale, and if\nthis were so another link would exist to connect Arthur himself with\nScotland, for the historian was so closely identified with the race\nand the cause championed by that king that his surname was taken from\nArthur\u2019s famous battle of Badon, which, again, is said by some to have\nbeen fought in the Lowlands.[2] Gildas was the wisest of the Britons\naccording to Alcuin, and Dr. Mackinnon thinks that his chronicle\nshould be accepted as authentic, in spite of its occasional errors\nand its undoubted bias. The stern character of the writer is evinced\nby his denunciations not only of Saxon excesses, but of the clerical\nvices of his age. In short, Gildas was a religious devotee, an austere\nand uncompromising critic of the demoralising customs of the time; a\nspecies of prophet, also, who saw in corruption and degeneration the\nsigns of coming destruction for the race to which he belonged. Roman\ninfluence had undermined the morals of the people and enervated public\nand social life. The story Gildas tells is one of unrelieved gloom, but\nit stands out in contrast to other narratives by its rugged simplicity\nand its freedom from the more romantic elements. Murder, sacrilege, and\nimmorality were bringing about wholesale desolation, and the patriotic\nGildas saw no future before his country but absolute ruin and racial\nextinction. His allusions to Arthur are scanty, incidental, and none\ntoo complimentary, and they have assumed importance only as bases for\nthe construction of bold theories by subsequent writers.\n\nIn Somerset, near the ancient British settlement of Brean, is a rocky\nislet known as Steep Holm, 400 feet high and about a mile and a half in\ncircumference. In this desolate place it is said that Gildas Badonicus\ntook refuge during the time of conflict between Britons and Saxons,\nand that here he composed the greater part of _De Excidio Britanni\u00e6_.\nLeland records that the hermit \u201cpreached every Sunday in a church by\nthe seashore, which stands in the country of Pebidiane, in the time\nof King Trifunus; an innumerable multitude hearing him. He always\nwished to be a faithful subject to King Arthur. His brothers, however,\nrebelled against that king, unwilling to endure a master. Hueil\n(Howel), the eldest, was a perpetual warrior and most famous soldier,\nwho obeyed no king, not even Arthur himself.\u201d Steep Holm was invaded\nby pirates, and Gildas was compelled to seek another asylum. He chose\nGlastonbury, and there he died. His attitude was pessimistic in the\nextreme. \u201cThe poor remnant of our nation,\u201d he said, \u201cbeing strengthened\nthat they might not be brought to utter destruction, took arms under\nAmbrosius, a modest man, who, of all the Roman nation, was then alone\nin the confusion of this troubled period by chance left alive. His\nparents, who, for their merit, were adorned with the purple, had been\nslain in the same broils, and now his progeny, in these our days,\nalthough shamefully degenerated from the worthiness of their ancestors,\nprovoked to battle their conquerors, and, by the goodness of God,\nobtained the victory.\u201d In this dismal strain did he write of triumphs,\nand the power with which he described defeat may therefore easily be\nguessed.\n\nThe answer that has been given to the question, oft repeated: Why is\nhistory so silent on King Arthur? is a strange one. It is said that\nGildas, on hearing that Arthur had slain his brother Howel, was\nso deeply offended that he determined that the hero should not be\ncelebrated by him. In revenge, he cast into the sea \u201cmany excellent\nbooks which he had written concerning the acts of Arthur, and in the\npraise of his nation, by reason of which thing you can find nothing\nof so great a prince expressed in authentic writings.\u201d Gildas himself\nsupplies another explanation, for he bewailed the loss of national\nrecords \u201cwhich have been consumed in the fires of the enemy, or have\naccompanied my exiled countrymen into distant lands.\u201d His own sources\nof information were those which he found in Armorica and other portions\nof the Continent.\n\nNennius is supposed to have compiled another comprehensive history\ncomparable with that of Gildas--_Historia Britonum_--the period\nembraced being from the days of Brute the Trojan to the year 680 A.D.\nBut so much doubt prevails as to his work, that the history, despite\nthe later date, has been ascribed to Gildas himself. Both may have been\nforgeries of the tenth or eleventh century. For five or six centuries\nthe story of Arthur was \u201cfolk-lore,\u201d and was preserved in snatches\nof song, a few fragments of which still exist. Such a legend, as\nLongfellow says, can only--\n\n          \u201cSpring at first\n  Out of the hunger and the thirst\n  In all men for the marvellous.\n  And thus it filled and satisfied\n  The imagination of mankind,\n  And this ideal to the mind\n  Was truer than historic fact.\u201d\n\nSongs in praise of heroes, real or mythical, always exist among rude\npeoples--the sagas which nations unwillingly let die. They are the\nrepository of national history, the inspiration of an aspiring and\nprogressive race, the embodiment of its hopes, the treasury of its\ntraditions. Mythology, \u201cthe dark shadow which language throws on\nthought,\u201d is the first outcome of mental activity and percipience--the\nstruggle for human expression of all that is marvellous and memorable.\nAll the early history of races is mixed and engloomed with dim\nallegories. Intense reverence for divinities, or the awe of them, leads\nto the making of fables and the reciting of marvels, in which the gods\nspeak and act as men, or men speak and act as gods. The thoughts of\nprimitive peoples are concentrated upon the hero, the commanding figure\nwho typifies their desires, and about whose name cluster legends of\nvictory. Not infrequently, divine qualities are attributed to that\nhero who thus looms majestically upon the horizon of history, and\nultimately becomes a religion. \u201cThe gods of fable are the shining\nmoments of great men,\u201d Emerson said, and whether the Arthurs and Odins\nof mythology were men worshipped as deities, or deities divested of\ndivinity and transformed into historic heroes, the after-ages must\nalways have some difficulty in deciding. What we know is that the\ninterval between language and literature is crowded with shadowy\nmythological lore, and little of the light flashed back from to-day can\nillumine the haunted, mystic, twilight time of phantom and superstition.\n\nYet Geoffrey, Archdeacon of Monmouth, and afterwards Bishop of St.\nAsaph (1100-1154), in giving shape and substance to the Arthurian\nlegends and traditions, had no better material to work with than that\nsupplied by the British folk-songs, the tainted records of Gildas and\nNennius, and the so-called Armoric collections of Walter, Archdeacon\nof Oxford, who flourished in the eleventh century, and connected the\nArthur of Brittany with the Arthur of Siluria. Geoffrey\u2019s famous\n_Chronicon sive Historia Britonum_, dedicated to Robert, Earl of\nGloucester, and given to the world in the Latin tongue in the year\n1115, was professedly a translation of the _Brut y Brenhined_, a\n\u201chistory of the Kings of Britain, found in Brittany,\u201d best described in\nWordsworth\u2019s phrase: \u201cA British record long concealed in old Armorica,\nwhose secret springs no Gothic conqueror e\u2019er drank.\u201d\n\nIn reality his imagination had been fired by the bardic celebrations of\nArthur\u2019s triumphs, the songs still sung vauntingly by an unconquered\nrace. The old monkish chronicler manifested a marvellous ingenuity in\nimparting circumstantiality of the most convincing character to his\nnarrative. He connected place-names of great repute with eponymous\nheroes; he linked the truths of the Roman occupation with the\nhalf-truths or fables of the British resistance; he wove some of the\nmost striking Scriptural facts into the fabric of the romance; he so\nleavened falsehood with reality that the imposture was hard to detect,\nespecially in an uncritical age, and the effect was most impressive\nupon the minds of an unreasoning generation. His inventions did not\nextend to incidents; these he took from the chronicles to hand, and he\ncan only be charged with a free amplification of the records, and a\nreadjustment of the events which had been described. Notwithstanding\nall the craft and devices of the chronicler, however, his history was\nalmost immediately challenged, William of Newburgh, a Yorkshire monk,\ndeclaring that Geoffrey had \u201clied saucily and shamelessly,\u201d with many\nother hard terms. He charged the supposed chronicler with making use\nof, and wholly depending upon, the old Breton tales, and with adding\nto these contestable compilations \u201cincrease of his own.\u201d Nor was\nWilliam of Newburgh alone in his protests and denunciation. Giraldus\nCambriensis, by a parable, implied that Geoffrey\u2019s work was a deceit.\nThere was a man at Caerleon, he said, who could always tell a liar\nbecause he saw the devil and his imps leaping upon the man\u2019s tongue.\nThe Gospel of St. John was given him; he placed it in his bosom; and\nthe evil spirits vanished. Then the _History of the Britons_, by\n\u201cGeoffrey Arthur\u201d (\u201cArthur\u201d was a by-name of Geoffrey\u2019s), was handed\nto him, and the imps immediately reappeared in greater numbers, and\nremained a longer time than usual on his body and on his book. _C\u0153dit\nqu\u00e6stio_. But all this did not prevent Geoffrey\u2019s masterpiece in nine\nbooks from attaining a remarkable popularity both in its original form\nand when translated, as it rapidly was, into the Anglo-Saxon and the\nNorman-French languages, where it could be fully understanded of the\npeople. It covered the history of the Britons from the time of Brut,\ngreat-grandson of \u00c6neas of Troy, to Cadwallader\u2019s death in 688.\n\nThe first translators were Geoffrey Gaisnar or Gaimar, in 1154 (the\noriginal history had been published only seven years previously),\nwho turned the story into Norman-French verse, and Wace, a native of\nJersey, who obtained the favour of the Norman kings, and was the author\nof two long romances in Norman-French--the famed _Brut_, or _Geste des\nBretons_, and the almost equally famous _Roman de Rou_. The former\nwork was a free metrical rendering, published in Henry II.\u2019s reign, of\nGeoffrey\u2019s _Chronicle_, with some new matter. Wace, according to Hallam\nthe historian, was a prolific versifier who has a \u201cclaim to indulgence,\nand even to esteem, as having far excelled his contemporaries without\nany superior advantages of knowledge.\u201d It was in emulation of him that\nseveral Norman writers composed metrical histories.\n\nThen came Layamon, a Midland priest living at a noble church at Emly,\nor Arley, who at the close of the twelfth century produced the first\nlong poem written in the English language. He did not go to Geoffrey\nof Monmouth\u2019s work direct, but wrote an amplified imitation of Wace\u2019s\nversion of the _Chronicle_. Layamon\u2019s paraphrase contained just over\ndouble the number of lines in Wace\u2019s poem, the additions consisting\nchiefly of interpolated dramatic speeches. There were already Cymric,\nArmoric, Saxon, and Norman ingredients in the medley of history and\nromance, and to these Layamon added a slight Teutonic element, for the\nchansons of the Trouv\u00e8res had carried the fame of Arthur into Germany,\nand already new legends with new meanings were germinating from the\nloosely-scattered seed. With Artus for the central figure and with\ncourtly chivalry for the theme, these variations and expansions of\nthe story of the British chief exercised as powerful and enduring an\ninfluence upon the people of France and Germany as they had done, and\ncontinued to do, upon the people of Britain. The good priest seems\nto have had no other object in writing in good plain Saxon the story\nof King Arthur than to make widely known among his countrymen the\nnoble deeds in which he evidently had an abounding faith. In fact,\nhis purpose was purely patriotic. The only guile he employed was in\nsupplying the names of many persons and places, in addition to the\nspeeches, all of which circumstances served to magnify the literary\nimposture. Walter Map, or Mapes, a man of the Welsh Marches, with a\nreputation for exceeding frankness and honour, followed Layamon and\nintroduced other and more striking details of permanent value. Map\nwas the friend of Becket, and is believed to have been for some time\nthe king\u2019s chaplain. For the love of the king his work was done. His\nLatin satirical poems display his chief characteristics, and it is\nas a wit rather than a writer that he was famous at the Court. Yet\nit was this man who is held to have conceived the character of the\npure and stainless knight Sir Galahad, assigning to him what is in\nsome respects the chief, or at all events the worthiest, position in\nthe Arthurian list of knights. If Sir Galahad, stainless, chivalrous,\nalone capable of achieving the Quest of the Grail, were the creation of\nWalter Map, to him we owe that spiritual and religious element which\nrefines and enriches King Arthur\u2019s history. Map wrote the story of the\nGrail, a Christianised rendering of Celtic myth, and to him probably\nwe owe the moving and impressive _Mort_, with those notable outbursts\nwhich rank among the treasures of our literature. He, however, had\nthe originals to work upon. The Welsh had taken their legends to\nBrittany, the troubadours were singing them, and the German and the\nFrench chroniclers were at work. And though there is no doubt that\nMap contributed in a considerable degree to the romances, it must be\nfaithfully recorded that questions have arisen whether he was really\ncapable of doing all that has been attributed to him, and whether, if\nhe had the capacity, he would also have had the inclination. \u201cSpotless\nspirituality,\u201d such as he is supposed to have infused into the story,\nis scarcely consistent with the character of the man whose Anacreontics\nare often lacking in refinement.[3]\n\nSo far, it will be easily conceded, very little has been advanced in\nthe way of proof of the existence of the British prince and hero, of\nthe Cymric \u201cDux Bellorum,\u201d of the Chief of the Siluri or Dumnonii,\nthe name given to the remnant of the British races driven westward\nby the Saxons. We can understand Milton questioning who Arthur was,\nand doubting \u201cwhether any such reigned in Britain.\u201d \u201cIt had been\ndoubted heretofore, and may be again with good reason,\u201d he wrote,\nnotwithstanding the fascination possessed by--\n\n            \u201cWhat resounds\n  In fable or romance of Uther\u2019s son\n  Begirt with British and Armoric knights.\u201d\n\nGeoffrey\u2019s \u201cmonument of stupendous delusion\u201d had not deceived him, and\nSir Thomas Malory\u2019s laborious compilation, while winning unstinted\nadmiration for its beauty, richness, and delectation, would be as\nunconvincing historically as were Caxton\u2019s quaintly-argued evidences.\nAll the tributaries which now combined to make the full broad current\nof Arthurian literature were infected at their sources, numerous and\nwidely separated as those sources were. If Malory depended, as we have\nthe authority of the best scholars for believing, upon the several\nancient romances of Merlin, the inventions and adaptations of Walter\nMap, the mysterious compilations of pseudonymous \u201cHelie de Bouri\u201d and\n\u201cLuces de Gast,\u201d with other manuscripts--some of which are untraced--of\nlike character, it was obvious that he was only presenting us with an\naggregation of the impostures, inventions, fables, and falsities of\nthe centuries preceding. That Malory had a conscientious belief in the\nromance is extremely probable, though in the absence of all information\nconcerning him--for he is a name, a great name, and little more--we can\nonly infer this from the scrupulous manner in which he has performed\nhis task and from the commendatory form in which it was issued in the\nyear 1485.\n\nJudged purely as literature, and with every allowance made for want\nof uniformity in level as well as for the tediousness of numberless\ndigressions, Malory\u2019s romance only admits of one opinion; and to\nhim and to Caxton (who, despite the humility of his prologues and\nepilogues, and his professions of \u201csimpleness and ignorance,\u201d was a\nscholar and a master of middle-class English) the race is under a\nperpetual debt.[4] The compiler does not seem to be open to the charge\nlevelled against him by Sir Walter Scott, that he \u201cexhausted at hazard,\nand without much art or combination, from the various French prose\nfolios\u201d; on the contrary it is easy to conceive that he exercised\nthat \u201cpainful industry\u201d with which he is credited by the writer of\nthe Preface to the edition of 1634. In addition to this, he stamped\nhis own individuality upon the work, and manifested a singular purity\nof taste by removing the grosser elements which stained many of the\nearlier versions, and by preserving all that was best as literature and\nin keeping with the finest and truest spirit of romance. We know from\nthe scholarly investigations of Dr. Sommer and Sir Edmund Strachey\nhow judicious Malory was in translating from his \u201cFrench books,\u201d or in\nmaking abstracts, or in amending and enlarging. With true insight he\nchose the material that was of good report and of genuine worth; the\ndross he cast aside. Malory may have belonged to a Yorkshire family,\njudging from the fact that Leland recorded that a Malory possessed a\nlordship in that county, but there is no slight authority for believing\nthat he was a Welshman and a priest--\u201ca servant of Jesu both day and\nnight,\u201d as he himself said. That he was a good and earnest Christian\nhis own work proves beyond all question, for he imparted all the\nreligious ardour to the romance that he could, and accentuated that\nelement when it had already been introduced.\n\nThe romance of Arthur was enriched, to use Gibbon\u2019s words, with\nthe various though incoherent ornaments which were familiar to the\nexperience, the learning, or the fancy of the twelfth century. Every\nnation enhanced and adorned the popular romance, until \u201cat length the\nlight of science and reason was re-kindled, the talisman was broken,\nthe visionary fabric melted into air, and by a natural though unjust\nreverse of public opinion the severity of the present age became\ninclined to question the existence of Arthur.\u201d That Arthur\u2019s name\nshould stream like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain-peak is the fault\nof the medi\u00e6val writers who, in taking the British king for their hero,\ncould represent no age but their own, and had no consciousness of\nanachronism. It came natural to them in speaking of the sixth-century\nknights to endow them with the attributes of the thirteenth and\nfourteenth century, and to describe Arthur\u2019s Britain much as they\nwould have described the Britain of a Henry or an Edward. The Arthur\nof Geoffrey, of Walter Map, and of Malory is as impossible as the\nArthur of Wagner, Lytton, Swinburne, and Tennyson. Most of the writers\non chivalry have either viewed and treated the Knights of the Round\nTable as contemporary heroes, or have altogether idealised them. We\nare forced to the conclusion that Geoffrey and all the other medi\u00e6val\nchroniclers had no real conception of the character of the age of\nwhich they wrote; if they discovered real names and real persons they\ntransported them to an imaginary world and invested them with fabulous\nattributes. They made reality itself unreal, transformed heroes into\nmyths, and buried history beneath romance; they had no power to\nrecognise truth even when it appeared to them.\n\nKing Arthur was a traditional and historic chieftain of rude times,\nthe man of an epoch, a hero to be sung and remembered. His life must\nhave been a tumult; his seventy odd battles were the events of his era.\nWhether he represents a nascent civilisation, or whether, following the\nRomans, he simply maintained a barbaric splendour in the cities they\nhad made or by means of some enlightened laws they had instituted, is a\nmatter of dispute. But he is the \u201cgray king,\u201d the elemental hero, not\nthe advanced type. It is a remarkable fact that English scholars have\nuntil quite recently done so little to popularise Arthurian literature.\nMalory\u2019s version remained almost inaccessible until Southey issued his\nedition, and the best work of all was undertaken for us in latter years\nby Dr. Sommer, a German. Considering the hold on the imagination which\nthe romance possessed, little was done to elucidate the obscurities\nand to solve the mysteries concerning not only the authors but the\nheroes themselves and the land to which they belonged. Much has been\nconjectured, but we feel that we are dealing more with phantoms and\nfancies than with realities and facts. Yet what an inspiration King\nArthur has been! His name has lingered, his memory has been treasured\nin national ballads. Poets have in all ages hovered round the subject,\nand some have alighted upon it, only perhaps to leave it again as\nbeyond their scope.\n\n  \u201cThe mightiest chiefs of British song\n  Scorned not such legends to prolong.\u201d\n\nMilton, Spenser, Dryden, Warton, Collins, Scott and Gray, together\nwith derided and half-forgotten Blackmore; Lytton, with his ambitious\nepic, doomed to unmerited neglect; Rossetti, James Russell Lowell, and\nlastly, Arnold, Morris, Swinburne, and Tennyson--these have lifted\nthe romance into the highest and purest realm of poetry, and have\nimpregnated the story with new meanings and illuminated it with rich\ninterpretation.\n\nAll have felt the influence of Arthur\u2019s history, \u201cits dim enchantments,\nits fury of helpless battle, its almost feminine tenderness of\nfriendship, its fainting passion, its religious ardours, all at length\nvanishing in defeat and being found no more.\u201d We have seen how the\nArthurian history, real or fabulous, arose from early traditions and\ngrew as each chronicler handled it and combined with it the traditions\nand the fictions of other races. It lost nothing by its transfusion\ninto new tongues, but was enriched by the imaginations of the adapters\nand combined with the stories already current in other lands. The\nhero that Celtic boastfulness had created became the representative\nhero of at least three peoples in these early times, and the songs of\nthe Trouv\u00e8res speedily spread his fame over Western Europe. We find\nArthur represented as the master of a vast kingdom, and his power\nextending to Rome itself; and we find him claimed as the natural hero\nof nearly every race which heard his praise and was kindled to valour\nby the example of his exploits. Each country seemed bent upon supplying\nat least one representative of the Table Round, and eagerly competed\nfor the pre-eminence and perfection of the knight of its choice. The\nkingdom allotted to him was without limit, and as the elder Disraeli\nwould put it, \u201cfancy bent her iris of many-softened hues over a\ndelightful land of fiction.\u201d\n\nLost though King Arthur\u2019s realm is, the land of the ancient British\nchieftain must have been real, and it is most possible that we tread\nthe dust which covers it in journeying from Caerleon to Glastonbury,\nfrom Glastonbury to Camelford, from Camelford to Tintagel. To these\nplaces is our pilgrimage directed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nOF LYONNESSE AND CAMELIARD\n\n  \u201cIn olde dayes of the King Artour,\n  Of which that Bretons speken gret honour,\n  All was this lond fulfilled of faerie.\u201d--_Chaucer._\n\n \u201cI betook me among those lofty fables and romances which recount in\n solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood founded by our victorious kings,\n and from hence had in renown over all Christendom.... Even these books\n proved to me so many incitements to the love and steadfast observation\n of virtue.\u201d--_Milton._\n\n  \u201cTime upon my waste committed hath such theft,\n  That it of Arthur here scarce memory hath left.\u201d\n\n  _Drayton._\n\n\nNo matter how far the chroniclers of old departed from fact in the\ndetails of their narratives, they grouped the incidents around a\ncentral figure, a magnificent ancient hero; and, more than that, they\nspecified the actual locality in which that hero had won his renown.\nBut just as they magnified the hero out of all proportion, so they\nextended the area of his realm beyond all possibility: hence the\ndifficulties that meet us in the search for truth.\n\nOf the Celts, Ralph Waldo Emerson has perhaps left us, in brief, the\nbest record. He sums up the greatness and the importance of the race\nby saying that of their beginning there is no memory, and that their\nend is likely to be still more remote in the future; that they had\nendurance and productiveness and culture and a sublime creed; that\nthey had a hidden and precarious genius; and that they \u201cmade the best\npopular literature of the Middle Ages in the songs of Merlin and the\ntender and delicious anthology of Arthur.\u201d This race was not likely to\ntake a narrow view of its possessions, or to assign a small territory\nto its greatest monarch. Its claim may be preposterous, but that comes\nof the consciousness of superior strength and of daring imagination.\nBritain was not large enough for the Celts; they required not a country\nbut a continent. And when their songs were sung, their stories told,\nand their great Arthur\u2019s name celebrated throughout the west, they\nboldly affirmed that the west was his, and that he had subdued and\nruled the whole civilised world. Arthur\u2019s England became in their eyes\nthe perfect realm, the ideal place; and the survival of this idea may\nbe discovered in the works of the poets, old and new.\n\n  \u201cFoemen feet to dust have trod\n  The blue-robed messengers of God,\u201d\n\nwas Llywarch H\u00ean\u2019s allusion to the slaughter of bards, evincing his\nbelief in their sacred character. Song was to the Cymry at once\neducation, a vent for national feeling, and a memorial of great events.\nThe bard ranked beside the artisan as one of the pillars of social\nlife. He had only one theme, his country\u2019s hope, misfortune, and\ndestiny; and, as M. Thierry has aptly said, the nation, poetical in its\nturn, extended the bounds of fiction by ascribing fantastic meaning to\nthe words. \u201cThe wishes of the bards were received as promises, their\nexpectations as prophecies; even their silence was made expressive. If\nthey sang not of Arthur\u2019s death, it was a proof that Arthur yet lived;\nif the harper undesignedly sounded some melancholy air, the minds of\nhis hearers spontaneously linked with the vague melody the name of\na spot, rendered mournfully famous by the loss of a battle with the\nforeign conqueror. This life of hopes and recollections gave charms,\nin the eyes of the latter Cambrians, to their country of rocks and\nmorasses.\u201d How much we really owe, then, to historic fact and how\nmuch to bardic song the accounting of Camelot and Avalon, Tintagel\nand Almesbury, as the famous and redoubtable spots of Arthurian\naccomplishments and occupation, would be difficult to decide. Literary\ngenius from the first centres in the minstrel, who is both composer and\nsinger, who stimulates to action and records events, who is himself\n\u201cdoer\u201d and \u201cseer.\u201d\n\nBut for this rich and sustained Celtic influence our literature would\nbe poor indeed, would be less romantic, less poetic, and lacking in\nthe vitality of human passions, human hopes and aspirations, human\nsuffering and despair. For the dominant note in Celtic literature--and\nthis particularly applies to the Arthurian legend which, despite\nits boasts, is a story of failure--is an indefinable melancholy, an\nexquisite regret; the poetry may be, as Matthew Arnold said, drenched\nin the dew of natural magic, and the romances may be threaded with\nradiant lights, but there always remains the underlying sombreness of\ntexture or the overhanging cloud-darkening of the scene. Joyous music\nconcludes in a minor key or is broken by a sudden note of pathos.\nThe Celtic bards sang of war, but though the heroes always went\nforth bravely to battle it has been recorded that they \u201calways fell.\u201d\nVictories are less frequently celebrated than defeats are mourned. The\nglory of the Celt was vast and transcendent, but from minstrel-times it\nwas a fading glory. Work as the history-weavers might with the golden\nshuttles of romance their tears mingled with the gleaming strands,\nand the tissue as it left the loom was a medley of broken lights and\nshadows. Nevertheless, the pictures they have left us of chivalrous\ntimes remain unsurpassed for the grandeur of their conception: they\nremain the model and despair of all ages.\n\nThe description of Arthurian England, the \u201cLogris\u201d of the chroniclers,\ncomports with the suggestions of romance, but ill accords with the\nfacts.[5] Even if we grant the Round Table and the Quest of the Grail,\nthe fact remains that the times were barbarous and that the Britons of\nthe sixth century had only reached the outer borders of civilisation.\nThe exploits of the knights themselves are indicative of a prevailing\nstate of lawlessness verging perilously upon absolute savagery.\nAppalling rites were practised in the castle strongholds, and the life\nneither of man nor woman was deemed precious. The romancers themselves\ndo not disguise that the purpose and the methods of the knights were\nlittle superior to the purpose and methods of those whom they warred\nagainst; and the common practice of the knights to \u201creward themselves\u201d\nin their own ways for victories achieved disposes at once of the\ncontention that their motives were unselfish, or that their chivalry\nwas pure and disinterested. The England of King Arthur was therefore\nby no means like to be the ideal land of peace, beauty, and content\nwhich poets have imagined. Neither can we concede the whole claim to\nArthur\u2019s undisputed possession of the entire kingdom. The freedom with\nwhich the chroniclers spoke of the king\u2019s unmolested journey north,\nsouth, east, and west, only proves that they made an unwarrantable use\nof names. Among the places loosely mentioned or referred to at random\nin the romance, or perchance confused in the writers\u2019 minds with places\nwithin a small area, we must count all those beyond the Severn and\nTrent, unless we adopt the alternative theory and accept the north as\nArthur\u2019s realm. To these we add all the large proportion of places,\nmore or less fantastically named, which seem to have had no existence\nout of the chroniclers\u2019 brain. Where shall we look for Carbonek, for\nthe land of Petersaint, for Joyous Isle, for Waste Lands, for Lonazep,\nfor Goothe, for Case, for the Castles of Grail, La Beale Regard,\nPluero, Jagent, and Magouns? to say nothing of a host of others. And\nare we to be deluded by the familiarity with which Jerusalem, Tuscany,\nEgypt, Turkey, and Hungary are spoken of, into believing that these\ndistant places were really visited by Arthur and his knights? Even if\nwe were to concede all the localities mentioned in Malory\u2019s work we\nshould be confronted by a new difficulty in the _Mabinogion_, where\nquite a fresh series of towns and countries is mentioned in addition to\nmany of the old ones. But while in the _Mabinogion_ the west of Europe\nis almost exclusively dealt with, the English, French, and German\nhistorians would be content with nothing less than the best part of the\nhemisphere. No petty view, however, must be taken of the Arthur-land of\nromance. If Caerleon was his capital, we must believe that he was not\nunknown north of the Humber, and that he had a castle in old Carlisle.\nCalydon and Brittany, Ireland and Wales, acknowledged his power and\nfelt his sway. The Roman himself met Arthur face to face; knights\ncarried his fame to Constantinople--so the early historians asseverate,\nand so they doubtless sincerely believed.\n\nBut the more cautious student will confine his attention to a group\nof but half-a-dozen places in South Wales, Devonshire, and Cornwall,\nand will doubt the truth of tradition even when it mingles with the\nnomenclature of the romance. Of Lyonnesse whelmed beneath the waves\nwe have no knowledge; it is a lost and perhaps half fabulous region.\nCameliard, whose boundaries are fairly well known, is strewed with\ndoubtful relics, and preserves a multitude of strange stories. These\nare all that remain to us when we have traversed King Arthur\u2019s land.\nLyonnesse is reported to have been a region of extreme fertility,\nuniting the Scilly Isles with Western Cornwall. The hardy Silures\nwere the inhabitants of this tract, and were remarkable for their\nindustry and piety. No fewer than one hundred and forty churches\ntestified to the latter quality, and the rocks called Seven Stones\nmark the site of their largest city. Tradition is untrustworthy\nas to any great cataclysm, but the Saxon chronicle declared that\nLyonnesse was destroyed by a \u201chigh tide\u201d on November 11, 1099. The\nassumption is that where the sea now sweeps with tremendous force,\nbetween Land\u2019s End and the Scillies, once lay a fair region, another\nAtlantis, which formed no unimportant part of King Arthur\u2019s realm. The\netymology of the name Scilly is more or less doubtful. The word has\nbeen identified with Silura, or Siluria, the land of the Silures--that\nis, South Wales. Malory\u2019s Surluse, or Surluce, reminiscent of the\nFrench Sorlingues, if it be not Scilly must remain unidentified. The\nfirst mention of it is in the history of La Cote Male Taile, where\nit is said that Sir Lancelot and the damsel Maledisant (afterwards\nknown as Bienpensant) \u201crode forth a great while until they came\nto the border of the county of Surluse, and there they found a fair\nvillage with a strong bridge like a fortress.\u201d A later reference shows\nthat it was in and about Cornwall that the knights were at this time\nstaying and seeking adventures with the king; and the \u201criding forth\na great while to the border of the country of Surluse\u201d would fit in\nwith the idea that Cornwall and Scilly were not then divided by the\nsea, but formed part of the kingdom of Lyonnesse. Sir Tristram, who is\nessentially a Lyonnesse knight, was sought in the country of Surluse\nwhen he had vanished during the period of King Mark\u2019s treachery; and\nthere seems no doubt that, though an accessible part of the kingdom,\nit was a considerable distance away, and perhaps somewhat out of the\nbeaten track. Sir Galahalt, \u201cthe haut prince,\u201d was its ruler, and\nhe was resorted to by the knights; but we are distinctly told that\n\u201cthe which country was within the lands of King Arthur,\u201d and for that\nreason Sir Galahalt could not even arrange a joust without obtaining\nhis sovereign\u2019s consent. Again, Sir Galahalt was known as Sir Galahalt\n\u201cof the Long Isles,\u201d which admits of a fair deduction, and seems not\nwithout its significance in this argument.\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nTHE ROCKY VALLEY, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 40_]\n\nThe \u201cguarded Mount,\u201d dedicated to St. Michael, overlooks the long\nAtlantic waves, the waste of waters, and \u201ctowards Namancos and Bayona\u2019s\nhold,\u201d and this Ultima Thule is thronged with traditions of Arthur and\nhis lost territory. Grim, cavernous Pengwaed, or Land\u2019s End, with its\ngranite rocks; the Lizard, and Penzance, the last town in England, are\nall stored with these old memories; and the waves flooding the bays\ntell of that younger time over which hangs perpetual shadow. This is\nthe Lyonnesse of Tennyson\u2019s imagining, the\n\n  \u201cLand of old, upheaven from the abyss\n  By fire, to sink into the abyss again,\u201d\n\nwhere long hillocks dip down to the sea-line, where the coast spreads\nout into shifting treacherous sand, and where amid the dreary plains\nthe Silures fought their battles for life and freedom.[6] At Vellan,\nArthur slaughtered so many Danes that the mill next day was worked\nwith blood. Land\u2019s End still shows its \u201cField of Slaughter,\u201d and by\nthe coast Arthur and Mordred met during the last conflict. Lyonnesse\nmay have included Armorica also, still rich with its incomparable\ntraditions and its unsurpassed folk-songs. For once the people of\nBrittany, Cornwall, and Wales, speaking practically the same tongue,\nlavished all their poetic wealth upon the Arthurian cycle of legendary\nhistory, claimed the knights in common, and each still claims to\npossess the more famous shrines. Merlin\u2019s forest thus becomes a part\nof Lyonnesse; Joyous Gard (as we shall presently see) can still be\nfound in Brittany, instead of Northumberland; and Avalon, instead of\nbeing a pilgrim\u2019s resort in Somerset, is an island off the Breton\ncoast, seen dimly from the wild moorland country, strewn with\ndolmens, and reaching down to a shore of silvery sands. Between the\norange-coloured rocks \u201cthe sea rushes up in deep blue and brilliant\ngreen waves of indescribable transparency. On a bright summer day the\nwhole scene is one of unspeakable radiance. Delightful little walks\nwind round the western headland, where more groups of rock appear, as\nweird and fantastic as the first.\u201d[7] And across the stretch of azure\nsea lies the dim islet which Breton legend affirms is King Arthur\u2019s\nresting-place. When we consider the French sources of the history\ncompiled by Geoffrey, Wace, and Map, the reasonableness of believing\nthat Avalon was at first located in Brittany becomes at once apparent,\nand the wonder is that in this and many other cases the transference\nof the scenes to England should have been so complete or that English\nequivalents should have been so readily accepted.\n\nThe more obscure names of places would doubtless be identified if the\nsearch were more assiduous in Brittany than in Britain, and if the\noriginal Breton nomenclature were used as a basis. Tristram, Iseult,\nand Lancelot at least are French, and the prevailing tone of the\nromances in which they figure is French; we must look to Brittany\nfor some part of the scenery.[8] At various times it has been stated\nthat Sir Lancelot\u2019s Joyous Gard was none other than Alnwick, or else\nBamborough Castle, in Northumberland, a structure which dates from the\nyear 554, and may have been the site of an earlier stronghold.[9] But\nwhy Sir Lancelot, a Breton Knight of Arthur\u2019s Court, whose exploits are\nconfined to Lyonnesse, the southern portion of King Arthur\u2019s territory,\nshould have had his castle located in the north cannot be determined,\nunless we so far revise our opinions as to credit (as some have done)\nthe existence of a Scotch knight of that name. Instead of looking to\nNorthumberland for Sir Lancelot\u2019s stronghold, and endeavouring to\nidentify Bamborough as his residence, why not turn straightway to\nFrance, his native land, and accept such facts as are there to be\nfound? The chronicle of Malory itself says that Joyous Gard was \u201cover\nsea.\u201d Beyond the forest of Landerneau may still be seen the traditional\nsite of a Chateau de la Joyeuse-Garde, with an ancient gateway and a\nGothic vault of the twelfth century remaining. Here at least we find\nthe name; the Breton regards the spot as that which Lancelot, the\nBreton knight, claimed as his own; and the scene is in that Armorica\nfrom which the original traditions sprang, or, at least, where they\ntook earliest root.[10] In addition to Joyous Gard, Brittany boasts of\nits Tristan Island in the Bay of Douarnenez, named after the \u201cTristan\ndes L\u00e9onais\u201d who was the rival of King Mark. King Mark, too (\u201cMarc\u2019h,\u201d\nin the original, signifying horse, and so named because of his pointed\nears), has his own locality, for according to Breton legend he was not\nruler of Cornwall but of Plomarc\u2019h, which place lies a little to the\neast of Douarnenez and contains the ruins of his \u201cpalace.\u201d But Renan\njustly inquired, if Armorica saw the birth of the Arthurian cycle, how\nwas it that we failed to find there any traces of the nativity?\n\nCameliard is a tract in some respects not so hard to define or\nlocate as Lyonnesse. The town of Brecknock, three miles from which\nis Arthur\u2019s Hill, seems to have marked one of its borders, and its\ncapital was a now undiscoverable city, Carohaise. Ritson believes\nthat Arthur\u2019s kingdom could not have been considerable, and he is\ndisposed to grant him the lordship only over Devon and Cornwall,\nwith perhaps some territory in South Wales, the land called Gore or\nGower. Be that as it may, his name, by a series of links, extends\nfrom Cornwall to Northumberland, from the Scillies to London, and\nfrom London to Carlisle. The British tribe, the Silures, to which\nArthur belonged, occupied the region now divided into the counties\nof Hereford, Monmouth and Glamorgan. Brecknock and Radnor may have\nbeen added, and it is certain that Arthur had supreme dominion over\nCornwall and part of Somerset and Devon. Any \u201ckings\u201d of these places,\nsuch as Erbin, father of Geraint, must have been tributary to him.\nTacitus has left us an account of the valour, the determination, and\nthe warrior qualities of the Silures, who had Iberian blood in their\nveins. It was after the Roman and Saxon invasions that they removed\ntheir seat of Government from London to Siluria, Arthur having his\ncourt at Caerleon. The Britons were a Christian race, for that religion\nhad been introduced among the Latinised Brythonic tribes before the\nend of the second century. This race prevailed over the Goidels and\nIvernians in the territory, and on the recall of the Roman legions\none of the Brythons succeeded the Dux Britanniarum and thus became\nthe head of the Cymry (or Cambroges, \u201cfellow-countrymen\u201d). Saxon\nCerdic and his son Cymric for twenty years found it impossible to\nbreak through the forest districts west of the Avon, which formed the\noutwork of the British forces; and we may almost take it for granted\nthat at one time the whole of the west country was in Arthur\u2019s power,\na line from Liddlesdale in the north to the southern extremity of\nLyonnesse, taking in Cumberland, Wales (and perhaps Staffordshire and\nShropshire), Devon and Cornwall, roughly marking the boundary. But his\nreported excursions north of the Trent and to the east counties would\nalso lead to the inference that for some time the tribe overran the\nmajor part of the country. Hence we can account for the large number\nof scattered memorials of the monarch found in all parts of the land,\nthough superstition may have attached his name to many places where\nhe was absolutely unknown. Arthur\u2019s Seats, or Quoits, abound. They\nare to be found both in North and South Wales, and the name seems\nto have been given to any rock or commanding situation which in the\npopular fancy was fit to bear it. In Anglesey, in the wooded grounds of\nLlwyliarth a seat of the Lloyd family, a rocking stone, the famous Maen\nChwf, is called Arthur\u2019s Quoit. Cefn Bryn ridge in Glamorganshire, an\nimposing elevation, is crowned with a cromlech, together with numerous\ncairns and tumuli. The cromlech, known as Arthur\u2019s Stone, is a mass\nof millstone grit fourteen feet long and seven feet two inches deep,\nand rests upon a number of upright supporters each five feet high. In\nthe Welsh Triads this cromlech, which is near the turnpike road from\nReynoldstone to Swansea, is alluded to as \u201cthe big stone of Sketty,\u201d\nand it ranks as one of the wonders of Wales. Another such stone is to\nbe found in Moccas parish, Herefordshire, the cromlech in this case\nbeing eighteen feet long, nine feet broad, and twelve feet thick, and\nsupported originally by eleven upright pillars. The colossal king\nwas to have colossal monuments. Brecknockshire has several imposing\nmemorials of Arthur. Five miles south of Brecon rise the twin peaks of\nthe mountain range, and they are designated Arthur\u2019s Chair. A massive\nBritish cromlech adjoining the park of Mocras Court is called Arthur\u2019s\nTable. On the edge of Gossmoor there is a large stone upon which are\nimpressed marks resembling four horse-shoes. Tradition asserts that\nthese marks were made by the horse King Arthur rode when he resided\nat Castle Denis and hunted on the moors. Between Mold and Denbigh is\nMoel Arthur, an ancient British fort, defended by two ditches of great\ndepth. At Rhuthyn (Ruthin) in the vicinity King Arthur is said to have\nbeheaded his enemy Huail (Howel), to whom Gildas refers. The record\nmight be extended indefinitely, though no valid argument can be based\nupon any of the facts. The indiscriminate use of Arthur\u2019s name often\nshows an extravagance of imagination and a reckless disregard of what\nis appropriate. Between Mold and Ruthin, for instance, is Maen Arthur,\na stone which popular fancy has adjudged to bear the exact impression\nof the hoof of the king\u2019s steed. There is something like substantial\nreason for believing that the British hero was connected with Monmouth,\nCardiff, and even with Dover, and either the Arthur of the Silures or\nanother British chief seems to have reached Carlisle--that is, if the\nchronicles did not confuse Cardoile with Carduel. The Cumbrian Arthur\nfigures in two ancient ballads, \u201cThe Marriage of Gawaine,\u201d and \u201cThe Boy\nand the Mantle,\u201d while Scott\u2019s poem of Arthur and his Court at Carlisle\nis, of course, too well known to need more than a reference. In the\ntime of Baeda Carlisle was known as Lugubalia, which name by corruption\nbecame Luel. The British prefix Caer, a stone fort, made the name\nCaer-Luel, and as such it was long known. It gradually degenerated into\nCarliol, and finally became Carlisle. That the ancient city should\nhave become confused with Caerleon is natural and explicable. Yet\nArthur\u2019s connection with a portion of the north is strongly insisted\non. Where Wigan now stands he fought a famous battle. Pendragon Castle\nin Westmoreland claims him as its founder; and passing by easy stages\nwe find ourselves confronted with a Northumbrian Arthur. From this\npoint the transition to Scotland itself is extremely easy, the lowland\npart of that country being claimed as the veritable Cameliard.\n\nAccording to no mean authority, we must leave England entirely and\nsearch in the North alone for the sites, not only of King Arthur\u2019s\nbattles, but for all the places connected with his exploits and his\nresidence. Badon is then found in Linlithgowshire at Bowden Hill, and\nthe great battle of Arderydd is located at Arthuret in Liddlesdale.\nThe Scotch Merlin and the Scotch Lancelot are the king\u2019s companions,\nand a Scotch Gildas is the historian. The resting place of Avalon is\nthen found in the caverns of the Eildon Hills, and the voice to rouse\nhim from his charmed sleep will echo through them and \u201cpeal proud\nArthur\u2019s march from fairyland.\u201d As a curious fact it may be mentioned\nthat nearly all the heroes of the \u201cFour Ancient Books of Wales\u201d are\ntraced to Scotland, and admittedly in the Arthurian legend the British\nking was connected with as northern a place as the Orkneys by the\nmarriage of his sister to the king of those islands. Of King Arthur,\nthe Scotch ballad rudely tells that when he ruled that land he \u201cruled\nit like a swine.\u201d The story of the king was the diversion of James\nV., who may have known that Drummelziar on the Tweed could boast of a\nHoly Thorn like Glastonbury, that there was an Arthur\u2019s Oven on the\nCarron near Falkirk, and that Guinevere\u2019s sepulchre was at Meigle in\nStrathmore. Edinburgh, or Agnet, is positively represented as the site\nwhere the Castle of Maidens stood, and the lion-shaped Arthur\u2019s Hill\nis supposed to confirm the tradition that here the king abode and\nmade his name.[11] His tomb is pointed out in Perthshire, and all the\nmachinery of the romances is claimed as of Scotch origin and invention.\nThe names of localities are traced, and by transporting Arthur boldly\nto the Lowlands we account more easily for his rapid incursions into\nNorthumberland and of the country north of the Trent, if we cannot for\nhis equally rapid journeys to Dover and Almesbury and Winchester.\n\nAre not the interchangeability of names and the duplication of persons\nand places susceptible of a very simple explanation? Caerleon, or\nCarduel, was confused with Carlisle, each in itself a fitting and\nlikely place for Arthurian exploits; the historians were grievously\nmisled as to Winchester and the part it occupied in the romances;\nand we know now that various contradictions simply arose from the\nconfusion in the minds of the chroniclers, who never seemed to have\nbeen quite certain whether Caledonia and Calydon were not one and\nthe same, whether Camelot was inland or by the sea, whether Joyous\nGard was a few days\u2019 or a few months\u2019 journey from Cornwall, whether\nCamelot was in England or in Wales, whether Arthur\u2019s \u201cowne castell\u201d\nat Tintagel could be reached by \u201criding all night\u201d from London, or\nwhether Lyonnesse was Cornwall or Brittany. A hundred topographical\ncomplexities meet us wherever we look, and the sole conclusion of the\nmatter is that Geoffrey and his successors inextricably mixed Scotch,\nWelsh, and Armoric details both in regard to the stories and the\nlocalities. The historians made no effort to be consistent in their\nallusions, to reconcile contradictory statements, or to account for\nabrupt changes of scene from the South-West to the North. While they\nendeavoured to concentrate Arthur\u2019s kingdom in South Wales and Cornwall\nthey made occasional sweeps to Berwick and Edinburgh, and annihilated\nthe distance between Dover and Carlisle. To add to the confusion there\nwere names, especially in the Lowlands of Scotland and in the West of\nEngland, of the same derivation, and, as Mr. Glennie has demonstrated,\nit is as easy to discover a Caledonian Caerleon, Avalon, or Camelot as\nit is to discover any of them in the district once called Cameliard.\nThe unravelling of the skein, which became more and more entangled\nas new hands developed the romances, is now almost an impossibility.\nArthur\u2019s own name was changed, and it has been affirmed that he is\nstill confused with Arthurius of Gwent, and with others of like name\nwho were distinct persons. The conclusion of the whole matter must\nbe that names in the romances are a source of error and confusion;\nthat different significances were attached to them by the chroniclers\nthemselves, and that if the truth be ever established totally new\nmeanings may be expected.\n\nLet me here give one instance of possible confusion of names, and\nbroach a somewhat bold theory. The name Camelford, the scene of the\nlast battle, is by some said to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon\n_gafol_, meaning \u201ctribute,\u201d the spot so called marking the ford where\nof old time tribute was paid. The name Guildford is also declared to\nhave a similar signification, and, in fact, to be but a variation\nof Camelford. If this be so, a curious point arises. Guildford is\nmentioned towards the close of the Arthurian history. Sir Lancelot\nand the king having parted company, it is recorded that Arthur\n\u201cdeparted towards Winchester with his fellowship. And so by the way\nthe king lodged in a towne called Astolat, which is now in English\ncalled Gilford.\u201d Upon this Mr. Aldis Wright observes: \u201cGuildford in\nSurrey is no doubt the place alluded to; but I am not aware that the\nname of Astolat or Astolot (Caxton) is given to it in any authentic\nhistory.\u201d It may be argued that King Arthur would be more likely to\npass through Guildford, Surrey, than through Camelford, Cornwall. But\nhis starting point is not certain, and it must be specially noted that\nthe Winchester to which he was making his way was not Winchester in\nHampshire but \u201cCamelot, that is, Winchester\u201d (Book XVIII., c. 9). The\nunauthorised and even absurd interpolation that Camelot was Winchester\nat once changes the whole argument. Disregarding this misleading\nexplanation we find that Arthur was on his way to Camelot from one of\nhis Courts, and if Camelot was in Somersetshire it is most likely that\nCamelford would be one of the intermediate stages. But the importance\nof the whole contention is this: Astolat, as frequently mentioned in\nconnection with the \u201cfaire maide\u201d Elaine and Sir Lancelot\u2019s worthiest\nlove episode, is undiscoverable. The name is unknown outside romance;\nand though we are assured that it is \u201cnow in English called Gilford,\u201d\nno authority can be found for the assertion. Besides, Guildford in\nSurrey was rather beyond the borders of the British Kingdom, even\ngranting occasional excursions to Middlesex and Kent. But if Guildford\nwere synonymous with Camelford, as the derivation permits us to\nbelieve, then Astolat was none other than Camelford, and at once there\nare light and order where formerly prevailed obscurity and confusion.\nAnother point worth mention is that, although tradition marks Camelford\nas the actual scene of important events in the Arthurian history, and\nalthough from its situation, its proximity to Tintagel, and its steep\nhill suitable to be crowned by a baron\u2019s castle such as Sir Bernard of\nAstolat possessed, we may safely surmise that it was well known to\nthe ever-journeying knights, yet the actual name of Camelford is never\nmentioned in the chronicles. As it was of Anglo-Saxon origin, this\nomission would easily be accounted for in the earliest records, while\nif Astolat was the traditional name it is at once clear how it could\nequally be applied to Camelford and to Guildford. We must of course\nremember that where the chroniclers themselves sought to elucidate they\ntoo often confused; the finger-posts they set up have started many\nupon weary and fruitless journeys, and the guidance offered with such\nconfidence turns out most commonly to be the most random of guesses.\nIf, however, we may place the slightest credence in the \u201cAstolat, which\nis now in English called Gilford,\u201d as much can be said for \u201cGilford\u201d\nbeing \u201cGafolford\u201d or Camelford, as for its being \u201cGyldeford\u201d or\nGuildford. The stretch of low-lying level fields on either side of the\nCamel, the sharp-peaked hills in the distance, the dark meres among the\nhills, and the angry sea lashing against the rocks visible a mile or\ntwo away, all accord with the typical scenery of King Arthur\u2019s realm,\nand make us not unwilling to believe that famous Astolat was here to be\nfound.\n\nWhen all is told, when all the searching is ended, it is found that\nsome half-dozen places only stand out pre-eminent from the host of\nlocalities in the West in each of which only a single seed seems to\nhave germinated; and these half-dozen places, like the last citadels of\nthe hero, resist every effort and assault of the invader to dislodge\nthe traditions of Arthur. I have not attempted to write a history of\nthese places, but only to say something of their aspect to-day and of\nthe chief events and ancient traditions linked with their names. Now\nand again I mention facts of later date for the purpose of showing\nthat these famous spots have continued to be the centres of activity\nand connected with great characters; but in the main I confine myself\nto the legends of Arthur and to the episodes of chivalry. To have\nattempted more would have entailed not only a far more comprehensive\nwork, but the treatment of the subject in a more scientific spirit than\nis here displayed. The object has been to deal rather with the romantic\nside than with the technical, for which the deep scholarship of a Rhys\nor a M\u00fcller alone can be the qualification. It is necessary to premise\nalso that of the most conspicuous Arthurian localities nothing but the\nbare tradition can be recorded. That tradition lives and is cherished,\nbut its origin is undiscoverable. The sap lingers in the branches,\nbut the roots are detached and lost. The legend is spread everywhere,\nbut there are no verities. The visitor to the Arthurian scenes finds\nnothing but eponymous names and superstitions--indeed, the evidence\npresent leads him to other conclusions than those he seeks. He looks\nfor a British encampment, and he finds a _post_-Roman; he looks for a\nrelic of Arthur, and he finds one of Antoninus. What is persistently\nascribed to the British hero, or associated with his times, is either\nintangible or is irreconcilable with existing facts. Castles he is\nsaid to have inhabited were built centuries after his death, and there\ncan only remain the free speculation that they mark the site of a\nformer structure of which no trace remains and of which no record was\nmade. Spots which are called King Arthur\u2019s grave, or his seat, or his\nhunting-ground, or his camp, neither he nor his band, it often happens,\ncould ever have been near. We look for persons, and we find a crowd of\nphantoms; we eagerly watch for demonstrations, and we find myth and\nfable; we hope to see the clear page of history, and we find a page\nthat is undecipherable or blotted with shadows. Records are effaced,\nsong and story delude, the track to truth is almost closed. Everything\ncrumbles into dust at the touch, like Guinevere\u2019s golden hair, and\nnothing is now left but the pure romance. And some of us may be content\nand almost glad to have it so.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nOF ARTHUR THE KING AND MERLIN THE ENCHANTER\n\n  \u201cNo matter whence we do derive our name,\n  All Brittany shall ring of Merlin\u2019s fame,\n  And wonder at his Arts.\u201d\n\n  _The Birth of Merlin_, Act III. sc. iv.\n\n  \u201cHe by wordes could call out of the sky\n    Both sunne and moone, and make them him obey;\n  The land to sea, and sea to maineland dry,\n    And darksome night he eke could turn to day;\n  That to this day, for terror of his fame\n  The feendes do quake when any him to them does name.\u201d--_Spenser._\n\n\nThe fact that the name Art(h)us does not occur in the Gildas manuscript\nhas led to the inference that the king was unknown to that chronicler;\nand the assumption that he is alluded to as Ursus (the Bear) tends to\nconfirm the theory of those who would affirm that he is no more than\na solar myth. It must be understood that the Arthur of romance, as\nwe now know him, was a character ever increasing in importance and\nprominence as the history was re-written and elaborated; at first a\nminor actor in the drama, he at length became the leading figure and\nthe centre around which all the other characters were grouped. The\nArthur of the historian Nennius is the original personage to whom all\nthe famed attributes have been accorded by subsequent writers. With\nso much doubt and confusion, involving the identity of the person\nhimself, it is inevitable that even more doubt and confusion should\nexist when we come to detailed events. Even the name of Arthur\u2019s father\nis variously given, a circumstance which caused Milton to question the\nveracity of the whole history; and the date of his birth, of his death,\nthe age at which he died and other smaller points, lead to nothing but\nendless contradiction. The number of his battles is variously given as\ntwelve and seventy-six; he is said to have wedded not one but three\nGuineveres (Gwenhwyvar); his age at death varies from just over thirty\nyears to over ninety; and the date of the last battle is 537, 542, or\n630.[12] King Arthur\u2019s actual name may have been Arthur Mab-Uther; his\ngenealogical line has been traced back to Helianis, nephew of Joseph;\nthe year 501 is now usually accepted as the date of his birth; and\nSt. David, son of a prince of Cardiganshire, is mentioned not only as\nhis contemporary but as a near relative. If the Sagas were compared\nwith the Arthurian romances numerous points of resemblance could be\nshown. Olaf is the Arthur of the story, Gudrun the Guinevere, and Odin\nis the Merlin, while the city of Drontheim serves as Caerleon. The\nstory recounting how Arthur magically obtained his sword Excalibur\nfinds an exact parallel in the story of Sigmund, Volsung\u2019s son; and\neven the emblem of the dragon is not lacking,[13] for in the story\nof the Volsung we learn that Sigurd\u2019s shield bore the image of that\nmonster, \u201cand with even such-like image was adorned helm, and saddle,\nand coat-armour.\u201d But again it must be remembered that Arthur\u2019s kingdom\nis reported to have extended to Iceland itself; in fact, the bounds of\nhis kingdom were only set by the chroniclers where their own definite\ngeographical knowledge ended.\n\n\u201cWe cannot bring within any limits of history,\u201d Sir Edward Strachey\nhas properly said, \u201cthe events which here succeed each other, when\nthe Lords and Commons of England, after the death of King Uther at\nSt. Albans, assembled at the greatest church of London, guided by\nthe joint policy of the magician Merlin and the Christian bishop\nof Canterbury, and elected Arthur to the throne; when Arthur made\nCaerleon, or Camelot, or both, his headquarters in a war against\nCornwall, Wales, and the North, in which he was victorious by the help\nof the King of France; when he met the demand for tribute by the Roman\nEmperor Lucius with a counterclaim to the empire for himself as the\nreal representative of Constantine, held a parliament at York to make\nthe necessary arrangements, crossed the sea from Sandwich to Barflete\nin Flanders, met the united forces of the Romans and Saracens in\nBurgundy, slew the emperor in a great battle, together with his allies,\nthe Sowdan of Syria, the King of Egypt, and the King of Ethiopia, sent\ntheir bodies to the Senate and Podesta of Rome as the only tribute he\nwould pay, and then followed over the mountains through Lombardy and\nTuscany to Rome, where he was crowned emperor by the Pope, \u2018sojourned\nthere a time, established all the lands from Rome into France, and gave\nlands and realms unto his servants and knights,\u2019 and so returned home\nto England, where he seems thenceforth to have devoted himself wholly\nto his duties as the head of Christian knighthood.\u201d\n\nThis is the very monstrosity of fable, the grossness of which carries\nwith it its own condemnation. These facts, however, are not insisted\nupon by Malory, though such claims for Arthur were made by the\ncredulous and less scrupulous writers. Romance has entirely remodelled\nhis character, and has filled in all the gaps in his life-story in\nthat triumphant manner in which Celtic genius manifests its power.\nThe legendary Arthur is made to realise the sublime prophecies of\nMerlin, and as those prophecies waxed more bold and arrogant in the\ncourse of ages the proportions of the hero were magnified to suit them.\nMerlin had cherished the hope of the coming of a victorious chief\nunder whom the Celts should be united, but the slaughter at Arderydd\nwhen the rival tribes fought each other, almost destroyed all such\naspirations. Nevertheless the prophet foretold the continuance of\ndiscord among the British tribes, until the chief of heroes formed a\nfederation on returning to the world, and his prediction concluded with\nthe haunting words: \u201cLike the dawn he will arise from his mysterious\nretreat.\u201d Mr. Stuart Glennie calls Merlin a barbarian compound of\nmadman and poet, prophet and bard, but denies that he was a mythic\npersonage or a poetic creation. He was, like Arthur himself, an\nactual pre-medi\u00e6val personage, and, as in the case of Arthur, we have\nno means of determining his origin, his nationality, or the _locale_\nof his wanderings. But if, as Wilson observes in one of his \u201cBorder\nTales,\u201d tradition is \u201cthe fragment which history has left or lost in\nits progress, and which poetry following in its wake has gathered up as\ntreasures, breathed upon them its influence and embalmed them in the\nmemories of men unto all generations,\u201d we shall extract a residuum of\ntruth from the fanciful fables of which Merlin is the subject.\n\nMyrdin Emrys, the Welsh Merlin, is claimed as a native of Bassalleg,\nan obscure town in the district which lies between the river Usk and\nRhymney. The chief authority for this is Nennius; but according to\nothers the birthplace was Carmarthen, at the spot marked by Merlin\u2019s\ntree, regarding which the prophecy runs that when the tree tumbles\ndown Carmarthen will be overwhelmed with woe. What we know of Merlin\nin Malory\u2019s chronicle is that he was King Arthur\u2019s chief adviser, an\nenchanter who could bring about miraculous events, and to whom was\ndelivered the royal babe upon a ninth wave of the ocean; a prophet who\nforetold his sovereign\u2019s death, his own fate, and the infidelity of\nGuinevere; a warrior, the founder of the Round Table, and the wise\nman who \u201cknew all things.\u201d Wales and Scotland alike claim as their own\nthis most striking of the characters in the Arthurian story. Brittany\nalso holds to the belief that Merlin was the most famous and potent of\nher sons, and that his influence is still exercised over that region.\nMatthew Arnold, gazing at the ruins of Carnac, saw from the heights he\nclambered the lone coast of Brittany, stretching bright and wide, weird\nand still, in the sunset; and recalling the old tradition, he described\nhow--\n\n  \u201cIt lay beside the Atlantic wave\n  As though the wizard Merlin\u2019s will\n    Yet charmed it from his forest grave.\u201d\n\nThe Scotch Merlin, Merlin Sylvester, or Merlin the Wild, was Merdwynn\nof the haugh of Drummelziar, a delightful lowland region, where the\nlittle sparkling Pausayl burn bickers down between the heather-clad\nhills until it mixes its waters with the Tweed. He is said to have\ntaken to the woods of Upper Tweeddale in remorse for the death of his\nnephew, though it is more likely that he lost his reason after the\ndecisive defeat of the Cymry by the Christians of the sixth century.\nSir Walter Scott records that in the _Scotichronicon_, to which work\nhowever no historic importance can be ascribed, as it is notoriously a\npriestly invention, is an account of an interview betwixt St. Kentigern\nand Merdwynn Wyllt when he was in this distracted and miserable state.\nThe saint endeavoured to convert the recluse to Christianity, for he\nwas a nature-worshipper, as his poems show. From his mode of life he\nwas called Lailoken, and on the saint\u2019s commanding him to explain his\nsituation, he stated that he was doing penance imposed upon him by\na voice from heaven for causing a bloody conflict between Lidel and\nCarwanolow. He continued to dwell in the woods of Caledon, frequenting\na fountain on the hills, enjoying the companionship of his sister\nGwendydd (\u201cThe Dawn\u201d), and ever musing upon his early love Hurmleian\n(The Gleam), both of whom were frequently mentioned in his poems. His\nfate was a singular one, and has been confused with that of the Merlin\nof Arthur. He predicted that he should perish at once by wood, earth,\nand water, and so it came to pass; for being pursued and stoned by the\nrustics--others say by the herdsmen of the Lord of Lanark--he fell from\na rock into the river Tweed, and was transfixed by a sharp stake--\n\n  \u201cSude perfossus, lapide percussus, et unda,\n  H\u00e6c tria Merlinum fertur inire necem.\n  Sicque ruit, mersusque lignoque prehensus,\n  Et fecit vatem per terna pericular verum.\u201d\n\nThe grave of the Scotch Merlin is pointed out at Drummelziar, where it\nis marked by an aged thorn-tree. On the east side of the churchyard the\nPausayl brook falls into the Tweed, and a prophecy ran thus:--\u201cWhen\nTweed and Pausayl join at Merlin\u2019s grave, Scotland and England shall\none monarch have.\u201d And we learn accordingly that on the day of the\ncoronation of James VI the Tweed overflowed and joined the Pausayl at\nthe prophet\u2019s grave. The predictions of this Merlin continued for many\ncenturies to impress the Scotch, and he seems to have had a reputation\nequal to that of Thomas the Rhymer. Geoffrey of Monmouth was the\nfirst to introduce a Merlin into the Arthurian romance, and whether\nthat Merlin had for a prototype Merdwynn Wyllt, or whether there was\nin reality a Merlin of Wales, remains an open question. All that can\nbe said definitely is that similar deeds are ascribed to both, that\neach occupies a similar place among his contemporaries, that their\nrhapsodical prophecies partake of the same character, and that their\nmysterious deaths have points in common. But it is contended that\nthe _vates_ of Vortigern and of Aurelius Ambrosius, the companion\nand adviser of Uther Pendragon and of Arthur, was Myrdin Emrys, who\ntook his name from Dinas Emrys in the Vale of Waters, whose haunt was\nthe rugged heights of Snowdon, and who knew nothing of the Merlin\nCaledonius who wandered about the heathery hills of Drummelziar, who\nwas present at the battle of Arderydd in 573, and who lamented in wild\nsongs the defeat of the pagans and the shattering reverse to the Cymric\ncause. These poems, which bewail the fortunes of this unfortunate race,\nseem to have found their way into the famous Ancient Books of Wales,\nthus tending further to confuse the two Merlins, and resulting in the\nold chroniclers ascribing the acts of both to the Myrdin Emrys of King\nArthur\u2019s court. The late Professor Veitch\u2019s poem on Merlin contains\nsome specimens of Merdwynn Wyllt\u2019s verse, and sets forth his faith in\nnature, tinged a little as it were by the Christianity of the era.\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nMERLIN\u2019S CAVE, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 70_]\n\nThe Merlin of King Arthur was reputed to be a native of Carmarthen\namong other places, and at three miles\u2019 distance from the town may be\nseen \u201cMerlin\u2019s Cave,\u201d one of the traditional places of his mysterious\nentombment. Merlin\u2019s birth formed the subject of one of the apocryphal\nplays of Shakespeare: the weird magician and worker of enchantment\nwould have been worthy of the masters\u2019 own depiction. In the romances\nhe comes with mystery and awe, and he departs with mystery and shame.\n\u201cMen say that Merlin was begotten of a devil,\u201d said Sir Uwaine; and\nthe maid Nimu\u00eb (Vivien) on whom he was \u201cassotted,\u201d grew weary of him,\nand fain would have been delivered of him, \u201cfor she was afraid of\nhim because he was a devil\u2019s son.\u201d In that wondrously rich drama of\n1662, \u201cThe Birth of Merlin,\u201d the popular tradition is taken up that\nthe arch-magician was the son of the arch-fiend. The story introduces\nAurelius and Vortiger (Vortigern), the two Kings of Britain; Ut(h)er\nPendragon, the brother of Aurelius; Ostorius, the Saxon general; and\nother historic characters of the era. The chief point of the plot\nis the search for and identification of Merlin\u2019s father; and, that\nmatter settled, the dramatist treats of Merlin\u2019s supernatural skill,\nhis prophecies, and his aid of Vortiger in building the castle which\nhostile fiends broke down by night as fast as it was built by day.\nMerlin is represented as born with the beard of an old man, able to\ntalk and walk, and within a few hours of his birth explaining to his\nmother that he reads a book \u201cto sound the depth of arts, of learning,\nwisdom, knowledge.\u201d\n\n        \u201cI can be but half a man at best,\n  And that is your mortality; the rest\n  In me is spirit. \u2019Tis not meat nor time\n  That gives this growth and bigness. No, my years\n  Shall be more strange than yet my birth appears.\u201d\n\nHe prophesies forthwith, recognises his father, the Devil, at a glance,\ngives proof of his miraculous powers in many ways; and proceeding to\nVortiger\u2019s court baffles the native magicians, and shows the king\nwhy his castle cannot be built by reason of the dragons in conflict.\nHe foretells that the victory of the white dragon means the ultimate\nvictory of the Saxons--\u201cthe white horror who, now knit together, have\ndriven and shut you up in these wild mountains,\u201d and that the king\nwho won his throne by bloodshed must yield it to Prince Uter. The\nprediction is verified, and after Vortiger\u2019s death Merlin is sent for\nto expound \u201cthe fiery oracle\u201d in the form of a dragon\u2019s head,\n\n        \u201cFrom out whose mouth\n  Two flaming lakes of fire stretch east and west,\n  And ... from the body of the star\n  Seven smaller blazing streams directly point\n  On this affrighted kingdom.\u201d\n\nThe portent causes terror, until Merlin, as interpreter, tells of\nrevolutions, the rise and fall of nations, and the changes in Britain\u2019s\nstate which it signifies. Aurelius has been treacherously slain at\nWinchester by the Saxons, and Prince Uter is to be his avenger. The\npassage in which Merlin relates what is to come is one of singular\ndignity and impressiveness. Seven rays are \u201cspeaking heralds\u201d to the\nisland. Uter Pendragon is to have a son and a daughter. The latter will\nbe Queen of Ireland, while of the son \u201cthus Fate and Merlin tells\u201d--\n\n  \u201cAll after times shall fill their chronicles\n  With fame of his renown, whose warlike sword\n  Shall pass through fertile France and Germany,\n  Nor shall his conquering foot be forced to stand,\n  Till Rome\u2019s imperial wealth hath crowned his fame\n  With monarch of the west; from whose seven hills\n  With conquest, and contributory kings\n  He back returns to enlarge the Briton bounds,\n  His heraldry adorned with thirteen crowns.\n  He to the world shall add another worthy,\n  And, as a loadstone, for his prowess draw\n  A train of martial lovers to his court.\n  It shall be then the best of knighthood\u2019s honour\n  At Winchester to fill his castle hall,\n  And at his Royal table sit and feast\n  In warlike orders, all their arms round hurled\n  As if they meant to circumscribe the world.\u201d\n\nThis is a noble passage, and sums up the leading points in King\nArthur\u2019s history, as related in the Fabliaux, and at the same time\nserves as evidence of the power of divination and eloquence of Merlin.\nThe matter of the prophecy was obviously taken from Malory, but the\ndramatist introduced one strange variation in his story. Merlin,\nindignant that his demoniac father should strive to harm his mother,\nuses his art and magic spells to enclose the Devil in a rock--an idea\nsuggested, no doubt, by Merlin\u2019s own fate. Furthermore, finding himself\ncalled to aid Pendragon against the Saxons, Merlin conducts his mother\nto a place of retirement called Merlin\u2019s Bower, and tells her that when\nshe dies he will erect a monument--\n\n  \u201cUpon the verdant plains of Salisbury--\n  (No king shall have so high a sepulchre)--\n  With pendulous stones that I will hang by art,\n  Where neither lime nor mortar shall be used,\n  A dark enigma to the memory,\n  For none shall have the power to number them.\u201d\n\nHere we become acquainted with the superstition that the megalithic\nwonders of Stonehenge were Merlin\u2019s workmanship, and that the\nmysterious structure was his mother\u2019s tomb. Another idea was that it\nwas the burial place of Uther Pendragon and Constantine. The drama, so\nfar as it relates to Merlin and Vortigern, closely follows the popular\ntradition, though there are several variations of the story of the\ncastle which could not be finished, and its site, as might be expected,\nis the subject of many contradictory declarations. The allegorical\nmeaning of the story is quite clear. To the heights of Snowdon, it\nis said, Merlin led King Vortigern, whose castle could not be built\nfor meddlesome goblins. The wizard led the monarch to a vast cave and\nshowed him two dragons, white and red, in furious conflict. \u201cDestroy\nthese,\u201d he said, \u201cand the goblins whom they rule will cease to torment\nyou.\u201d Vortigern slew the dragons of Hate and Conspiracy, and his castle\nwas completed.[14]\n\nThe story of Merlin\u2019s death has again led to much speculation upon the\nrecondite subject of the situation of the tomb in which his \u201cquick\u201d\nbody was placed by the guile of Nimu\u00eb, or Vivien, one of the damsels\nof the lake. Malory distinctly avers that it was in Cornwall that the\ndoting wizard met his fate. He went into that country, after showing\nNimu\u00eb many wonders, and \u201cso it happed that Merlin showed to her a rock,\nwhereat was a great wonder, and wrought by enchantment, that went under\na great stone.\u201d By subtle working the maiden induced the wizard to go\nunder the stone to tell her of the marvels there, and then she \u201cso\nwrought him\u201d that with all his own crafts he could not emerge again.\nSome time afterwards Sir Bagdemagus, riding to an adventure, heard\nMerlin\u2019s doleful cries from under the stone, but he was unable to help\nhim, as the stone was so heavy that a hundred men could not move it.\nMerlin told the knight that no one could rescue him but the woman who\nhad put him there, and, according to some traditions, he lives to this\nday in the vault. Spenser, in the _Fa\u00ebrie Queene_, describes the tomb\nas--\n\n  \u201cA hideous, hollow, cave-like bay\n  Under a rock that has a little space\n  From the swift Tyvi, tumbling down apace\n  Amongst the woody hills of Dynevowr.\u201d\n\nThe Tyvi is known to us as the Towy, and Dynevowr is Dynevor Park.\n\n  \u201cThere the wise Merlin, whilom wont, they say,\n    To make his wonne low underneath the ground,\n  In a deep delve far from view of day,\n    That of no living wight he might be found,\n    When so he counselled with his sprights around.\u201d\n\nOthers say that the guileful damsel led her doting lover to Snowdon,\nand there put forth the charm of woven paces and of waving hands until\nhe lay as dead in a hollow oak. Sometimes an eldritch cry breaks upon\nthe ear of the climber as he nears the summit of Snowdon: it is Merlin\nlamenting the subtlety of his false love, which doomed him to perpetual\nshame.\n\nThere is the Carmarthen cave, and there is a \u201cMerlin\u2019s Grave\u201d four\nmiles from Caerleon, both of which are shown as Merlin\u2019s resting-place.\nBut ancient bards told another strange tale of the fate of the \u201cboy\nwithout a father,\u201d whose blood had once been sought to sprinkle upon\nthe cement for the bricks of Vortigern\u2019s castle. They declared that\nthe enchanter was sent out to sea in a vessel of glass, accompanied\nby nine bards, or prophets, and neither vessel nor crew was heard of\nagain--which is not surprising. But Lady Charlotte Guest, in her notes\nto the _Mabinogion_, boldly transports the scene of Merlin\u2019s doom to\nthe Forest of Br\u00e9c\u00e9liande, in Brittany, one of the favoured haunts of\nromance and the delight of the Trouv\u00e8res. Vivien, to whose artifices\nhe succumbed, is said to have been the daughter of one Vavasour, who\nmarried a niece of the Duchess of Burgundy, and received as dowry\nhalf the Forest of Briogne. It was when Merlin and Vivien were going\nthrough Br\u00e9c\u00e9liande hand in hand that they found a bush of white thorn\nladen with flowers; there they rested, and the magician fell asleep.\nThen Vivien, having been taught the art of enchantment by Merlin,\nrose and made a ring nine times with her wimple round the bush; and\nwhen the wizard woke it seemed to him that he was enclosed in the\nstrongest tower ever made--a tower without walls and without chains,\nwhich he alone had known the secret of making. From this enmeshment\nMerlin could never escape, and, plead as he would, the damsel would not\nrelease him. But it is written that she often regretted what she had\ndone and could not undo, for she had thought the things he had taught\nher could not be true. This, however, seems to be an interpolation.\nSir Gawain, travelling through the forest, saw a \u201ckind of smoke,\u201d and\nheard Merlin\u2019s wailing voice addressing him out of the obscurity.\nThe wonders of the Forest of Br\u00e9c\u00e9liande were sufficiently believed\nin of old time that we find the chronicler Wace actually journeying\nto the spot to find the fairy fountain and Merlin\u2019s tomb. Another\nvariation of the story is that Merlin made himself a sepulchre in\nthe Forest of Arvantes, that Vivien persuaded him to enter it, and\nthen closed the lid in such manner that thereafter it could never be\nopened. Matthew Arnold, sparing and reticent in speech, as is his wont,\ndescribes Merlin\u2019s fate with subdued force and subtle charm, putting\nthe story in the mouth of desolate Iseult, who told her children of\nthe \u201cfairy-haunted land\u201d away the other side of Brittany, beyond the\nheaths, edged by the lonely sea; and of\n\n  \u201cThe deep forest glades of Broce-liand,\n  Through whose green boughs the golden sunshine creeps,\n  Where Merlin by the enchanted thorn-tree sleeps.\u201d\n\nVery cunningly and mystically has the poet told of Vivien\u2019s guile as\nshe waved a wimple over the blossom\u2019d thorn-tree and the sleeping\ndotard, until within \u201ca little plot of magic ground,\u201d a \u201cdaisied\ncircle,\u201d Merlin was made prisoner till the judgment day. Celtic\nmythology, Renan tells us, is nothing more than a transparent\nnaturalism, the love of nature for herself, the vivid impression of\nher magic, accompanied by the sorrowful feeling that man knows. When\nface to face with her, he believes that he hears her commune with him\nconcerning his origin and destiny. \u201cThe legend of Merlin mirrors this\nfeeling,\u201d he continues. \u201cSeduced by a fairy of the woods, he flies with\nher and becomes a savage. Arthur\u2019s messengers come upon him as he is\nsinging by a fountain; he is led back again to court, but the charm\ncarries him away. He returns to his forests, and this time for ever.\u201d\n\n\u201cLa for\u00eat de Brocelinde,\u201d writes Emile Souvestre, in that fascinating\nand half-pathetic work, _Les Derniers Bretons_, \u201cse trouve situ\u00e9e dans\nle commune de Corcoret, arrondissement de Plo\u00ebrmal. Elle est celebr\u00e9e\ndans les romans de la table ronde. C\u2019est l\u00e0 que l\u2019on rencontre _la\nfontaine de Baranton, le Val sans retour, la tombe de Merlin_. On sait\nque ce magicien se trouve encore dans cette for\u00eat, o\u00f9 il est retenu par\nles enchantements de Viviane \u00e0 l\u2019ombre d\u2019un bois d\u2019aub\u00e9pine. Viviane\navait essay\u00e9 sur Merlin le charme qu\u2019elle avait appris de lui-m\u00eame,\nsans croire qu\u2019il p\u00fbt op\u00e9rer; elle se desesp\u00e9ra quand elle vit qui\ncelui qu\u2019elle adorait \u00e9tait \u00e0 jamais perdu pour elle.\u201d This statement\nis not confirmed in the English romance, and is opposed wholly to\nthe sentiment of the story as conceived by Tennyson and other modern\nwriters. \u201cOn assure que Messire Gauvain (Gawain) et quelques chevaliers\nde la table ronde cherch\u00e8rent partout Merlin, mais en vain. Gauvain\nseul l\u2019entendit dans la for\u00eat de Brocelinde, mais ne put le voir.\u201d\nThe district of Brocelinde, or Br\u00e9c\u00e9liande, is rich in antiquities,\ndolmens and menhirs being found together with other relics of early\ntimes and the mysterious workers of the stone age. To add to the scenic\nattractions of the locality there are ruined castles, the remains of\nmachicolated walls, ancient chateaux, and churches dating back many\ncenturies. It is fitting that here, therefore, romance should maintain\none of its strongholds and that traditions of the master-magician\nshould linger.\n\nThere is yet one other legend which should be noted. It represents the\nmagician as perpetually roaming about the wood of Calydon lamenting\nthe loss of the chieftains in the battle of Arderydd; while yet\nanother tells of a glass house built for him in Bardsey Island by his\ncompanion, the Gleam, in which house of sixty doors and sixty windows\nhe studied the stars, and was attended by one hundred and twenty bards\nto write down his prophecies. Never was such a confusion of traditions\nand fancies, never were so many deluding will-o\u2019-the-wisps to lead\nastray whosoever would strive to investigate the truth of Merlin\u2019s\nstory. That story with its abundance of suggestion makes us think of\nthe apt words of John Addington Symonds, who said that the examination\nof these mysterious narratives was like opening a sealed jar of\nprecious wine. \u201cIts fragrance spreads abroad through all the palace\nof the soul, and the noble vintage upon being tasted courses through\nthe blood and brain with the matured elixir of stored-up summers.\u201d\nOne needs some such consolation as this for the vexation of finding\nseemingly inextricable confusion.\n\nWarrior though he was, and all-powerful by reason of his supernatural\ngifts, Merlin is yet represented as being a peace-maker and as paying\nallegiance to a \u201cmaster.\u201d He ended the great battle between Arthur and\nthe eleven kings, when the horses went in blood up to the fetlocks, and\nout of three-score thousand men but fifteen thousand were left alive.\nOf this sanguinary battle of Bedgraine, Merlin gave an account to his\nmaster Blaise, or Bleys, journeying to Northumberland specially to do\nso and to get the master to write down the record; all Arthur\u2019s battles\ndid Blaise chronicle from Merlin\u2019s reports. Attempts have been made\nto identify Blaise (the Wolf) with St. Lupus, Bishop of Troyes. The\nmore impressive part which Merlin plays in the Arthurian drama is as\nprophet and necromancer. His sudden comings and goings, his disguises,\nhis solemn warnings, his potent interventions, all these combine to\nstrengthen the idea of unequalled influence and of awesome personality.\nHe figures prominently in the story of Sir Balin le Savage, and it was\nhis hand which wrote the fitting memorial of the two noble brothers.\nMerlin it was again who counselled the king to marry, and who brought\nGuinevere to London from Cameliard, darkly predicting at the same time\nthat through the queen Arthur should come to his doom.\n\nAn ancient Cornish song, to be found in the original dialect, but in\nreality a Breton incantation which has come down to us from the far\nages out of the abundance of Armoric lore, describes Merlin the Diviner\nattended by a black dog and searching at early day for\n\n  \u201cThe red egg of the marine serpent,\n  By the seaside in the hollow of the stone.\u201d\n\nAsked whither he is going he responds:\n\n  \u201cI am going to seek in the valley\n  The green watercress and the golden grass,\n  And the top branch of the oak,\n  In the wood by the side of the fountain.\u201d\n\nA warning voice bids him turn back and not to seek the forbidden\nknowledge. The cress, the golden grass, the oak branch, and the red\negg of the marine serpent are not for him. \u201cMerlin! Merlin!\u201d cries the\nvoice,\n\n              \u201cRetrace thy steps,\n  There is no diviner but God.\u201d\n\nIt is like a moral message from Goethe\u2019s _Faust_.\n\nThere is no doubt that Merlin\u2019s death, which is no death, but a blind\ngrovelling and eternal uselessness, was the mark of scorn put upon\nthe magician who might have been prepotent, but who prostituted his\npowers--a feebleness and a degradation which were intolerable to the\nsturdy race who prized courage above all other qualities, and were\nincapable of realising the meaning of defeat or despair. That the\ncounsellor should himself turn fool, and that the man of supernatural\ngifts should be prone to the weakness of nature, would be obnoxious\nto the Celtic imagination, and have its sequel in ribald allusion and\nendless taunts. The disaster which overtakes Merlin is one fitting\nfor the coward or the buffoon, and is a fate altogether foreign to\nthe ancient idea of that which was fitting for the hero, the bard, or\nthe sage. It is noticeable that all the former services of Merlin are\nforgotten in judging him upon the closing despicable episode in his\ncareer and consigning him to timeless indolence and impotence. Shorn\nof his strength, a prisoner, living but \u201clost to use and fame,\u201d Mage\nMerlin in his cave, victim to his own folly and a woman\u2019s wiles, awaits\nthe last doom.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nOF TINTAGEL\n\n  \u201cThere is a place within\n    The winding Severne sea,\n  On mids of rock, about whose foote\n    The tydes turn, keeping play,\n  A tower-y topp\u00e8d castle here,\n    Wide blazeth over all,\n  Which Corineus\u2019 ancient broode\n    Tintagel Castle call.\u201d--_Camden._\n\n  \u201cThou seest dark Cornwall\u2019s rifted shore,\n    Old Arthur\u2019s stern and rugged keep,\n  There, where proud billows dash and roar,\n    His haughty turret guards the deep.\n\n  \u201cAnd mark yon bird of sable wing,\n    Talons and beak all red with blood,\n  The spirit of the long-lost king\n    Passed in that shape from Camlan\u2019s flood.\u201d\n\n  _R. S. Hawker._\n\n\nCornwall, the horn-shaped land, far removed from the great centres\nof progress and industry, the land of giants, of a separate people\nwho until the last century spoke its own language;[15] the land\nof holy wells and saints, of hut circles, dolmens, and earthwork\nforts, memorials of extreme antiquity; the land of many stone crosses\nindicating the early influence of Christianity; the land of so-called\ngiants\u2019 quoits, chairs, spoons, punch-bowls, and mounds, sometimes the\nwork of primitive man, sometimes the work of fantastic Nature--this is\nthe land in which romance lingers and in which superstition thrives,\nthe land upon which seems to rest unmoving the shadow of the past.\nOlden customs survive, the old fashion is not departed from. The\nquaintness, the simplicity, the quietude, the charm of a bygone age may\nbe found yet in that part which Taylor, the water poet, described as\n\u201cthe compleate and repleate Home of Abundance, noted for high churlish\nhills, and affable courteous People.\u201d\n\nA tour through the land which romance has marked out for her own, and\nwhere the fords, bridges, hills, and rocks are called after Arthur\nor associated by tradition with his exploits, becomes easier every\nyear by the development of railways, little known in the wilder parts\nuntil a decade or so ago. It must be sorrowfully confessed that the\nvisit to Tintagel, despite its charm, results in a certain amount\nof disillusion. It contains no relic, nothing that can verily be\nimagined a relic, of the old, old times when the flower of chivalry\nruled. As one walks down the solitary street and glances around he\nsees that Tintagel is an antique, picturesque little place with its\nquaint post-office of yore--battered by time, the roof fallen, and the\nstonework disjointed--with its stunted cottages, its typical village\nshop and hostelry, and its lonely church on the cliffs. Tintagel, as\nit is, is unique, but it is not Arthurian unless we go direct to those\nparts where Nature is not and never has been molested. The Pentargon\nheights, the great gorges, the weird bays and caves, the rock-strewn\nvalleys, the imposing waterfalls--from these may be constructed the\nscenery for the drama of the warlike king and his adventurous knights.\nThe huge bank of earth enclosing an oblong space, with its remnant of\nstone-lining found near St. Breavard, is fitly called King Arthur\u2019s\nHall. Such relics as are found in and near Tintagel are posterior to\nKing Arthur\u2019s era. There is a Saxon cross to be seen, erected to the\nmemory of one \u00c6lnat, a Saxon. A sybstel, or family pillar, with Saxon\ninscription, found in Lanteglos Church, near Camelford, and a Roman\nstone discovered in Tintagel churchyard, are ancient memorials of the\nhighest interest. Relics of the bronze age have been discovered also,\nthough the influence of the Ph\u0153nician tin-traders did not seemingly\nextend to this mid part of Cornwall.\n\nTintagel, as the first locality mentioned in the romance, has a\nspecial claim to attention: \u201cIt befell in the days of the noble Uther\nPendragon, when he was King of all England, and so reigned, that there\nwas a mighty and a noble Duke in Cornwalle that held long time wars\nagainst him; and the Duke was named the Duke of Tintagil.\u201d So run\nthe opening lines, introducing us at once to the western territory\nand to the rocky stronghold indissolubly linked with Arthur\u2019s fame.\nStrange to say, however, the place is absolutely ignored in the later\nhalf of the history, despite the fact that Cornwall was the scene of\nsome of the most important concluding events. Tintagel was apparently\nforgotten by the chroniclers after the story of Tristram was related,\nand the last mention of it as King Mark\u2019s Castle, where treachery was\nfollowed by bloodshed, where the allegiance of the knights began to\ndecline, and where folly, wantonness, and shame served as omens of\ncoming disaster and of the impending shock to the realm which Arthur\nhad made. The history of Tintagel begins in a tale of shame, though\nKing Uther\u2019s deceit of Igraine appears to have been regarded less as\ndishonour to himself than as a sign of his own and Merlin\u2019s strategy\nand venturesomeness.[16] Uther, having compassed the death of Gorlois,\nhad no further difficulty in persuading Igraine to become his wife, and\ntheir son was Arthur, who at his birth was delivered to Sir Ector, \u201ca\nlord of faire livelyhood,\u201d to be nourished as one of his own family.\nThe death of Uther while his son was yet an infant left the succession\nin some doubt, and in order to prove Arthur\u2019s right to the crown the\nfamiliar device was adopted of drawing a sword from a stone. The\nscene of the contest in which Arthur, now assumed by the chroniclers\nto be a goodly youth, and Sir Ector\u2019s son took part, is vaguely\ndescribed as being \u201cthe churchyard of the greatest church in London\u201d;\nand it is needless to say that only Arthur proved equal to the feat\nof pulling the sword from the marble and the steel anvil in which it\nstood. The letters of gold on the sword declared that \u201cwhoso pulleth\nout this sword of this stone and anvile, is rightwise king borne of\nEngland,\u201d and Sir Ector and Sir Kay, his defeated son and Arthur\u2019s\nfoster-brother, were the first to kneel to Arthur as their lord when\nthey saw Excalibur in his hand. Before the lords and commons Arthur\nagain proved his right and royalty at the feast of Pentecost, and with\nthe help of Merlin he proceeded immediately to establish his kingdom,\nwhich, during Uther\u2019s illness and after his death, had stood \u201cin great\njeopardie.\u201d\n\nGorlois, the husband of Igraine, had been the possessor of two castles,\nTintagel and Terabyl (or Damaliock), which may be judged to have been\nat no great distance from one another. Terabyl is untraceable, though\nit has been suggested that while Tintagel Castle was solely upon the\npeninsula (Barras Head) which juts into the sea, Terabyl was the\ncastle upon the mainland. This theory is untenable. It is only in\ncomparatively recent times, with the widening of the chasm between the\npeninsula and the mainland, that a division of any importance can be\nnoticed; and it is safe to assume that there was never more than one\ncastle at Tintagel. The rent in the rocks was spanned by a huge bridge,\nas the crenellated walls now reaching to the edge on either side and\nin a direct line with each other plainly attest. Terabyl, in which the\nDuke entrenched himself when Uther Pendragon brought his hosts against\nhim, was evidently further inland than Tintagel, and the latter,\ndistinctly avowed to be \u201cten miles hence,\u201d was selected as the refuge\nfor Igraine. Uther, marching southward from Camelot, reached Terabyl\nfirst and laid siege to it; to reach Igraine at Tintagel he had still\nto ride some distance. \u201cThe Duke of Tintagil espied how the king rode\nfrom the siege of Terrabil, and, therefore, that night he issued out\nof the castle at a posterne\u201d--(Terabyl was noted for its \u201cmany issues\nand pasternes out\u201d)--\u201cfor to have distressed the king\u2019s host. And so,\nthrough his own issue, the Duke himself was slain or ever the king\ncame at the castle of Tintagil.\u201d Geoffrey of Monmouth calls Terabyl\n\u201ccastellum Dimilioc,\u201d but under this name it is no less a mystery.\nAs it receives incidental mention only twice afterwards we may well\nbe content to rank Terabyl among the cities of romance, the names of\nwhich alone existed. It may have been as unsubstantial as the enchanted\ncities created by mysterious maidens for their courteous and faithful\nlovers, which cities vanished in a night if vows were broken or false\nwords uttered.\n\nIt is said in some of the romances that twice a year the Castle of\nTintagel became invisible to the eyes of the common people. To-day it\nis only in imagination that we can perceive the real castle of Arthur,\nfor whatever British fortress may ever have risen on these heights has\nlong since vanished--crumbled away into dust which is as nothingness.\nAuthentic history takes us back only to the time of the Norman\nConquest, when Tintagel was entered in Domesday Book as Dunchine, or\nChain Castle. It is the firm opinion of arch\u00e6ologists that the Romans\nentrenched themselves here and left signs of their occupation, and\nthere are the strongest reasons for believing that Tintagel was a\nBritish place of defence before the Roman invasion. Nature had marked\nout the rocky height as a stronghold, and a race like the Britons\ncould scarcely have failed to avail themselves of all the advantages\nit offered. But when we first read of Tintagel Castle apart from the\nromances we find it in the occupation of English princes, notably of\nRichard, Earl of Cornwall, otherwise known as the King of the Romans,\nwho in 1245 gave noble entertainment to his nephew, Prince of Wales,\nthen carrying on a desperate war for freedom against the English king.\nThe use of Tintagel as a prison from which escape was almost impossible\nwas recognised from early times until the reign of Elizabeth, at which\nera it began to fall into decay; and it was within the loneliest and\nmost exposed portion of the island that John Northampton, Lord Mayor\nof London, who had abused his office, was immured for life by order of\nRichard II. A sculptured moorstone, now moss-covered and illegible,\ncommonly called the altar-stone of King Arthur\u2019s Chapel, is believed in\nreality to be a monument of John Northampton\u2019s own carving, wrought to\npass away the dreary days in his dungeon, and now marking the place of\nhis tomb. What is known as King Arthur\u2019s Chapel is a spacious chamber\nfifty-four feet long and twelve feet wide, the outline of which is\nbarely traceable. It is supposed to have been dedicated to Saint Uliane.\n\nIn Leland\u2019s time Tintagel Castle was \u201csore wether-beten an yn ruine,\u201d\nand whether it was ever the stronghold of Arthur history does not\ndetermine. The name was formerly Dundagil, meaning \u201cthe impregnable\nfortress,\u201d and Geoffrey of Monmouth did not exaggerate when he wrote\nof it: \u201cIt is situated upon the sea, and on every side surrounded by\nit, and there is but one entrance into it, and that through a straight\nrock, which three men shall be able to defend against the whole of\nthe kingdom.\u201d Leland, less interested in the matter, testified that\n\u201cthe castelle hath bene a marvelus strong and notable forteres, and a\nlarge thinge.... Without the isle rennith alonly a gate-house, a walle,\nand a fals braye dyged and walled. In this isle remayne old walles,\nand in the est part of the same, the ground beying lower, remaynith a\nwalle embateled, and men abyve saw thereyn a postern dore of yren.\u201d\nThe chronicler and antiquary Carew supplies further evidence of the\nstrength of the structure. \u201cThe cyment,\u201d he says, \u201cwherewith the stones\nwere laid, resisteth the fretting furie of the weather better than\nthe stones themselves,\u201d a fact which is strongly commented on also by\nNorden, who thought that \u201cneither time nor force of hands could sever\none from the other.\u201d \u201cHalf the buildings,\u201d continues Carew, \u201cwere\nraised on the continent (the mainland) and the other halfe on an\nisland, continued together by a drawbridge, but now divorced by the\ndownfalne steepe cliffes on the further side.\u201d There is a consensus\nof opinion as to this drawbridge, Camden and other trustworthy\nhistorians all confirming the report as to its existence, and this\nfurther proves that there were not two castles at Tintagel.[17] The\ngigantic impression of a foot is pointed out to credulous pilgrims;\nit is the print left by King Arthur\u2019s foot when he strode across\nthe chasm--backwards. This is as much to be relied upon as the fact\nthat the basins worn by the winds and waves in the rocks were King\nArthur\u2019s cups and saucers, and that a dizzy dip of the heights over\nthe sea constituted his chair. It is surprising that the immense and\nawe-inspiring caverns have escaped the fate of being called King\nArthur\u2019s drinking-bowls. Yet all these conceits have their value as\nproof of the deep-rooted belief in the king\u2019s might as a monarch and\nhis stupendous stature as a man. The hero is rapidly passing into the\nmyth when such attributes are ascribed to him.\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nKING ARTHUR\u2019S CASTLE, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 96_]\n\nTintagel must have been even more impressive a scene a few centuries\nago than it is to-day, despite its wild sublimity in ruin. One more\nwitness of old time may be called forth to give his evidence of what it\nwas before the walls had been so buffeted and brought so low.\n\n\u201cA statelye and impregnable seate,\u201d is Norden\u2019s testimony, \u201cnow rent\nand rugged by force of time and tempests; her ruines testifye her\npristine worth, the view whereof, and due observation of her situation,\nshape, and condition in all partes, may move commiseration that such\na statelye pile should perish for want of honourable presence. Nature\nhath fortified, and art dyd once beautifie it, in such sorte as it\nleaveth unto this age wonder and imitation.\u201d Tintagel is to be visited\nrather than described, though our most luxuriant poets have painted\nit with lavish richness of words, and artists have depicted some of\nits natural beauties in the most radiant of colours. From many a rocky\nverge can be seen the dark remnants of Arthur\u2019s fortress, inaccessible\non all sides but one; from the deep base the ocean spreads out without\nbound, surging and boiling and casting up steam-like fountains of\nhissing foam. Only a few arches and rude flights of steps, surmounted\nby a frail-looking wooden door, now remain, with some fallen walls\nwhich imperfectly outline the shape of what were once spacious royal\nchambers. On a carpet of turf wander the small mountain sheep, and\npick their way about the narrow precipitous paths which wind around\nthe jagged sides of the cliffs. The fortifications are in ruin, and\nthe battlemented walls which encompassed the massive steeps are now\nnothing but disconnected strips over which the curious traveller\nlooks into the angry waters grinding and regurgitating far below. The\nnoble bridge which once stretched across the yawning chasm dividing\nthe two promontories must alone be imagined, though its beginnings on\neach side may be traced by the line of low stone arches reaching, and\nstopping abruptly at, the edge. The hills \u201cthat first see bared the\nmorning\u2019s breast,\u201d the heights \u201cthe sun last yearns to from the west,\u201d\nas Swinburne has sung, are eternal, but Arthur\u2019s castle has gone, and\nTintagel, \u201chalf in sea and high on land, a crown of towers,\u201d is even\ncalled by the dwellers no more by its old inspiring name.\n\nThe very mention of Cornish seas has an alluring sound, and one already\nfeels in the realm of romance when he descries in the mellow light of\nan afternoon in late summer that smallest of villages perched upon\na rock overlooking the bluest of seas with its perpetual fringe of\npowdery foam. Here at the edge of the Atlantic is a most beguiling\nstretch of water, filling innumerable bays--water so clear and calm and\ndeep-hued far away that it is hard to realise that it makes a cruel and\ntreacherous sea in which only on the gentlest of days dare a swimmer\nplunge and feel his way among the underlying rocks, or upon the roaring\nwaves of which dare a hardy sailor venture his boat. In storm this sea\nis terrible. The waves upheave themselves like solid hillocks of water,\nblack at the base, and hurl themselves with appalling force against\nthe huge rocks, which have already been worn and broken by them into a\nthousand fantastic shapes. Here and there the propelling force of the\nincoming tide, working like a gigantic engine, sends with torrent-force\nalong narrow open passages a seething stream which beats its way\nupward and dashes headlong over the barriers of wood and stone; and the\ngreat smoke-coloured waves beyond rear themselves heavily, topple, and\ncrash down into the abyss with thunderous roaring. On they come, nearer\nand nearer, louder and louder, those hard, rising, climbing, dissolving\nbodies of incalculable strength, dashing themselves furiously over\nevery obstacle, sweeping with a hiss across the tracts of sand, and\nobliterating the tall rocks which can be toilsomely climbed when the\nwaters retreat. Beneath this raging, battering sea lies a fabled\ndomain with all its fair cities and towers, and every watcher of those\nstupendous, merciless billows can realise their potentiality to tear\naway the land and drag it into the unseen deeps. Storm at Tintagel or\nTrebarwith is both revelation and conviction: it is a manifestation\nof remorselessness, a suggestion of irreparable ruin, desolation, and\nloss. Easy indeed is it to imagine that the treacherous and cruel waves\ndriving rapaciously landward have already had their victory and are\nsavagely seeking to extend their conquest, and that hereabout lie \u201cthe\nsad sea-sounding wastes of Lyonnesse.\u201d\n\nNo one has described this wildly beautiful sea with greater charm and\nrealism than Swinburne, who has watched it in all moods, seen it in\nthe blueness of calm, seen it strive and shiver \u201clike spread wings of\nangels blown by the sun\u2019s breath,\u201d seen it when the glad exhilarated\nswimmer feels\n\n  \u201cThe sharp sweet minute\u2019s kiss\n  Given of the wave\u2019s lip, for a breath\u2019s space curled\n  And pure as at the daytime of the world,\u201d\n\n--seen it again when the east wind made the water thrill, and the\nsoft light went out of all its face, and the green hardened into iron\nblue. A walk from Camelford to Tintagel, passing Trebarwith, and on\nfrom Tintagel to Boscastle, passing Bossiney and many a smaller cove\non the way, reveals the most wonderful and alluring of all changeful\nsea-pictures, and displays most vividly the marvel and magic of the\nrugged coast. The towering rocks have been wrought by time and carved\nby wind and wave into grotesque images, broken at the base into sunless\ncaves, worn at the heights into sharp and gleaming pinnacles, fretted\nand cut, rounded and cracked, sundered and cast down, the massive\nblocks made veritably the sport of the elements, so that the beholder\nmay easily believe himself in the realm of enchantment. All the\nsounding shores of Bude and Boss are legend-haunted. The mariner hears\nthe chime and toll of the lost bells of Bottreaux when he comes within\nsight of the \u201csilent tower,\u201d which stands white and grim upon the\nheadland. The wail of lured voyagers and the despairing lament of the\nsmugglers who brought them with false lights to their doom are listened\nto in awe on stormy nights, and there are visions of good ships that\nwent down among the rocks in the tragic desperate days of which so many\nghastly tales are told. The last of the Cornish wreckers, for whom,\nwhen he lay dying, a ship with red sails came in a tremendous sea and\nbore him shrieking away, looms as an apparition on the darkest nights,\nand the cries of tormented spirits mingle with the blast. Merlin, with\nflowing beard, is said to pace the shore, and Arthur and his knights\nto revisit the scenes of their exploits. The spirit of the king hovers\nabout sea and land in the form of the almost sacred chough, reverenced\nand preserved by the inhabitants that they may not unwittingly injure\ntheir hero. Further north at Bude Haven the long Atlantic breakers\nroll, and perhaps there is no more imposing spectacle than the coil\nof waves coming in upon the far-extending and rock-strewn sands. The\nundulations, miles long, seem to rise and curl far out at sea at short\nregular distances from each other, and mass upon mass they break\nwith thunder-sound and cataract upon the shore. The most brilliant of\nsunsets glow in the perfect summer weather when day dies slowly over\nthese \u201cfar-rolling, westward-smiling seas,\u201d and they leave the night\nstill radiant. The whole land is sweet and bright with flowers: on\none side lies the glittering surf lacing itself in white foam about\nthe boulders, and on the other side rises the circle of hills topped\nby the massy brown summits of Row Tor and Brown Willy. Sometimes the\ndeserted quarries give a spectral look to the landscape, and when\nthe rain spatters and darkens the piles of rough slate the aspect is\nweird and gloomy indeed. But given a day of sunshine when the sea is\na sparkling emerald or the deepest of blues, when the sky is clear or\nonly softened with diaphanous rings of cirrus-cloud, when the moss\nglistens on the rocks and the expanse of meadowland is a vivid carpet\nof green, when the winding hilly lanes flanked by tall hedges are white\nand shadowless, and the little tinkling runlets are silver gleams, and\nthen this tract of Arthur\u2019s Cornwall is almost the land of faerie which\npoets have sung.\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nTHE ELEPHANT ROCK, BOSSINEY COVE\n\n  [_To face p. 102_]\n\nWhat more fitting than that the grave of Tristram and Iseult should\nhave been at Tintagel, where the sea they loved came with its strong\nand awful tides, and now\n\n            \u201cSweeps above their coffined bones\n  In the wrecked chancel by the shivered shrine\u201d?\n\nThe deep sea guards them and engirds them, and no man shall say where\nthe lovers lie in their last sleep. King Mark buried the two in one\ngrave, and planted over it a rose-bush and vine, the branches of which\nso intermingled that they became inseparable. Arnold, Swinburne, and\nTennyson have best told the whole story in our language in modern\ntimes. But it is no slight task to trace the literary history and\ndevelopment of the beautiful theme. A German minnes\u00e4nger of the twelfth\ncentury, Gotfrit of Strasburg, is the first to whom the romance is\nascribed, though Scott and others have claimed for Thomas of Ercildoune\n(Thomas the Rhymer) the best poetic version, only one copy of which\nis extant. A thirteenth-century manuscript, which contains a French\nmetrical version of the romance, has been noted by Lockhart as citing\nthe authority of Thomas the Rhymer for the story of Tristram and\nIseult; but Thomas\u2019s version was totally different from the prose\nromances. Great efforts have been made at one time and another to prove\nthe story to be of English, French, and German origin, but at least\nthis much is assured--the principal scenes are English, and the leading\nevents in the history of Tristram, the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall,\noccur at Tintagel. He journeyed to Ireland to bring back the daughter\nof the queen of that country, and he journeyed to Brittany to bring\nback his own wife, that Iseult of the White Hand who failed to win his\nlove. His adventures as a Knight of the Round Table took him, as was\nusual, over much territory and to foreign lands; but it is to Cornwall\nthat the interest always returns, and in which it is concentrated.\nAmong the \u201cwind-hollowed heights and gusty bays\u201d of Tintagel, and\nwithin the \u201ctowers washed round with rolling foam,\u201d the knight and\nthe damsel wedded to King Mark, who had saved him from torture and\ndeath, lived their lives of forbidden love. The Minstrel-knight\nsuited his voice to the mellow chords of his harp, and wandered about\nthe woods and beside the sea in the May-time of his happiness with\nIseult the Queen. And when the knight had wedded another Iseult, it\nwas at Tintagel that Mark\u2019s wife, with her passionate thoughts, her\nsorrow, and her despair, sat alone in a casement and heard the night\nspeak and thunder on the sea \u201cravening aloud for ruin of lives.\u201d Such\nwords can be easily comprehended by those who have seen Tintagel in\nstorm, the wind roaring, the seas flashing white, a blinding mist of\nrain between the heavy sky and the weltering waves. The rage of the\nelements, the vehemence of the warring tide, the dash and the recoil at\nthe castle-base, have only their parallel in the human passion which\nwas too strong for life itself to withstand, when deserted Iseult saw\nbefore her the corpse of her lover. Tristram, ill-fated from birth, was\ndoomed to die by treachery. He was wounded, and learnt that he could\nonly be healed by the magic art of the woman he loved, of her who had\ncured him before. He sent for Iseult to cross the sea in order to save\nhim, and commanded the messenger to hoist a white sail if she consented\nand was on her way. The white sail was hoisted, but the other Iseult,\nthe faithful but neglected wife, could not resist saying what jealousy\nprompted--that the sail was black. Sir Tristram immediately expired.\nMalory\u2019s romance declares that the knight met his death at the hands\nof King Mark, who slew him \u201cas he sat harping afore his lady La Beale\nIsoud, with a trenchant glaive, for whose death was much bewailing of\nevery knight that ever were in King Arthur\u2019s days.\u201d\n\nThe literary history and the variations of the extremely ancient and\nsupremely sorrowful story can only be adequately treated in such a\nvolume as that of M. Losseth, who has given an account of twenty-four\nmanuscripts containing Tristram\u2019s history, of six works in the French\nNational Library, of Malory\u2019s version, and of one Italian, two Danish,\nand one German translation or original rendering. Some have attributed\nthe authorship to Cormac of Ireland in the third century; others\nbelieve the Welsh bards first sang it; the French claimed it for\ntheir _trov\u00e8res_, but have now admitted its British origin. Yet it is\nremarkable how French, Cornish, and Irish histories intermingle in the\nromance, and how the magic element occasionally enters, spoiling it as\nhistory but enriching it as a legend. The story is one of such pathos\nthat the predominating influence of the Celt in suggesting and shaping\nit must instantly be recognised. But so many have worked on the theme,\nearly and late--none perhaps with such superb effect as Wagner--that\nthe primitive conception is apt to be forgotten or ignored; it has been\noverlaid with details gathered from many lands, and embellished by the\npoetic fancies of many races. The story has become European; Beroul,\nChristian of Troyes, Thomas of Brittany, Robert the northern monk,\nEilhard of Oberge, Gottfrid and the other early Germans, the Proven\u00e7al\nminstrels--all these have altered and added to the tale of the knight\nwho slew the sea-monster, the Morhout, saved the Cornish maidens from\nshame and death, was wounded by a poisoned arrow, healed by Iseult the\nBeautiful, and both of whom, drinking of a magic love-potion intended\nfor Iseult\u2019s destined husband, afterwards experienced all the joys and\npangs of an unhallowed love which Dante himself could not refrain from\ncelebrating and condoning. The story abounds in mystic symbolism, or,\nrather, that symbolism has been found in it; and the inevitable Sun-god\nmyth has been perceived in its details.\n\nTintagel, a picture in the waters, is at its best when the sky becomes\na rose above it, and the sun dipping into a golden bath leaves a track\ngleaming like pearl across the shoaling sea. The waves as they rise\nand fall make emerald and purple lines in moments of magic change, and\ntheir crests of foam sparkle jewel-like with a thousand instantaneous\nlights. Then \u201call the rippling green grows royal gold\u201d as the sun,\nlike a splendid bubble, floats on the water\u2019s edge. Round the pointed\nbrown rocks are fringes of white foam ever widening and contracting;\nthe oncoming waters with an exultant bound sometimes spring high in\nfountains and then sink slowly and gently as if fairy spires were\ndissolving in thinnest powder. Again, with a roar and an access of\nstrength, the waves return impetuously, raging and grinding, churned\nas by some mighty hidden wheel into yeasty foam. Vista-like the long\nbright track, now a deep red band, leads back to the inner chambers of\nthe sun, and the sea draws the orb into its dark, mysterious depths.\nThe waves lace themselves around the pinky-green islets, and the\nverdant headlands, succeeding each other in almost interminable series\ntill the eye catches the gleam of the Lizard lights, begin to soften\nmistily away behind the twilight veil. A little ship, far off, skims\nover the sea-rim and disappears; a tiny cloud floats up like a loose\nsilken sail, silvery white. The seagulls and the choughs flit about the\nbroken arches of the castle, and shadows fall long and deep across the\ndeep ravinous path leading inland from the precipitous heights.\n\nAt such time Tintagel is telling its own story, weaving its own\nromance; and words seem vain when those shattered columns, those\nfallen walls, that unbridged chasm, are there to make the tale. Of the\nafter-history of the place what matters it? We would fain have the\nstory end, as it began, with Arthur and Guinevere, King Mark, Mage\nMerlin, and Tristram and Iseult. Every roll of the breakers is a voice\nfrom the past, and every crumbling chamber a chapter in that history\nwhich only the true poet transcribes. Yet even while such thoughts are\nforcing themselves upon the mind of the beholder of a typical August\nsunset over Tintagel, the end of the day will be near. The arc of the\nsun blazes upon the sea-line, an edge of fiery carmine, and a fleecy\ntrain of cirrus-cloud crimsons with the last rays. Slowly and yet\nperceptibly the light dies away and leaves the heaving sea mystically\ndusk and the world full of shadows. Darkness looms over Tintagel. The\noverhanging crags look as if they might crack, break off, and thunder\ndown into the open-mouthed sea below. The black chough wheels about\nthe ruins--the spirit of Arthur, say the people, revisiting the scene\nof his glory. Arcturus, the star of Arthur, glistens in the blue sky\nright over the castle height, and Arthur\u2019s Harp shapes itself more\ndimly further east--for the constellations themselves were named after\nthe puissant king. The tide is at its height and has flooded the little\nstony beach to which a steep path leads; the caves are full; on the\nhorizon the night-clouds come up and shape themselves into fantastic\nforms of towers, and the real which are near, and the imagined which\nare far, scarce can be distinguished.\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nBARRAS HEAD, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 110_]\n\nLytton seems to have had Tintagel, or a very similar place in the\nnorth, in his mind when he described the arrival of the Cymrian\nKing, pursued by the Saxons, at a beach of far resounding seas where\nwave-hollowed caves arched, and\n\n  \u201cColumn and vault, and seaweed-dripping domes\n    Long vistas opening through the streets of dark,\n  Seem\u2019d like a city\u2019s skeleton, the homes\n    Of giant races vanish\u2019d.\u201d\n\nThis tract of land around Tintagel is crowded with memorials and\nwith relics about which superstition has cast its web. The caer-camp\nat Trenail Bury, and the huge stone monuments which lie embedded\nin the earth, take us back to British times. The pools, looking\nblack and weird among the hills, all have their legends, and the\nwells commemorate a multitude of saints known only to Cornwall.\nCastle-an-Dinas looms majestically at a height of nearly eight hundred\nfeet against the horizon: here was King Arthur\u2019s hunting ground, and\nthe remains of the structure cresting the summit was his palace. The\nscenes of some of his hard-fought battles are the wide valleys closed\nin by the shadowy hills, and the crags dashed by the tumultuous sea.\nYou may wander at will for miles in any direction still keeping in\nsight the sturdy granite church standing exposed on the highest bit of\nthe coast; you will hear no sound but the whimpering cry of the gulls;\nand you will be free to reconstruct here in imagination the vanished\nrealm of King Arthur, while the words of the old priest, Joseph Iscarus\nof Exeter, ring in your ears--\n\n  \u201cFrom this blest place immortal Arthur sprung\n  Whose wondrous deeds shall be for ever sung,\n  Sweet music to the ear, sweet honey to the tongue.\n  The only prince that hears the just applause,\n  Greatest that e\u2019er shall be, and best that ever was.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nOF CAERLEON-UPON-USK\n\n  \u201cCaerleon, now step in with stately style,\n  No feeble phrase may serve to set thee forth;\n  Thy famous town was spoke of many a myle,\n  Thou hast been great, though now but little worth:\n  Thy noble bounds hath reacht beyond them all,\n  In thee hath been King Arthur\u2019s golden hall,\n  In thee the wise and worthies did repose.\u201d--_Old Poet._\n\n  \u201cSlow sets the summer sun,\n  Slow fall the mists, and, closing, droop the flowers,\n  Faint in the gloaming dies the vesper bell,\n  And dreamland sleeps round golden Carduel.\u201d--_Lytton._\n\n  \u201cWhen Arthur first in court began,\n  And was approv\u00e8d King,\n  By force of armes great victoreys wanne,\n  And conquest home did bring.\u201d--_Percy Reliques._\n\n\n\u201cOld Caerleon-upon-Usk\u201d is the enchanted capital of the kingdom called\nRomance. Its domes of fretted gold, its countless pinnacles, its\nseventy churches, its gorgeous palace, and its giant tower--\n\n  \u201cFrom whose high crest, they say,\n  Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset,\n  And white sails flying on the yellow sea,\u201d\n\nby the wonder-working art of poets and old-time chroniclers have a\nreality for us to-day, though they may never have been visible. But the\ncity of the Hero-King is a city seen through a veil. The glittering\nspires show through the mists of time; in a half-shadow we discern\nthe lofty turrets, and mark the lanceolate windows with their shining\ndiamond-panes; a dreamy brightness reveals the gilded roofs and the\n\u201cmagic casements\u201d where Guinevere and her maidens stood and watched\nthe tourneying knights, and glanced their loves and hopes upon the\ncombatants. The name of Arthur conjures up the scene, and fancy\nreleases the city from its spell of slumber and ruin and fashions it\nagain in splendour. It is said that this city of Legions was once the\nrival of Rome in grandeur. When the all-conquering king had subdued\nthirty kingdoms, he could find no more suitable place than Caerleon for\nholding a magnificent court to place the crown upon his head, and to\ninvite the kings and dukes under his subjection to the ceremony. When\nhe had communicated his designs to the familiar friends, he pitched\nupon Caerleon as a proper place for his purpose; for, besides its\ngreat wealth above the other cities, its situation was most pleasant\nand fit for so great a solemnity. For on one side it was washed by\nthat noble river (the Usk), so that the kings and princes from the\ncountries beyond the seas might have the convenience of sailing up to\nit. On the other side was the beauty of meadows and groves, and the\nmagnificence of the royal palaces. Besides, there was a college of two\nhundred philosophers, who, being learned in astronomy and the other\narts, were diligent in observing the courses of the arts, and gave\nKing Arthur the predictions of the events that would happen at that\ntime. So runs Geoffrey\u2019s chronicle, and he reports that at the festival\nthere were present numerous kings, princes, prelates, and consuls, all\nnamed; and no prince of any consideration on this side Spain forbore\nattending. The ceremony of the coronation, as described by Geoffrey,\nwas a stupendous event. The archbishops, headed by Dubritius, were\nconducted to the royal palace to place the crown upon the monarch\u2019s\nhead. Arthur was invested with his imperial habiliments, and conducted\nin great pomp to the Metropolitan Church, supported by the bishops and\nfour kings, who bore golden swords before him. The queen, \u201cdressed out\nin her richest ornaments,\u201d and attended by bishops and four queens,\nbearing before her four white doves, joined the procession; and the\npeople of Caerleon in their tens of thousands \u201cmade all imaginable\ndemonstrations of joy.\u201d Then transporting music was played, both in\nthe churches and the streets all day, and was so beautiful that the\nknights knew not which of the many orchestras to prefer. After the\nservice the king and queen retired to their separate palaces, \u201cfor the\nBritons still observed the ancient custom of Troy, by which men and\nwomen used to celebrate their festivals apart.\u201d One thousand young\nnoblemen, clothed in ermine, served the banquet at the king\u2019s table;\nand in the queen\u2019s palace innumerable servitors, dressed with a variety\nof ornaments, performed their offices. The knights, in best apparel,\nwere in full attendance, and the ladies, celebrated for their wit,\nencouraged them in their tourneys. No man, says Geoffrey, was worthy\nof a woman\u2019s love until he had given proof of his valour in three\nseparate battles; \u201cthus was the valour of the men an encouragement for\nthe women\u2019s chastity, and the love of the women a spur to the soldiers\u2019\nbravery.\u201d The victors in the jousts at Caerleon that day were rewarded\nby Arthur in person, and the capital was a blaze of splendour and a\nscene of unequalled exploits.[18]\n\nWe get further pictures of Caerleon from other of the early historians.\nGiraldus Cambriensis recorded in the twelfth century that at Caerleon\nmight be seen many vestiges of its former glory, \u201cimmense palaces\nornamented with gilded roofs, in imitation of Roman magnificence, a\ntower of prodigious size, and relics of temples.\u201d Three centuries\nbefore C\u00e6sar\u2019s invasion, Belin Mawr laid the city\u2019s foundations; and in\nthe sixth century--\n\n  \u201cCymri\u2019s dragon, from the Roman\u2019s hold,\n  Spread with calm wing o\u2019er Carduel\u2019s domes of gold.\u201d\n\nIn the \u201cMabinogion\u201d we also get a casual glimpse of King Arthur\u2019s\nroyal state at Caerleon: \u201cArthur was accustomed to hold his court\nat Caerleon-upon-Usk. And there he held it seven Easters and\nfive Christmases. And once upon a time he held his court there at\nWhitsuntide. For Caerleon was the place most easy of access in his\ndominions, both by sea and land. And there were assembled nine crowned\nkings, who were his tributaries, and likewise earls and barons. For\nthey were his invited guests at all the high festivals, unless they\nwere prevented by any great hindrance. And when he was at Caerleon\nholding his court, thirteen churches were set apart for mass.\u201d But\nthe scene at the coronation of Arthur was never excelled; and if\nGeoffrey of Monmouth could be believed, such a noble assembly, such\na display of magnificence, such prodigality of sport and hospitality\nwere never before or afterward seen in Britain; and the historian\nadds that at that time King Arthur\u2019s country had arrived at \u201csuch a\npitch of grandeur, that in abundance of riches, luxury, ornaments, and\npoliteness of inhabitants it far surpassed all other countries.\u201d\n\nBut what is Caerleon now? Late on an August afternoon, when the sky\nwas stricken with the first shadowy pallor of evening, a white, sandy,\ndeserted lane led me past a few scattered houses and a small church\nto the riverside. The tide was out and the waters had shrunk almost\ninto silence. An old tower, thickly overgrown with trailing weeds,\nstands on the bank, and tells of other times. The fields stretching\naway from the right bank of the Usk are irregularly divided by the\nremnant of an old Roman wall, rising about twelve feet, and supposed\nto have been originally four miles long, connecting Caerleon with\nthe outposts. Antiquaries differ in opinion as to whence the stone\nwas obtained; those marvel-working Romans who came over with Julius\nFrontinus in the first century, and made Caerleon the head-quarters of\nthe second Augustan Legion, left the secret buried in the monument they\nraised. The wall passes by, and beyond, the Priory and the Round Table\nField, where a deep indentation probably marks the site of a Roman\namphitheatre. This supposition derives circumstantial confirmation from\nthe fact that a contiguous field has borne from time out of record the\nname of the Bearhouse Field--the site of the house in which wild beasts\nwere kept for gladiatorial contests. But legend floats about the scene\nand fantastically shapes itself into a marvellous tale, that here King\nArthur with his knights sits entranced in a subterranean chamber, and\nthere will remain until Britain in her hour of peril calls him forth to\nnew and greater conquests. The Welsh bards have sung how--\n\n      \u201cHe first ordained the circled board;\n  The knights whose martial deeds far-famed that Table Round,\n  Which truest in their loves, which most in arms renowned,\n  The laws which long upheld that Order, they report:\n  The Pentecosts prepar\u2019d at Caerleon in her Court,\n  That Table\u2019s ancient seat.\u201d\n\nWhile we wander about the green hillocks which compose that mysterious\ncircle our minds can feel the inspiration of the scene and sport with\nthe phantoms of the unreal world. It is on such occasions that we feel\nthe touch of other times and seem to hear the echo of voices stilled.\nThe flame of romance kindles a thousand images; half the present fades\naway, and in its place appears what has vanished or has never been.\nThe long procession of the dead troops by, and the tale of bygone\ndays is recalled. Here, once, were the sounds of tumult; the king\u2019s\npavilion was set, and the tourney was \u201clet cry.\u201d Then were heard\nthe clatter of the steeds, the rush to arms, the clang of sword and\nspear, the shattering of hauberk and shield; then through the streets\nresounded the trumpet-call to arms and the proclamation of the king;\nthen gathered and dispersed the noble order of knights and the flower\nof chivalry, setting forth upon noble quests or returning to relate\ntheir deeds to Arthur and to lay their spoils at the feet of Guinevere.\nAlong these lanes rode Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad, Sir Gawain, and\nSir Kaye. Here came kings from north, south, and west to do homage to\nArthur. Here,\n\n      \u201cAmong the myriad-room\u2019d\n  And many-corridor\u2019d perplexities\n  Of Arthur\u2019s palace,\u201d\n\nthe drama of pain and shame was acted by the queen and Arthur\u2019s\ngreatest knight, a man \u201cnot after Arthur\u2019s heart.\u201d Here, where the bee\nhums and the moth alights, were knightly jousts and stubborn contests.\nSteel grappled with steel, and the hard ground trembled under the shock\nof mounted warriors. Here, where the grass grows long and the daisy and\nprimrose brighten out among the green, were mailed men and mirthful\nmaidens; here they feasted and sang and dedicated their days to love\nand chivalry. But the wind roves over the open plain; and scarcely a\nstone, a tottering arch, or a fallen tower, has escaped the iconoclasm\nof time\u2019s remorseless hand. The massive walls which defied the siege of\nthe all-conquering Roman have been thrown down, and the regal palaces\nwhich never yielded to the pagan have sunk and disappeared in the\ndust. Their very foundations cannot be traced. But beneath the ruins\nsleeps romance, and in the pervading silence is closed the last song of\nancient chivalry. The dust of the heroes is scattered, and\n\n  \u201cThe attributes of those high days\n  Now only live in minstrel-lays.\u201d\n\nEverything is past but the names of men and places--names that we have\nand ideals that we make. A ford with Arthur\u2019s name, a stone associated\nwith his deeds, a city where his temples were reared! Tranquilly flows\nthe river and washes the unfrequented banks; and Caerleon-upon-Usk,\nlike a wave that has been spent and dies upon the shore, has ebbed into\nthe quietude of tideless time and has been lost. Yet, to him who goes\nwith open mind and simple faith, Caerleon is even now a wonderland, and\nfragments of its marvellous story are scattered on the roadside, in\nthe undulating meadows, and along the banks of the wide brown river.\nEverywhere we find remnants of a remarkable past; and though the city\nhas dwindled to a hamlet and is sequestered from the busy toiling\nworld, it seems like the city of fable which slept until the promised\nprince came and released it from the fetters of enchantment. So may\nCaerleon one day be awakened.\n\nThe healing sun-god, Belenus (from whose name our modern Billingsgate\nis derived), was the Celtic Apollo, and to him is ascribed the\nfoundation of Caerleon. Others, with better reason, ascribe it to\nLleon, an ancient British king. The Romans, about the year 70 A.D.,\nmade it one of their chief stations in Britannia Secunda, and the\ncity in their time is reputed to have been nine miles in area. Akeman\nStreet went from it to Cirencester, and the maritime Julian Way passed\nthrough it from Bath to Neath, while the mountain Julian Way connected\nit with Abergavenny. Fragments of a Roman fortress 12 feet thick and\n1,800 yards in circuit have been found, and the Roman amphitheatre, 16\nfeet high and 222 feet by 192 feet in extent, is popularly known as\nthe festival scene of King Arthur and his knights. Some of the Roman\nbricks and tiles are to be found in the modern structures, and part of\nthe old Roman wall twelve feet high is still visible. In the days of\nHadrian the best part of the city was Caerleon _ultra pontem_--that\npart lying beyond the wooden movable bridge, which is now replaced\nby one of stone.[19] The local museum is crowded with memorials\nof antiquity--tesselated pavements, Roman stones and inscriptions,\nbaths, altars, sculpture, Roman lamps (found in a road cutting), glass\nvessels, bronze ornaments, harness buckles, keys, coins, and stone\nfacings of the rooms in the Castle Villa. Most curious and valuable\nof all, perhaps, is a boundary stone showing that the sea-walls were\nthe work of the third-century Romans and made by their soldiery. But\nthe sea has receded from Caerleon and is now quite two miles away, and\nNewport has arisen where once the ships of Caerleon sailed. All the\nRoman temples which King Arthur found in the city he is said to have\nconverted into Christian churches, St. Dubric, the most famous of the\necclesiastics of antiquity, being appointed the archbishop. On the\nother hand, the archbishopric is said to date from 182, and to have\nlasted until 521. But the remarkable and significant fact is that while\nrelics in abundance of the early Romans can be found, nothing has been\npreserved of the later British or Saxon times, and not a trace can be\ndiscovered of the surpassing glory of the Arthurian capital. Tradition\navers that for four hundred years before the Christian era Caerleon was\na royal residence and the burial place of British kings; but tradition\ndispenses with proofs.\n\nKing Arthur\u2019s ninth great battle against the Saxons took place at\nCaerleon, and he had previously encountered them at the most celebrated\nof the city\u2019s outposts, Caerwent. The latter place has a history\nlittle inferior to that of Caerleon itself, and has strong claims to\nconsideration both as a Roman settlement and as a reputed Arthurian\nstronghold. It is uninviting in aspect to-day, but the fragments of\nstately piles and the innumerable coins and medals that have been\nunearthed attest its former consequence. Caerwent is situated on the\nVia Julia, or military road, and Leland bore witness to the many\nevidences of its ancient importance, with its massive walls and gates.\nIt is even affirmed that Caerwent was originally the capital of the\nSilures, but that afterwards it was a \u201cdependence\u201d on Caerleon, with\nwhich it communicated by a subterranean passage. The entrance to that\npassage was from a lane which still retains the name of Arthur.\n\nSome fifty years ago a stranger went to Caerleon, and without giving\nhis name or stating his errand, took up his abode at the Hanbury Arms,\none of the oldest hostelries in the kingdom. The Hanbury Arms is a\nwhite, quaintly-built house, facing the Usk, and originally stood at\na point in the road commanding three approaches to the city. But the\nchange of time has given a new entrance to Caerleon, and travellers\nwill now find the Hanbury Arms on the remote side. Its low-browed\nwindows, with the stone mullions of unusual thickness, and the square\nhooded dripstones above, indicate that the house dates from the\nfourteenth or fifteenth century. To this place the stranger made his\nway, his advent being almost unnoticed and his purpose unknown. A\nlocal chronicler wrote: \u201cQuiet and unobtrusive to a degree, he soon\nattracted attention from his very reserved and seclusive habits. Day\nafter day passed, and his figure was seldom seen. Frequently he would\nleave the house early in the morning, and go no one knew whither,\nand on his return retire to his room until next morning. It was soon\nrecognised that the stranger was fond of long walks, and there was not\na hill in the neighbourhood up whose sides he did not climb. For a\ntime no companion or friend seemed to notice him, but occasionally a\nletter arriving at the post office was delivered to him. At first the\nname attracted no attention, but at length \u2018Alfred Tennyson,\u2019 inscribed\non successive missives, seemed to have a special interest for the\nlocal postmaster. He repeated the name until its familiarity led him\nto suspect that the stranger was no other than the Poet Laureate, and\nthis ultimately proved correct. On the fact becoming generally known\nthat Tennyson was staying at Caerleon, visitors frequently called upon\nhim, but he endeavoured to maintain his seclusion to the last.... In\n1859 the result of Tennyson\u2019s sojourn at \u2018Caerwysg\u2019 was seen, when\nhe produced to the world his _Idylls of the King_. Some few of the\ninhabitants still remember the poet.\u201d Tennyson\u2019s half-dozen allusions\nto Caerleon are slight, but they do not lack distinctness; the most\nstriking are those semi-descriptive references in _Geraint and Enid_,\nand in _Balin and Balan_, neither of which could have been so written\nhad not the poet visited the spot.\n\nThe Caerleon of fancy, not of reality, is described at much greater\nlength and with much higher charm by Lytton. If Tennyson was content\nwith a sweeping reference to the palace and its chambers, Lytton could\nonly be satisfied with a detailed account of the High Council Hall\nin which was set the king\u2019s ivory throne, and around which gathered\n\u201cthe Deathless Twelve of the Heroic King,\u201d the Knights of the Round\nTable. He tells how the dragon of the Cymri \u201cspread with calm wing o\u2019er\nCarduel\u2019s domes of gold,\u201d and how the city lay in a vale, sheltered by\nthe dark forests which mantled the environing hills, while his picture\nof the daily customs of the people of the city was revealed in the\nwords:--\n\n  \u201cSome plied in lusty race the glist\u2019ning oar;\n    Some noiseless snared the silver-scal\u00e9d prey;\n  Some wreathed the dance along the level shore;\n    And each was happy in his chosen way.\u201d\n\nBut this was purely the city of vision. The faint light which history\nthrows upon the dark period of the British occupation shows us\nthat Caerleon was continually given over to warfare of the wildest\ncharacter. It is associated also in the Fabliaux with the darkest\nevent in Arthur\u2019s personal history--an event in which Mordred\neventually acted as Nemesis.\n\nWere all the romances written which have Caerleon as their background\nof scenery, the long stories of the ill-fated brethren Balin and\nBalan, of Geraint and Enid, of many a knightly quest and adventure,\nand of many a great undertaking by the \u201cfair beginners of a nobler\ntime,\u201d would have to be related anew. The half-historic, half-fabulous\nhistories of Dubritius the archbishop, of Taliesin the chief of bards,\nof Talhairan, the father of poetry--all men of Caerleon--would likewise\nhave to be recounted, but the complete narratives must be sought in\nthe chronicles, the triads, and the \u201cMabinogion.\u201d Yet some of the\ndust under which lies the golden-domed city, and some of the ruins\nbeneath which sleeps slain romance, mingle with the dust and ruins of\nhistory; and a little of that history may be deciphered still in the\nIsca Silurum of the Romans, where Caractacus held his court, where the\nPr\u00e6ter deposited the eagles, where justice was dealt out in the name\nof C\u00e6sar, where Saxons and Britons met in one of their last deadly\nstruggles, and where the dragon of the Cymry ultimately prevailed, and\nArthur Pendragon rose and had his name set \u201chigh on all the hills and\nin the signs of heaven.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nOF THE ROUND TABLE AND KING ARTHUR\u2019S BATTLES\n\n  \u201cAh, Minstrels! when the Table Round\n  Arose, with all its warriors crown\u2019d,\n  There was a theme for bards to sound\n      In triumph to their string!\u201d--_Scott._\n\n  \u201cA Knight of Arthur, working out his will\n  To cleanse the world.\u201d--_Tennyson._\n\n  \u201cFull fifteen years, and more, were sped;\n  Each brought new wreaths to Arthur\u2019s head.\n  Twelve bloody fields, with glory fought,\n  The Saxons to subjection brought;\n  Rython, the mighty giant slain\n  By his good brand, relieved Bretagne:\n  The Pictish Gillamore in fight,\n  And Roman Lucius, own\u2019d his might;\n  And wide were through the world renown\u2019d\n  The glories of his Table Round.\u201d--_Scott._\n\n\nLovers of the Arthurian legend might feel a sense of disappointment if\nthey were told that King Arthur never founded a Round Table, and that\nall tradition on that subject was belied. But the closest students\nof the ancient story are compelled to come to the conclusion that,\neven granting King Arthur \u201cmade a realm and reign\u2019d,\u201d his Round Table\nexisted only in the imagination of later chroniclers and the weavers\nof the romances. The evidence in favour of the Round Table is of no\nsubstantial character, despite the veritable relic which exists at\nWinchester and is proudly pointed to as the original and genuine\narticle. When Geoffrey of Monmouth pieced together the fragments of\nhistory, the fables, and the traditions of the last of the British\nheroes, and produced that wonderful narrative which has served as\na basis upon which to rear the elaborate and complicated structure\ncalled by Malory the \u201cnoble hystorye of King Arthur,\u201d he found nothing\nwhatever in those sources of information either of the Round Table\nor of the Holy Grail. It was in 1155, when the \u201cflower of Kings\u201d had\nfive centuries of dust upon his tomb, that Wace in the _Brut_ gave\nthe first intimation of the existence of the idea.--\u201cFist Artus la\nronde table, dont Breton dient mainte fable;\u201d from which we are led\nto infer that the tradition was of Breton origin. Others have assumed\nthat the story of the Round Table established by King Arthur for the\naccommodation of twelve favourite knights who met in perfect equality\nwas but a variation of that told of Charlemagne and his peers, though\nthe foremost scholars now assure us that the two ideas were separate\nand distinct. The outstanding fact remains, however, that the earliest\nhistories of Arthur are silent on the subject which is so impressive\nand memorable a feature of the later histories. Whence the idea was\nderived, and how it came to be imported into this narration, none can\ntell; but of its fitness of character there is no question. It is in\nthorough keeping with the Arthurian story, supplies an appropriate\nillustration of his character and methods, and enforces the leading\ndoctrine of knightly fellowship and the unity of the chivalrous band\nwhose primary object was \u201cdeeds of worship.\u201d\n\nIt is absolutely impossible to reconcile the many conflicting accounts\nof how King Arthur\u2019s Round Table was obtained. One report is that\nit was made by Merlin for Uther Pendragon; that Uther gave it to\nKing Leodegraunce of Cameliard; and that Leodegraunce gave it as\na wedding gift to Arthur when he married his daughter, Guinevere.\nMalory confirmed this in his _Book of the Round Table and the Three\nQuests_, when he put these words into the mouth of the king--\u201cI love\nGuinevere, the King\u2019s daughter, Leodegraunce, of the land of Cameliard,\nwhich holdeth in his house the Table Round, that ye told he had of\nmy father, Uther.\u201d And Leodegraunce, when he heard of the projected\nmarriage, said: \u201cHe hath lands enough, he needeth none; but I shall\nsend him a gift that shall please him much more, for I shall give\nhim the Table Round, the which Uther Pendragon gave me; and, when it\nis full complete, there is a hundred knights and fifty; and as for a\nhundred good knights, I have myself, but I lack fifty, for so many have\nbeen slain in my days.\u201d King Arthur received the Table Round and the\nhundred knights, \u201cwhich,\u201d he said, \u201cplease me more than right great\nwishes.\u201d\n\nIn the _Book of Sir Galahad_ we find that King Arthur \u201cwould wit how\nmany had taken the quest of the Sancgreal, and to account them he\nprayed them all. Then found they by tale an hundred and fifty, and all\nwere knights of the Round Table.\u201d But obviously this Round Table which\nseated a hundred and fifty knights and left a space for the Holy Grail,\nwas not the special Round Table for King Arthur and the favoured twelve\nknights of his selection; though it may have been the Round Table which\nin the _Book of Sir Percivale_ we are told Merlin made \u201cin token of the\nroundness of the world: for by the Round Table is the world signified\nby right. For all the world, Christian and heathen, resort unto the\nRound Table, and when they are chosen to be of the fellowship of the\nRound Table, they think them more blessed, and more in worship, than if\nthey had gotten half the world.\u201d So said the Queen of the Waste Lands\nto Sir Percivale. Yet in regard to this great institution there exists\nthe bolder idea of its astronomical derivation, and considering to what\nextent astrology has entered into the Arthurian story the theory that\nthe Round Table was suggested by the movement round the Pole of the\nGreat Bear--\u201cthe seven clear stars of Arthur\u2019s Table Round\u201d--must not\nbe overlooked. Each age of chivalry has had some such institution, and\nthe Round Table continued to exist in this country until the time of\nthe Third Edward. Yet the actual era remains unverified\n\n    \u201cWhen first the question rose\n  About the founding of a Table Round,\n  That was to be, for love of God and men\n  And noble deeds, the flower of all the world.\u201d\n\nNor were the repeated efforts of English monarchs to keep alive the\ninstitution conspicuously successful. The original standard could not\nbe maintained, and the tendency of these later times when the romances\nwere being enriched and elaborated, when Arthur and his knights were\nregarded as models, and when tournaments were held in imitation of the\nancient jousts, was in reality a downward tendency. The ideal which men\nstrove to realise did not correspond with the spirit of the former age.\n\u201cPeople had become more worldly,\u201d writes Ten Brink, \u201cand were generally\nanxious to protect the real interest of life from the unwarrantable\ninterference of romantic aspirations. The spirit of chivalry no\nlonger formed a fundamental element, but only an ornament of life--an\nornament, indeed, which was made much of, and was looked upon with a\nsentiment partaking of enthusiasm. But now chivalry was no longer the\nsimple outflow of a dominant idea, but rather the product of a pleasant\nself-conscious reflection. Minds ideally constituted strove to fill the\ntraditional moulds and formulas with a really ethical substance, and by\ntrying in their own way to transpose these ancient poems into action,\ndeveloped a really tender and humane disposition. The majority of\npeople rejoiced merely in the splendour, and in the festive, dignified\nexistence that raised them above the commonplace and distinguished them\nfrom the vulgar crowd. But in every case there was the intermixture\nof an incongruous element.\u201d The lapse to Quixotism was inevitable,\nand with the lashings of the follies of the undiscriminating imitator\nof the knights of chivalry, the old custom passed away in derision.\nCervantes did well and did evil by his destructive satire: in cutting\naway the parasite, the false and foolish chivalry which had fastened\nitself upon the wise and the true, he cut also to the roots of the\ngoodly tree which deserved to fall more nobly, if fall it must. Renan\nreminds us that it was not Arthur the King who has been adopted by all\npeoples, but Arthur who charmed the world as the head of an order of\nequality in which all sat at the same table, and in which a man\u2019s worth\ndepended upon his valour and his natural gifts. The fate of an unknown\npeninsula mattered nothing to the world--\u201cwhat enchanted it was the\nideal court presided over by Guinevere, where around the monarchical\nunity the flower of heroes was gathered together, where ladies, as\nchaste as they were beautiful, loved according to the laws of chivalry,\nand where the time was passed in listening to stories, and learning\ncivility and beautiful manners.\u201d\n\nThe fashion set by Cervantes was followed in later times by John\nHookham Frere, whose projected _National Work_ comprising the \u201cmost\ninteresting particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table\u201d\nis a brilliant _jeu d\u2019esprit_; and by Mr. Clemens (\u201cMark Twain\u201d)\nwhose _Yankee at the Court of King Arthur_ scarcely ranks either\namong his witty or his memorable productions. The greater number of\nmodern writers, having neither the provocation nor the excuse of\nCervantes, have selected for treatment the worthier and purer side of\nchivalry,[20] but their idealisation had led to confusion also. Such\nsober history as exists proves conclusively that the knights of the\nmost chivalrous age lacked those attributes upon which so much stress\nhas been laid, to the glory of poetry but to the obscuring of fact. It\nis not within my scope, however, to dwell longer upon this subject, but\nto call attention to the Round Table either as its reputed existence or\nas the use of its name may be regarded as an indication of the extent\nof King Arthur\u2019s realm. But here, perhaps, we reach the most doubtful\nground of all. Wherever we step we touch a crumbling footway or find\nourselves utterly lost in a region of superstitions. The advance\nalong this illusive track would therefore be unprofitable, but that\nit enables us to perceive how Arthurian traditions permeate the land,\nhow tenaciously the supposititious links with him and his age are\ncherished, and how the crudest facts are turned to account in order\nthat some claim may be popularly justified to association with his fame.\n\nOf the multitude of places in Britain claiming to possess King Arthur\u2019s\nRound Table, the ancient capital of Winchester ranks first. Caxton\nin his famous Prologue provides a list of proofs of Arthur\u2019s actual\nexistence--\u201cIn the castel of Dover ye may see Gauwayne\u2019s skulle, and\nCradok\u2019s mantel; at Wynchester, the rounde table; in other places,\nLauncelottes sworde, and many other thynges.\u201d Tradition ascribes the\nfoundation of Winchester Castle to King Arthur in the year 523, and the\nlarge oaken table there hanging in the Chapel of St. Stephen, carved\nwith the figure of the king and the names of the knights, is affirmed\nto be the identical board at which he and his knights assembled. King\nHenry VIII exhibited it as such to the Emperor Charles, but alas for\nromance! the researches of modern antiquaries have caused it to be\nascribed to the time of Stephen, thus disposing once and for all of\nDrayton\u2019s proud contention--\n\n  \u201cAnd so great Arthur\u2019s seat ould Winchester prefers,\n  Whose ould round table yet she vaunteth to be hers,\u201d\n\nand equally falsifying Warton\u2019s declaration--\n\n  \u201cHigh hung remains, the pride of former years,\n  Old Arthur\u2019s board: on the capacious round\n  Some British pen has sketched the names renown\u2019d,\n  In marks obscure of his immortal peers.\u201d\n\nThe great antiquity of Winchester would make its possession of such a\nrelic, if genuine, quite possible. The ancient capital of England was\npossessed by the Romans, who erected the massive walls and temples\nof which it justly boasts. Some authorities declare that the first\nChristian church was erected in Winchester about the year 169, three\ncenturies or more before King Arthur\u2019s time, and that it was converted\ninto a temple of Dagon, or Woden, by the Saxons late in the fifth\ncentury. Portion of Winchester was called by the Romans \u201cGwent,\u201d or the\nHollow, and this name being confused with the Gwent in Monmouthshire\nprobably led to the transference of the scenes of the Arthurian legend\nto the famous capital. This class of error, as has been already pointed\nout, has not been infrequently met with in old chronicles. It was owing\nto some such confusion of ideas in the mind of King Henry VII that he\nnamed his son, born in Winchester Castle, after the Arthur of romance.\nWinchester, in fact, plays no mean part in the Arthurian drama. It\nwas at times confused with Camelot, and given as the alternative name\nof that place. But there is no substance in the claim that the Round\nTable now to be seen in Winchester is really Arthurian. Even Defoe in\nhis eighteenth-century chronicle of a journey from London to Land\u2019s\nEnd talks contemptuously of the pretence to pass off the relic as \u201ca\npiece of antiquity to the tune of twelve hundred years,\u201d and he threw\nabsolute discredit upon the whole story.\n\nCaerleon-on-Usk, the historic capital of King Arthur\u2019s realm, claims\n(as we have related) also to possess the Round Table, but in this\ninstance the visitor is taken to a field, still bearing the name of\nthe Round Table Field, in which a circular cavity probably marks the\nsite of a Roman encampment. The local legend is that beneath this field\nKing Arthur and his knights sleep entranced, and await the summons to\ncome forth and save England from peril. On the top of Cadbury Hill,\nSomerset, at a spot known as Cadbury Camp, a vast artificial circle,\nwhich is doubtless also of Roman origin, is designated the Round Table;\nand about half a mile from Penrith in Scotland a circular intrenchment,\neighty-seven feet in diameter, is popularly known by the same name.\nScott mentions \u201cPenrith\u2019s Table Round\u201d in his _Bridal of Triermain_,\nand one of Lockhart\u2019s notes explains that the circle within the ditch\nis about one hundred and sixty paces in circumference, with openings,\nor approaches, directly opposite each other. \u201cAs the ditch is on the\ninner side it could not be intended for the purpose of defence, and it\nhas been reasonably conjectured that the enclosure was designed for the\nsolemn exercise of feats of chivalry, and the embankment around for the\nconvenience of spectators.\u201d This Scotch reference has a significance of\nits own, but, standing alone, and combated by other claims, it cannot\nbe deemed of very high importance.\n\nSir Walter Scott quotes the lines of the poet David Lindsay--\n\n  \u201cAdew, fair Snawdon, with thy towris hie,\n  Thy chapell-royall, park, and Tabyll Round,\u201d\n\nwhich removes the relic, natural or artificial, to North Wales; but\nAnglesey also claims that what others call a Roman camp overlooking\nRedwharf Bay is the \u201cBurdd Arthur,\u201d or Arthur\u2019s Round Table. Leland\u2019s\nItinerary contains the announcement that near Denbigh \u201cthere is, in\nthe Paroch of Llansannen in the Side of a Stony Hille, a Place wher\nthere be twenty-four Holes or Places in a Roundel for Men to sitte\nin, but sum lesse, and some bigger, cutte out of the mayne Rock\nby Mannes Hand; and there Children and Young Men cumming to seke\ntheir Catelle use to sitte and play. Sum caulle it the Rounde Table.\nKiddes use their communely to play and skip from Sete to Sete.\u201d No\nconclusion can be drawn, and no satisfaction can be gained, from this\nmedley of conflicting claims: we learn only that the tradition was\nwidely diffused and that either in a spirit of contention to claim\npossession of the relic, or with the desire to ensure the survival\nof the recollection by symbols, the name came to be indiscriminately\nbestowed upon artificial imitations or natural resemblances of the\noriginal. George Borrow, however, favoured the Welsh localities as\ntruly Arthurian.\n\nIf we turn to the question of the number of the knights supposed to\nrange themselves at the Table Round we find similar diversity both\nof record and opinion, and equal preposterousness in rival claims.\nThe Table at Winchester had \u201csieges\u201d for twenty-five, including the\nking. The Table mentioned by Malory had \u201csieges\u201d for one hundred and\nfifty: one hundred were sent by Leodegraunce, Merlin found twenty-eight\nmore, King Arthur chose Sir Gawaine and Sir Tor, and the remaining\ntwenty were left for those who proved themselves worthy. Yet the old\nfrontispiece to Malory\u2019s History showed only thirty knights seated at\nthe Table; Scott, in his _Triermain_, mentions only sixteen; and the\nold ballad on Arthur specifies the number of \u201cgood and able knights\u201d as\nfifty. To leave such details, let it suffice to learn from Malory that\n\u201cby the noble fellowship of the Table Round was King Arthur borne up\u201d;\nor let us agree with Drayton, for the sake of poetical justice, that\nArthur\u2019s and Charlemagne\u2019s knights were of exactly the same number--\n\n  \u201cWho bear the bow were knights in Arthur\u2019s reign,\n  Twelve they, and twelve the knights of Charlemagne.\u201d\n\nAmong the many remarkable traditions concerning the Round Table is\nthat which survives in Wales that Arthur assembled his followers on\nthe heights of the Brecknockshire Beacons, and there made known his\ndesign to establish a knighthood and to found a Table Round. On the\nsummit of Pen-y-Van may yet be seen huge stones and rock fragments\nwhich the superstitious regard as the broken relics of the Table, to\nthe real existence of which far more attention has been given than\nto its allegorical significance. The Round Table is, in fact, purely\nsymbolical throughout the romance, an idea conveyed by the customary\nmeans of a simple figure, a parable. It is illustrative of the equality\nand the unity of the order of chivalry, and of the singleness of\npurpose and ambition of the Arthurian warriors and adventure-seekers.\nThe breaking up of the Table Round is the sign of the falling away in\nallegiance of the knights and of the approaching disintegration of\nArthur\u2019s kingdom. When the fellowship of the knights is strongest and\nthe complement is complete, the king is at the height of his power;\nwhen there are vacant seats at the Table, there are indications of a\ndecline; when only a remnant of the knights meets once more at the\nmonarch\u2019s call, the kingdom is half-lost; when the fellowship is broken\nand the Round Table has disappeared, the end of Arthur\u2019s reign is\ncome, and his power is shattered for ever. \u201cWe all understand,\u201d said\nSir Lancelot, \u201cin this realm will be now no quiet, but ever strife and\ndebate, now the fellowship of the Round Table is broken; for by the\nnoble fellowship of the Round Table was King Arthur upborne, and by\ntheir nobleness the King and all his realm was in quiet and in rest.\u201d\n\nBy the deftness of the chroniclers the symbolism of the Round Table\nbecomes slightly intermixed with the symbolism of the Grail quest,\nSir Galahad, the perfect knight who could sit in the Siege Perilous,\nbeing the only knight who could be blessed with the vision of the\nHoly Grail. It was those alone of the fellowship of the Round Table\nwho entered upon the quest, and it was the one pure hero, the man of\nmost worship, who achieved that quest. Two seats in the Round Table\nwere left vacant by Merlin. One was filled by King Pellinore when he\nhad proved his worthiness; \u201cbut in the Siege Perilous,\u201d said Merlin,\n\u201cthere shall no man sit therein but one, and if there be any so hardy\nto do it he shall be destroyed, and he that shall sit there shall have\nno fellow.\u201d The double prophecy was fulfilled. The unworthy knight who\nattempted to occupy the siege was carried away in a flame that burst\nforth instantaneously, and Merlin\u2019s own fate is by some ascribed to his\ninadvertence in sitting in that mysterious chair, strangely carven and\nlettered. But for Galahad there was no such fear. Long did the Siege\nPerilous remain vacant, for while Arthur and his knights were building\nup the kingdom Lancelot\u2019s son was unborn. But at the assembling of the\nfellowship one Whitsuntide a hermit predicted to the king that that\nsame year one should be born who would sit in the Siege Perilous and\nwin the Sangreal. Henceforth the two ideas are found constantly united.\nAt Camelot all the seats at the Table were found newly written with\ngold letters, and upon the Siege Perilous were the mystic words: \u201cFour\nhundred winters and fifty-four accomplished after the passion of our\nLord Jesu Christ ought this Siege to be fulfilled.\u201d The knights were\nfilled with wonderment, and they awaited the coming of the worshipful\nman who could sit there and not be harmed. Only miracles were wrought\nthat day; the air and sky were full of omens, and Lancelot said: \u201cI\nwill that ye wit that this same day will the adventures of the Sangreal\nbegin.\u201d \u201cA good old man, and an ancient,\u201d clothed in white, entered\nthe palace, bringing with him a young knight without arms. No one knew\nwhence they came, but they listened in awe to the reverend stranger,\nwho declared that the youth by his side was the long-expected knight,\nof the king\u2019s lineage, of the kindred of Saint Joseph, destined to sit\nin the Siege Perilous and to achieve the Grail quest. It was Galahad,\nSir Lancelot\u2019s own son, having for his mother Elaine, the daughter of\nKing Pelles, who was \u201ccousin nigh unto Joseph of Arimathie,\u201d and the\npossessor of the Holy Vessel. In the mysterious seat the young knight\nsat unfearing, and the knights beholding this whispered to each other,\n\u201cThis is he by whom the Sangreal shall be achieved.\u201d It was the virgin\nknight who could alone draw out the sword from the stone, and who again\nproved himself the greatest, after which he began with religious ardour\nhis appointed task.\n\nGalahad\u2019s story was a late addendum to the Arthurian legend, and it\nis very difficult to suppose that he was an historic figure. Yet his\nprototype is said to have existed in the person of Catwg the wise\n(Cadog), the second principal of Llancarfan College, where he was the\nsuccessor of the renowned Bishop Dubois. In his youth Catwg had been\na soldier, later he joined the Christian Church, and the neophyte had\nthe advantage of receiving personal instruction from the aged master,\nthe foremost divine of Arthur\u2019s time. But the suggestion that Cadog was\nGalahad is scarcely open to serious consideration, and Walter Map, the\nfirst to relate the history of the virgin knight, was not likely to\nhave had any such prototype in his mind. His conception seems to have\nbeen mainly poetic. The story is crowded with mysteries, superstitions,\nand idealisms. Galahad is scarcely human in any of his attributes, and\nhe is so invested with marvels that we may safely set him down as an\nimaginary type or the most shadowy of traditional figures.\n\nIn discussing the real Arthur, as distinct from the Arthur of romance,\nwe have to bear in mind that he was primarily the warrior, the\nrepresentative of a cause which necessitated the constant display of\nhis power in battle. As such he was first celebrated by the bards, and\nit was around the warrior and chief that the romance grew. From being\nsimply a military leader, he became a type of hero about whom gathered\nmany legends, and in course of time he was made the central figure in\nall the stories of marvellous adventure current in the early days. That\nthere was an Arthur leading a forlorn hope, chief of a people slow\nto yield and hard to subdue, need scarcely be questioned. He is the\noriginal hero, the last and greatest of a conquered race; he is the\ngiant-figure standing behind the mythical Arthur of fable and romance.\nBorn when his land was attacked by the invader and his people were\nfearing extinction, he valorously met the foe, and for a while stemmed\nthe victorious current of the Saxon and the Roman arms. Defeated at\nlast, he became, as was inevitable, a type of hero--a later Odin, a\ndemi-god--and in the romances and songs we read rather of aims than\naccomplishments, of desires than of deeds. More and more as time cast\nits glamour about him, King Arthur became the embodiment of a national\naspiration, and the vanquished race revenged its defeat in songs of\ndefiance, songs which vaunted of victory and were matched to triumphant\nstrains, songs which relieved the thought of present disaster and\nrecalled only the olden triumphs or prompted dreams of future glory.\nThese songs took their rise in prophecies and sprang forth into golden\npromise of power and success. Speedily the ideal replaced the real.\nPoet after poet, chronicler after chronicler, added attributes to the\nhero; and ultimately from one strong man waging desperate war against\noutnumbering foes, the Arthur of romance was evolved, the Arthur whose\nconquests were an unbroken series and whose territory was limitless,\nthe Arthur with his invincible knighthood, the Arthur who could never\ndie, but who, in Merlin\u2019s words, \u201clike the dawn will arise from his\nmysterious retreat.\u201d The legends supply one more proof that a nation\nwith a voice, with the power of utterance, is invincible in spirit;\ncaptive and conquered though it may be, it remains unsubdued and free\nin impulse and thought. We can conceive how bold and defiant the spirit\nof the Cymri remained when in the eyes of the race the defeated king\nwas still visible as the master of all kings, and the vanquished people\ncould boast that he who fell under the Roman yoke--\n\n          \u201cSwept the dust of ruin\u2019d Rome\n  From off the threshold of the realm, and crushed\n  The Idolaters, and made the people free.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nTHE ROCKY VALLEY, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 150_]\n\nTo this race Caerleon and Camelot became cities of magic splendour\nand magnificence, and the courts and camps of Arthur surpassed in\nstrength and riches the luxurious home of C\u00e6sar. The land was strewn\nwith relics of Arthur\u2019s power; the downs and plains were the scenes\nof his momentous victories; the hills were his chairs and footstools;\nthe old encampments were the scenes of famous tourneys; the dark woods\nsuggested the scenes of strange adventures for the knights; the holy\nwells, the rivers, and the places where Nature was brightest and most\nbeautiful, were all associated with leading events and enterprises in\nthe history of the king and his noble retinue. Particularly did the\nCymri insist upon the successive and overwhelming defeats by Arthur\nof the Saxons, their traditional and most hated foe. And in their\nvauntings they gave Arthur the mastery of half Europe, claimed that\nthe Roman Emperor became his vassal, and that upon his head the Pope\nhimself placed a crown.\n\nArthur fought twelve great battles against the Saxons, the dates\nvarying from 457 to 604.[21] Either names have been mixed, or the\nchroniclers have monstrously departed from fact, or else we must\nconclude that the British warrior was actually king of the greater part\nof England, Wales, and Scotland, for his victories extend from Cornwall\nto Lincoln, and from Caerleon in Wales to the Scotch Lowlands. The\ntwelfth and greatest of his victories was at Mount Badon, where \u201cin one\nbout,\u201d we are told, \u201cArthur vanquished eight hundred and forty-one,\u201d\nand \u201cno man overthrew them but himself alone.\u201d The identity of Mount\nBadon, where \u201cour good Arthur broke once more the Pagan\u201d has long been\na matter of dispute. It has been contended that Bath was none other\nthan Mons Badonicus, and that the actual battlefield was a spot known\nas Banner Down; but the claim has almost entirely been abandoned now\nthat so much evidence is forthcoming in favour of another site. Bath\nseems to have been fixed upon as a likely place not only on account\nof its veritable antiquity and its early occupation by the Romans,\nbut because it appeared to be a sort of translation or corruption\nof the word Badon. But this is an etymological blunder, for, as has\nbeen pointed out, a sixth century word cannot be elucidated in this\nfree manner with the help of a word which had no existence until\nthe tenth century. The authorities are now fairly well agreed that\nBadon must be identified with Badbury Rings, but again a difficulty\narises, for there are two places called Badbury, not very far from\neach other, one in Wiltshire and the other in Dorset. There is also a\nCaer Badon in Berkshire which at least two historians have favoured as\nthe scene of Arthur\u2019s crucial contest with Cerdic. Our knowledge of\nthe battle comes from the Welsh bards who celebrated it in vaunting\nsongs, and from Gildas and Bede, but none of them assists us to\nestablish where Badon was, or, for the matter of that, at what date\nthe battle was fought. Lady Charlotte Guest reminds us that Gildas,\nwho bore the name of Badonicus from being born in the year in which\nthe battle was fought,[22] described Badon as being at the mouth of\nthe Severn, but this passage has been declared an interpolation. Mr.\nFreeman, Mr. Stokes, and other modern historians give their vote for\nBadbury in Dorset, but without mentioning their reasons. The Badbury\nin Wiltshire seems to me to be the more likely place if for no other\nreason than that King Arthur is often mentioned as travelling through\nthat county, and as being in the vicinity of Salisbury and Stonehenge,\nwhereas Dorset seems to have been outside the sphere of his visits and\noperations. The Wiltshire Badbury is only a few miles from the gigantic\nand mysterious megalithic structure which had actually been attributed\nby Geoffrey of Monmouth and others to Aurelius Ambrosius, or Arthur.\nOne tradition ran that it was a monument erected by the Britons on\nthe spot where the massacre of the British nobles took place by order\nof Hengist. But in the light of science we learn that Stonehenge was\nan antiquity in the time of the Celts, and that its origin must have\nbeen as much a mystery to the contemporaries of King Arthur as it is\nto us of to-day. Stonehenge is not mentioned by the old chroniclers,\nbut, remarkable to say, neither is Badon; but Salisbury is the subject\nof Merlin\u2019s fateful prophecy of Arthur\u2019s doom in the battle with\nMordred. Mr. Joseph Ritson went exhaustively into the subject of Mons\nBadonicus, and after citing all that was recorded of it by Archbishop\nUsher, Matthew of Westminster, Gildas, Geoffrey, Sir John Prise, and\nmany others, he still left the issue uncertain. What alone seems to be\nestablished is that the battle was a decisive triumph for the British\nagainst the Saxons under Cerdic, and that Arthur personally performed\nprodigies of valour. Tennyson has represented him charging at the head\nof his knights, and standing high on a heap of the slain watching the\nflying foe; and Drayton has sung--\n\n      \u201cHow he himself at Badon bore that day,\n  When at the glorious gole his British scepter lay;\n  Two daies together how the battel tronglie tood:\n  Pendragon\u2019s worthie son, who waded there in blood,\n  Three hundred Saxons slew with his own valiant hand.\u201d\n\nIt is a truly marvellous account which is given of Arthur\u2019s valorous\nconduct at the battle of Badon. Wearing his breastplate, his gold\nhelmet with the dragon device upon it, and taking his sword Excalibur,\nhis spear Ron, and his shield Pridwen, he first received a blessing\nfrom the Bishop Dubritius and then headed his force against the Saxons,\nwho received the attack in a wedge-formation, as was their custom.\nThe issue of the battle long remained in doubt. The fighting was of\nthe most desperate character on both sides, and at the close of day\nthe Saxons had the advantage. Next morning the contest was resumed,\nArthur storming the mount and being at a disadvantage by having the\nlower position. His personal example, however, fired his troops with\ncourage. Drawing his sword and uttering the name of St. Mary he rushed\namong the enemy and dealt such strokes that a man fell each time. In\nall 470 Saxons lay dead as the result of that terrific onslaught, and\nthe Britons rushing in at the right moment completed the Saxon rout.\nThis was the end of a long campaign which had taken Arthur through\nLincolnshire, Staffordshire, and Somerset. The date of the battle,\nas is usual with Arthurian dates, cannot be fixed. It is given by\ndifferent chroniclers as 493, 511, as 516 in the _Annales Cambri\u00e6_, and\nas 520.\n\nIt is surprising that Badon[23] should remain vague and undefined,\nwhen the sites of some of the other and less important battles are\nin most cases not dubious and are easily ascertained. We know, for\nexample, that Barham Down, or Barendowne, the scene of one of the\nlast encounters with Mordred, was near Canterbury; and the fact that\nthereabouts was an Anglo-Saxon cemetery may either be testimony to the\nfact, or may have suggested to the chroniclers the likelihood of its\nbeing an ancient battlefield. Mr. Ritson traced the localities of the\nother Arthurian struggles to the banks of the Glen in Lincolnshire\nand of the Duglas in Lancashire; he thought Bassas might be Bashford\nin Staffordshire, though others favour Boston in Lincolnshire;\nCathbregion was in Somersetshire, and so forth. Of these battles we\nhave no details in Malory. On the other hand, we have a long account\nof the expedition to Italy undertaken by Arthur against the Emperor\nof Rome after the latter had presumed to demand tribute from him. His\ncomplete humiliation of the Emperor\u2019s subjects is, of course, insisted\nupon. Prisoners were taken in large numbers and compelled to become\nChristians; a duchess besought him to spare the women and children, and\nArthur thereupon issued magnanimous orders; the keys of cities were\nbrought to him by young men, and his march through northern Italy was\none continuous triumph. \u201cThen he rideth into Tuscany,\u201d says Malory in\nhis most laconic style, \u201cand winneth towns and castles, and wasted all\nin his way that to him will not obey.\u201d Finally the senators offered\nhim allegiance, and the noblest cardinals in Rome came voluntarily to\nhim and \u201cprayed him peace.\u201d Arthur accepted their gifts, and decided\nto hold his Table Round, \u201cwith my knights as we liketh,\u201d in Rome at\nChristmas. Then, having been crowned by the Pope \u201cwith all the royalty\nthat could be made,\u201d he apportioned the realms among his knights and\nservants, and returned to England, landing at Sandwich,[24] where the\nqueen and a large company were waiting to receive him. King Arthur, his\nknighthood, his undefeated warriors, and his almost miraculous battles,\nare perhaps more a theme for the poet than for the historian. Such\nlines as Lytton\u2019s accord with the romance, and realise the aspirations\nof the unsubjugated tribe and of those who sang its fame and prophesied\nits future triumph.\n\n  \u201cRings Owaine\u2019s shout,--rings Geraint\u2019s thunder-cry,\n    The Saxon\u2019s death knell in a hundred wars;\n  And Cador\u2019s laugh of triumph:--through the sky\n    Rush tossing banderolls swift as shooting stars,\n  Trystan\u2019s white lion--Lancelot\u2019s cross of red,\n  And Tudor\u2019s standard with the Saxon\u2019s head.\n  And high o\u2019er all, its seal\u00e8d splendour rears\n    The vengeful emblem of the Dragon Kings.\n  Full on the Saxon bursts the storm of spears;\n    Far down the vale the charging whirlwind rings,\n  While through the ranks its barb\u00e8d knighthood clave,\n  All Carduel follows with its roaring wave.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nOF CAMELOT AND ALMESBURY\n\n  \u201cWith tabor blithe and bugle sound,\n  Unto King Arthur\u2019s Table Round,\n        Right valiant hearts I wot,\n  Drink, in thy spirit\u2019s lusty glee,\n  And pledge with fullest jollity\n        These knights of Camelot.\u201d--_Richard Hengist Horne._\n\n  \u201cKing Arthur at Camelot kept his Court Royall\n      With his faire Queene, Dame Guiniver the gay:\n  And many bold barons sitting in hall,\n  With ladies attired in purple and pall:\n      And heraults with hewkes hooting on high,\n      Cryed \u2018Largesse! Largesse! Chevaliers tr\u00e8s-hardies!\u2019\u201d\n                                  --_Percy Reliques._\n\n  \u201cGod\u2019s holy name was on his tongue,\n      Thine in his heart--Queen Guinevere.\u201d--_Paton._\n\n\nThose who press the question, where is many-tower\u2019d Camelot, where is\nthe royal mount rising between the forest and the field, where is the\nflashing city of the marvellous gate, may be referred by the veracious\nhistorian to a village in France, or by the unromantic antiquary to a\nhamlet in Scotland. Time has razed the real city, wherever it was, and\nthe poet can invest it with charms and environ it with wonders which\nit never possessed. The simple lover of the legend will be content\nto find King Arthur\u2019s favourite haunt in the fair domain of England,\namid the sleepy vales and the undisturbed hills of restful Somerset.\nOn the Mendips, within sight of a long range of wooded verdant hills,\nmany a tower and steeple dotting the vale which sweeps away until lost\nin the bluish haze of distance, here and there a bright homestead\ntwinkling on the heights or nestling in the bowery hollows, there is a\ndeserted place called Cadbury Camp. A stone wall winds round an ancient\nencampment and marks its bounds, and just across the open land looking\ntowards Portishead lie the widening waters of the Bristol Channel.\nThe hills around show every variety of green as they stretch further\nand further from the shore, and one would think that the region had\nbeen unvisited for a thousand years. And if tradition be true, this\nwas Camelot, Camelot where King Arthur sought repose; Camelot where\nSir Lancelot brought the daughter of King Leodegraunce of the land of\nCameliard, \u201cthe gentilest and fairest lady\u201d; Camelot where the king was\nwedded \u201cunto dame Guenever in the church of St. Stevens with great\nsolemnitie.\u201d It was at Camelot, on the occasion of this ceremony, that\nMerlin bade the knights of the Round Table (the gift of Leodegraunce\nto King Arthur) to sit still while he showed them \u201ca strange and\nmarvellous adventure.\u201d As they sat waiting and expectant, a white hart\nran into the hall, followed by a white brachet (or scenting hound) and\nby thirty couple of black running hounds \u201cwith a great crie\u201d; and the\nhart, wounded by the brachet, overthrew one of the knights, and led Sir\nGawaine, accompanied by Sir Gaheris, upon a wonderful quest, in which\nhe fought against great odds, slew a lady in a castle by misadventure,\nlearnt that \u201ca knight without mercy is without worshippe,\u201d and\nreturning to Camelot, saddened and disgraced, was bidden by the king\nand queen henceforth to \u201cbe with al ladyes and to fight for their\nquarrels.\u201d\n\nIt is worthy of note that Gawaine not only plays a most important part\nin the romance, but that, like Sir Kay, his character is variously\ndescribed and at times unnecessarily assailed by the chroniclers. By\nlaborious efforts his intentions are perverted and contempt thrown upon\nhis actions, and the episode of the \u201cfoule and shameful\u201d slaying of the\nlady enabled the chroniclers to dwell upon his \u201cvilanous\u201d deed and his\nmercilessness, while at the same time they were able to explain his\nsubsequent acts of courtesy as the result of the duty put upon him by\nthe king. Gawaine was Arthur\u2019s nephew, the son of Morgan le Fay, and\nMalory presents him to us alternately as the soul of chivalry and the\ntype of faithlessness. This accounts for Tennyson\u2019s query, \u201cArt thou\nnot he whom men call light-of-love?\u201d and for the poet\u2019s assertion that\nhis courtesy had \u201ca touch of traitor in it.\u201d Gawaine is frequently\nmade the subject of reproof in the romance, though he came out nobly\nin the end when he vowed to be revenged on sinful Lancelot, fought him\nvalorously, and died like a great hero. According to the original Welsh\nstory, it must be remembered, Gawaine was called the Golden-Tongued,\nowing to his powers of persuasion, none being able to resist him what\nhe asked. In the Triads he is addressed by Arthur as \u201cGwalchmai, of\nfaultless answers,\u201d and revolting Tristram, who dared the king to nine\nhundred combats, listened to Gawaine and yielded to his solicitation.\nThe tomb of Gawaine, according to William of Malmesbury, was discovered\nin the time of William the Conqueror in Wales, county Pembroke, where\nLady Charlotte Guest tells us there is a district called Castell\nGwalchmai. Gawaine\u2019s courtesy was proverbial in Chaucer\u2019s time, and\nthe Welsh historians impute to him great scientific learning--\u201cthere\nwas nothing of which he did not know the elements and the material\nessence.\u201d Hence Scott\u2019s reference to \u201cthe gentle Gawain\u2019s courteous\nlore.\u201d[25] All this is inconsistent with the levity and harshness\nattributed to him by Malory, though his wanton betrayal of Sir Pelleas\nand his guilty relations with Ettarde exposed him to the charge of\ninfamy and caused him to lose grace in the sight of those chroniclers\nwho had begun to give a spiritual significance to the tales of Arthur\u2019s\nCourt, and to find in the recital opportunities for preaching purity.\n\nPelleas\u2019s hopeless love for the scornful maiden is one of the saddest\nstories which form part of the Arthurian records. In his despair at\nbeing rejected by the \u201csovereign lady\u201d for whom he had fought and\nprevailed, he sought the help of Sir Gawaine--\u201cAnd, Sir Knight, sith\nye are so nigh a cousin unto King Arthur, and a king\u2019s son, therefore\nI pray thee, betray me not, but help me, for I may never come by her\nbut by the help of some good knight; for she is in a strong castle\nhere fast by, within this four miles, and over all this country she\nis lady of.\u201d Gawaine vowed to serve him, and declared that he would\nride to the castle, taking with him Pelleas\u2019s horse and armour, and\ntell her that he had slain her lover: \u201cand so shall I come within to\nher, and then shall I do my true part, and ye shall not fail to have\nher love.\u201d But instead of winning Ettarde for Pelleas, he won her for\nhimself, declaring that he had slain Pelleas and had come for her love.\nThey went out of the castle and dwelt with each other for two days in\na pavilion. The rest of the pitiful story is best told in Malory\u2019s own\nwords. \u201cAnd on the third day, in the morning early, Sir Pelleas armed\nhim, for he had not slept sith that Sir Gawaine departed from him; for\nSir Gawaine had promised him by the faith of his body to come unto him\nto his pavilion by the priory within the space of a day and a night.\nThen Sir Pelleas mounted on horsebacke, and came to the pavilion that\nstood without the castle.... Then hee went to the third pavilion and\nfound Sir Gawaine with his lady Ettarde; and when he saw that, his\nheart almost brast with sorrow, and he said: \u2018Alas, that ever a knight\nshould bee found so false.\u2019 And then he tooke his horse and might no\nlonger abide for sorrow. And when hee had ridden nigh halfe a mile, he\nturned againe and thought to sley them both, and when he saw them lye\nso fast sleeping, unneth (scarcely) hee might hold him on horseback\nfor sorrow, and said thus to himselfe, \u2018Though this knight be never so\nfalse, I will not sley him sleeping, for I will never destroy the high\norder of knighthood.\u2019 ... And when he came to the pavilions (a third\ntime) he tied his horse to a tree, and pulled out his sword naked in\nhis hand, and went straight to them where as they lay together, and\nyet he thought that it were great shame for him to sley them sleeping,\nand laid the naked sword overthwart both their throats, and then hee\ntooke his horse, and rod foorth his way, making great and wofull\nlamentation.\u201d Such is the story of Sir Gawaine and Sir Pelleas, knights\nof Camelot.\n\nAt Camelot, at the vigil of Pentecost, the knights gathered, Sir\nGawaine among them, and his falseness began to bring upon him\nretribution. All the seats at the Round Table were filled, save the\nSiege Perilous, though the time had now come, \u201cfour hundred winters,\nand four and fifty being accomplished, after the passion of our Lord\nJesus Christ,\u201d that the place should be no longer vacant. The king\nwished, according to custom, to see an adventure before sitting down to\nmeat, and tidings were brought him of a marvellous stone floating in\nthe river, and a sword sticking in it. Lancelot warned the knights not\nto touch the sword: \u201cWho assayeth for to take that sword, and faileth\nof it, he shall receive a wound by that sword.\u201d Nevertheless, Gawaine,\nobeying the command of the king, took the sword by the handle, but\nfailed to move it; and Gawaine next day vowed to set forth upon the\nquest of the Grail, the vision of which had appeared unto the assembly\nwhen they returned from \u201cCamelot\u2019s minster.\u201d His quest was unavailing.\nThrough the streets of Camelot the knights sallied forth, \u201cand there\nwas weeping of the rich and poor, and the king returned away, and\nmight not speak for weeping.\u201d Of all who failed, Gawaine failed most\nsignally. The monk of the abbey where he sought refuge condemned\nhis wickedness, and the good men at the hermitage of whom he asked\nharbour for charity, reproached him with his mischievous life of many\nwinters, and sternly bade him do penance. If Sir Gawaine redeemed his\nreputation as the champion of the injured king, it scarcely sufficed to\natone for the evil he wrought when the days were fair at Camelot.\n\nIn the _Prologue_ by Caxton we are told that record of King Arthur was\nto be found in \u201cthe toune of Camelot, the grete stones and mervayllous\nwerkys of yron lying under the grounde, and ryal vautes, which dyvers\nnow lyving hath seen.\u201d These relics have vanished, and Camelot is\nnothing but a waste. But there is just a chance that Caxton had some\nother Camelot than South Cadbury in his mind, for he speaks of it as in\nWales, while in the story of the burial of Balin and Balan by Merlin we\nread that \u201cBalin\u2019s sword was put in marble stone, standing upright as\ngreat as a milstone, and the stone hoved alwayes above the water, and\ndid many yeares, and so by adventure it swam downe the streame to the\ncitie of Camelot, that is in English, Winchester.\u201d[26] This confusion\nis easily explained. Putting aside the fact that there is little\ncoherence or consistency in the geography of the romance, we have\nalready suggested a reason for the chronicler\u2019s statement that Camelot\nwas Winchester. In Monmouthshire is Caer-went, a resort of King Arthur,\nand Winchester was known as Caer-wynt, a sufficiently close resemblance\nto lead the old chroniclers astray. Obviously there must have been more\nthan one Camelot, if we are to pay any heed to the situation, distance,\nand characteristics mentioned in Malory\u2019s chapters. Caer-went has a\nhistory dating back to the fifth century, when a school or college was\nfounded there by Ynyr Gwent, king of the district called Gwent, and\nthe husband of Vortimer\u2019s daughter, Madrun. At Caer-went was fought\none of the last British battles with the Saxons just as they were\nreaching the gates of Caerleon itself. The town is situated on the\nVia Julia, or military road, made by Julius Frontius in the year 80,\nand traces of it remained at the beginning of last century. Leland\nspeaks of its four great gates which \u201cyet appear,\u201d and an enthusiastic\npilgrim in 1802 wrote that the place, despite its present uninviting\nand desolate aspect, deserved \u201cevery attention that can be bestowed by\nthe antiquarian or lover of those scites memorable for having been the\nscenes of magnificence, genius, and heroism. Roman greatness has at\nthis place shone with a splendour little inferior to any other part of\nthe kingdom.\u201d By some Caer-went is supposed to have been the capital\nof the Silures, before Caerleon, and to have had a population of ten\nthousand. Leland describes it as \u201ca sumtyme fair and large cyte.\u201d As a\nBritish camp it may figure under various names in the romances.\n\nWe associate Camelot with the more peaceful part of Arthur\u2019s life, and\nwith the brighter and more hopeful history of his followers, though\nsad and tragic episodes in that history are by no means lacking. Up\nthe soft velvety sward came the knights in armour ready to tourney for\nthe prize of ladies\u2019 smiles, and where the bee buzzes and the pheasant\nruns was heard the clash of arms or the caracolling of many steeds.\nHere, too, and we tell now a more certain truth, came the Roman with\nhis legions; here met contending forces, and the repose of the land was\nbroken with the tumult of war. Time has swept away every vestige of the\npower and glory of old, and left the open field, the trench, and the\nbroken gray wall, as the sole mementoes of Camelot, but about all has\nretained the glamour of one heroic name. The rabbit and the mole burrow\nto the foundations of Arthur\u2019s royal town, and the centuries have laid\nmoss and leaf upon the unfrequented paths and the vanishing signs of\nformer occupation. Yet no one can spend an hour at Cadbury Camp without\nfeeling that \u201cthe dust we tread once breathed.\u201d The Severn sparkles in\nthe distance, and was probably the \u201criver of Camelot,\u201d where Merlin set\nthe \u201cperon\u201d or tombstone, and where Sir Tristram appointed his meeting\nwith Palamides.\n\nNo description of Camelot, with its courts and towers, its knights\nand people, could be more entrancing than Tennyson\u2019s. He told of the\nmighty hall built by Merlin, with its mystic symbols in sculpture and\nstatuary; and he said that it was reached by the \u201csacred mount\u201d--\n\n  \u201cAnd all the dim, rich city, roof by roof,\n  Tower after tower, spire by spire,\n  By grove and garden-lawn, and rushing brook.\u201d\n\nArthur\u2019s statue had been moulded with a crown, and \u201cpeaked wings\npointing to the Northern Star,\u201d and this representation again calls\nattention to the astronomical significance of the history of the king\nwhose name is preserved in Arcturus, the star of first magnitude, above\nwhich is set \u201cArthur\u2019s chair,\u201d Ursa Major.\n\nThere may not be much to warrant the various traditions of Camelot,\nand there remains nothing to verify them. South Cadbury, or Cadbury\nCamp, silent and deserted as it now is, undoubtedly has a curious\nhistory. It was anciently known as Camallate and Camellek, and was\nearly associated with King Arthur; it was a hill-fort of that strange,\nstrong race of warriors, the Belg\u00e6, who overran the southern counties\nand were dislodged from their strongholds with the greatest difficulty\nby the Romans. This camp was as the rallying-point in the British and\nChristian dominion of Gladerhaf, or Somerset. Some have supposed it\nwas the Cathbrigion where Arthur routed the Saxons in a great battle,\nand so linked his name indissolubly with the locality. Leland in his\nItinerary described it as \u201csometime a famous town or castle, upon\na very torre or hill, wonderfully enstrengthened of nature\u201d; and\nJohn Selden, in his notes to the _Polyolbion_ of Drayton, definitely\ndescribed it as \u201ca hill of a mile compass at the top, four trenches\nencircling it, and twixt every one of them an earthen wall; the\ncontents of it, within about twenty acres, full of ruins and relics\nof old buildings.\u201d It has yielded various ancient weapons, Roman\ncoins, a silver horseshoe, and articles of camp equipage. The four\nconcentric deep ditches and the ramparts, forty-five feet apart, can\nstill be traced, and the camp seems to have been originally connected\nwith an extensive intrenchment on the opposite summit of the hill to\nthe north-west. From its position Cadbury must have been an important\nstation commanding the military road which ran from Bower Walls on the\nAvon to the neighbouring heights of Clevedon--the little town which\ngave birth to Arthur Henry Hallam, whose ancestral abode, Clevedon\nCourt, is sheltered by the fir-trees which are seen grouped in gloom\nfrom Cadbury\u2019s height. At Clevedon also dwelt Coleridge for a time,\nas several of his poems, written in celebration of the surrounding\nscenes, will for ever remind us. From Cadbury can be discerned the\npretty village of Wrington, where is cherished the memory of the Rev.\nW. Leeves, who fashioned for \u201cAuld Robin Gray\u201d a fitting melody. It is\neasy to perceive that the possessor of a stronghold on Cadbury would\nbe able to hold in subjection the entire district, and the name of the\nplace appears to bear witness that a decisive battle once raged there,\nfor _cad_ is the Cornish and Cymrian word for battle, and _bury_ for\nhill or brow.\n\nBut it is Arthur, and Arthur only, who is commemorated at Cadbury Camp\nto-day. There may be seen his Round Table, and the local superstition\nruns that within the charmed circle the king may be seen sitting with\nhis knights behind barred golden gates. The great intrenchment is\ncalled the site of King Arthur\u2019s Palace; in the field below is King\nArthur\u2019s Hunting Causeway; and it is King Arthur\u2019s Well which springs\nfrom the hillside and bubbles up in the fourth ditch. These recall the\nwondrous past, the golden days, when the fame and splendour of Arthur\u2019s\nCourt were on all tongues, and the poet could long afterwards ask--\n\n  \u201cLike Camelot what place was ever yet renown\u2019d,\n  Where, as at Caerleon, oft he kept the Table Round,\n  Most famous for the sports at Pentecost so long,\n  From whence all knightly deeds and brave achievements sprong.\u201d\n\nIt was at Camelot that, when Arthur \u201clet make a crie\u201d the lords,\nknights, and gentlemen of arms gathered, and \u201cthere the King would let\nmake a counsoile generall, and a great justes.\u201d It was to Camelot that\nSir Pellinore came \u201cpassing sore\u201d and told his saddest of stories; and\nit was to Camelot that King Arthur turned after wearying combat and\nhot adventure, certain there to enjoy rest and to find his queen and\nthe barons \u201cright glad of his comming.\u201d \u201cWhat tidings at Camelot?\u201d\nasked one knight of another whom he encountered. \u201cBy my head,\u201d said\nthe other, \u201cthere have I beene, and espied the court of King Arthur,\nand there is such a fellowship that they may never be brok, and wel\nnigh al the world holdeth with King Arthur, for there is the flower of\nchivalry.\u201d Such was the renown of Camelot.\n\nTo Camelot the knights sent their prisoners to do homage to King Arthur\nand confess his greatness. The church of St. Stephen\u2019s, often called\nthe Minster, was the place where the king and his followers assembled\nto hear the Archbishop\u2019s blessing upon their enterprises, and in the\nadjoining grounds the principal men slain in battle were buried with\nall honour. The twelve kings who fell in war with King Lot \u201cwere\nburied in the church of Saint Stephen\u2019s, in Camelot, and the remnant\nof knights and of other were buried in a great rock,\u201d so one of the\nrecords runs. By the side of Lanceor\u2019s tomb, made by Merlin, Tristram\nand Lancelot encountered each other and \u201cfought together unknown,\u201d\nand \u201ceither wounded other wonderly sore, that the blood ran out upon\nthe grass\u201d; then, discovering that they were friends, they yielded up\ntheir swords, \u201ceither kissed other an hundred times,\u201d and rode back to\nCamelot. Elaine, the mother of Galahad, came to Camelot richly attired,\nand put Lancelot to shame, and it was at Camelot that the last sad\nscenes in their tragic drama were enacted. The quest for the Sancgreal\nbegan there, and King Arthur, full of forebodings, took a last review\nof his knights and caused them to assemble for a last tournament in\nCamelot\u2019s meadows, \u201cthat after your death men may speak of it, that\nsuch good knights were wholly together such a day.\u201d The queen and\nher ladies beheld the noble gathering from her tower, and saw Sir\nGalahad, the perfect knight, break the spears of all who came against\nhim save that of his father, Sir Lancelot, and that of his compeer Sir\nPercivale. When next we read of Camelot, Arthur is regretting the loss\nof half his noble company; and when the worst had come to pass, and the\nking discovered the wrong done to him by Lancelot and Guinevere, it\nwas of lonely Camelot he thought with tenderest regret. Tennyson has\nseized upon this idea, and put into the mouth of the king the mournful\nsoliloquy as he muses on his faithless wife--\n\n            \u201cHow sad it were to live\n  And sit once more within the lonely hall,\n  And miss the wonted number of my knights,\n      *    *    *    *    *\n  And in thy bowers of Camelot or of Usk\n  Thy shadow still would glide from room to room,\n  And I should evermore be vexed with thee\n  In hanging robe or vacant ornament\n  Or ghostly footfall echoing on the stair.\u201d\n\nThis was when the time was come that Arthur should see Camelot no\nmore--when he had gone forth to his last fight, and Guinevere had taken\nthe nun\u2019s habit and immured herself in Almesbury.\n\nRenan has very finely remarked that in Celtic literature woman is\nmore tenderly and delicately portrayed than in the writings and\nsongs of any other race. Love is \u201ca mystery, a kind of intoxication,\na madness, a giddiness,\u201d and woman is superbly idealised until she\nseems in our eyes an ethereal, radiant, half-spiritual or even angelic\ncreature. The romances are \u201cdewy with feminine sentiment,\u201d and the\nchivalric conception of the heroine is so pure and beautiful that\nPercivale\u2019s sister, or Geraint\u2019s wife, appears \u201cas a sort of vague\nvision intermediate between man and the supernatural world.\u201d Even\nfaithless Guinevere--is she not so rarely beautiful, are not her spell\nand witchery so strong, that, while hating her sin, we hesitate to\njoin in her condemnation, and have no heart to approve such passionate\ndenunciation as was spoken by the king in his hour of gloom?[27] The\nvision of Guinevere flashes upon us as she was when Lancelot led her\nfrom Cameliard to the king\u2019s court at Camelot, when she went a-Maying\nwith her maidens, and when she was the cynosure of all eyes among the\nspectators of the tournament. There was something daring on the part\nof the old chroniclers in making King Arthur\u2019s danger issue from the\nbest of knights and the most lovely of women--the two nearest to him,\nand bound to him by the most sacred ties of love and honour. Still\nmore strange is it that, deep as their sinning was, we have so little\nblame--or rather, let us say, resentment--for Lancelot and Guinevere.\nThis is not because Arthur has not the strongest claim upon our\nsympathy, or because for one moment he fails to win our admiration; it\nis only because Lancelot and Guinevere also have strong human claims\nupon us, and so far have won our regard that we cannot withhold our\ncompassion also. Were not the knights themselves reluctant to condemn?\nThe romance brings out the fact conspicuously that it was not the\nnoblest, but the meanest, of the knights who revealed the wrong to\nthe king; nor was it the gallant men who willed that Guinevere should\ndie at the stake for her infidelity. And in the end do we not pity\nmournful and repentant Lancelot in his lonely castle, or when paying\nthat noblest of tributes to his dead master? And does not even a deeper\nfeeling extend to the desolate woman who wore out her life in the\nAlmesbury convent?\n\nWhat ingredient of historic fact there may be in the record that the\nAmbresbyrig of the Saxons, and the Caer Emrys of the \u201cMabinogion\u201d was\nthe queen\u2019s retreat, the faithful alone must decide. All that impartial\nand not too credulous historians can do is to pronounce the place as\nnot unlikely, not impossible, and not unfitting as her abode and as\nthe scene of her last acts of restitution and repentance. Almesbury\nis a British earthwork of forty acres, the stronghold of Ambrosius\nAurelianus, Dux Britanniarum, of Roman lineage, but the champion of\nthe Britons against the Saxon horde. Religious associations both early\nand late cling to this ancient place, and long after Guinevere was\ndust a Benedictine monastery, founded by Queen Elfrida, continued the\nreligious traditions of the earlier era; and the fact that Almesbury\nwas the customary retreat of royal ladies who wished to withdraw from\nthe world confirms the character of the place as depicted in Malory\u2019s\nchronicle. Guinevere gave herself up to lamentation among the nuns,\n\u201cand never creature could make her merry\u201d; Sir Lancelot\u2019s visit only\nstrengthened her resolution to make amends for the past, and prompted\nhim also to seek, too late, perfection in righteous living. While in\na hermitage himself there came to him the vision of the queen\u2019s end,\nand taking her corpse to Glastonbury, he performed for it the last\nrites, and then delivered himself over to death. His resting-place\nwas Joyous Gard, which, in his grief he had called Dolorous Gard;\nthe queen was laid by her husband\u2019s side in the island-valley. But\nat Llanilterne, near Cardiff, a huge quoin stone may be seen with an\nalmost undecipherable _Hic jacet_, and popular tradition declares that\nthis is Guinevere\u2019s monument. \u201cThrough this knight and me,\u201d said the\nqueen, when Sir Lancelot and she met in the Almesbury convent, \u201call\nthe wars were wrought, and the death of the most noble knights of the\nworld: for through our love that we have loved together is my most\nnoble lord slain; therefore, wit thou well, Sir Lancelot, I am in such\na plight to get my soul\u2019s health; and yet I trust, through God\u2019s grace,\nthat after my death for to have the sight of the blessed face of Jesu\nChrist, and at the dreadful day of doom to sit on his right side: for\nas sinful creatures as ever was I are saints in heaven.\u201d When next the\n\u201cfalsely true\u201d knight saw the queen he was in his monk\u2019s habit and she\nwas \u201cwrapped in seared cloths of reins, from the top to the toe, in\nthirty fold\u201d; then, on foot, he followed her to her tomb, recalling\n\u201cher beauty, her bounty, and her nobleness.\u201d The next scene is at\nJoyous Gard itself, with Sir Lancelot smiling as he lies dead, and a\nhundred torches burning about him; while Sir Ector de Maris delivers\nthe noblest of tributes to the courtliest knight, the truest friend,\nthe meekest man, the sternest foe, and \u201cthe truest lover of a sinful\nman that ever loved woman.\u201d\n\nFrom Camelot to Almesbury is a far journey, and that journey marks the\ntwo extremes of Arthurian history from the happiest to the saddest,\nfrom the height of power and the plenitude of peace to the final\ndesolation and unavailing regret. The bridge which connects Camelot\nwith Almesbury is made up of the greatest achievements and the deepest\ntragedies of Arthur\u2019s reign. It is a bridge of ascent and descent, its\nhighest point marked by the puissance of the Table Round and Galahad\u2019s\nachievement of the quest of the Grail, its lowest part dipping into the\neternal gloom which followed the last battle in the west--a gloom from\nwhich the Britons were destined never to emerge. That gloom falls over\nAlmesbury, but Camelot is still left in the light.\n\nNever was, and never can be, such a fairyland as \u201cmany-tower\u2019d\nCamelot.\u201d Its crystal dykes, its slope street, its weird white gate,\nand its spires and turrets without number, are a poet\u2019s dream. It\nwas the city of enchanters, built by fairy kings, a city which had no\nbeginning, was raised by no human hands, and can have no end--\n\n        \u201cA city of shadowy palaces,\n  And stately, rich in emblem and the work\n  Of ancient Kings who did their days in stone,\u201d\n\na city of pure delights, of calm and innocence, of splendour and\ncontentment.\n\n  \u201cOut of bower and casement shyly glanced\n  Eyes of pure women, wholesome stars of love;\n  And all about a healthful people stept\n  As in the presence of a gracious king.\u201d\n\nWhere, indeed, could be this new Eden save in the imagination of the\nromancer who conceived a fitting scene for King Arthur\u2019s Court? It\nis like the fairy gold which vanishes whenever a hand reaches out to\ntouch it. The \u201cCamaletic Mount\u201d is one of Nature\u2019s hallowed places, a\nplace of wondrous stillness and magic charm, a place to regard as the\nstronghold of romance, and yet not the place that poets have sung. One\ncan easily imagine the Lady of Shalott prisoned here in her bower, and\nseeing all the moving world as shadows in a mirror; and one can deem\nthe scene appropriate for the meeting of Lancelot and the Lily-maid who\nlifted up her eyes and lov\u2019d him with that love which was her doom. It\nis not well to inquire more deeply and more closely into the past of\nCamelot, but to heed the poet\u2019s warning--\n\n                    \u201cNever seek to behold\n  Where the crystal streams ran in the City of Gold.\u201d\n\nBetter to people it with the phantoms of Arthur\u2019s Court than to\ndiscover that the cavemen of the Mendips made it an abode. \u201cThe people\ncan telle nothing ther, but that they have hard say that Arture much\nresorted to Camalot,\u201d wrote Leland, and that suffices. Camelot is\npurely ideal, and it is enough to find a real Camelot which faintly\nrecalls the place which Arthur\u2019s eulogists deemed fitting for his\nCourt. Such cities, which had no beginning, have no end, and Camelot\nwill last as long, and prove as indestructible, as Fairyland itself.\n\n  \u201cThe thrushes sang in the lone garden there--\n  Clanging of arms about pavilion fair,\n    Mixed with the knights\u2019 laughs; there, as I well know,\n  Rode Lancelot, the king of all the band,\n    And scowling Gawaine, like the night in day,\n  And handsome Gareth, with his great white hand\n    Curl\u2019d round the helm-crest, ere he join\u2019d the fray.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nOF ST. KNIGHTON\u2019S KIEVE AND THE HOLY GRAIL\n\n  \u201cThe war-worn champion quits the world--to hide\n  His thin autumnal locks where monks abide\n  In cloistered privacy.\u201d--_Wordsworth._\n\n  \u201cHither came Joseph of Arimathy,\n  Who brought with him the Holy Grayle (they say),\n  And preacht the truth: but since it greatly did decay.\u201d\n\n  _Spenser._\n\n\nAbout a mile from Tintagel, along the hilly road leading to Boscastle,\nand passing the wonderful little Bossiney cove with its elephant-shaped\nrock, there is a small rapid stream which winds through the Rocky\nValley and falls like a torrent at low tide into the sea. The Rocky\nValley, with its three huge boulders, its narrow walk now leading to\nthe side of the stream and now mounting far above it, and ending only\nwhere the iron cliffs beetle above the roughest of bays, is one of the\nmost sublime spectacles that Nature has to display in that enchanted\nregion. The scenery is a mixture of dark and frowning heights standing\nout with precipitous sides, and of green and gentle undulations, amidst\nwhich sparkles ever and anon the tinkling sinuous brooklet. But it is\nnot so much the valley, despite its manifold charms, as the little\nstream, which has a special interest for the pilgrim. By devious ways\nits course may be traced back through a rushy channel which lies\ndeep and almost hidden between two sets of well-wooded hills until\nsuddenly the traveller hears the sound of a sharp splashing from an\nunseen cataract. The walk now leads upward to a small gate; passing\nthrough the opening we descend once more a steep embankment and find\nourselves at the water-edge. It is a haunted, sequestered spot, shut\nin by the hills, overcast by shadows, the one sound the sound of the\nleaping stream. This is St. Knighton\u2019s Kieve, once regarded with a\nspecies of holy awe in Cornwall and believed, like most natural wells\nor \u201cbasins,\u201d to be under the special protection and influence of a\nsaint. The superstition is an old one, and slowly dying out, though the\nbelief in holy wells, fairy wells, and wishing wells is one of the most\npleasing and least harmful of all ancient fancies. Every spring was of\nyore regarded more or less as a miracle; every torrent had its tutelary\ngenius.\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nST. KNIGHTON\u2019S KIEVE, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 184_]\n\nThe Kieve is a natural bowl into which the flashing cascade plunges\nfrom the rocks above. The water has worn its way through a narrow rocky\ncrevice and drops through a natural bridge thickly overgrown with fern\nand moss. The dark Kieve receives the torrent, and the water spreads\nout again and dimples in the shallow bed, gliding smoothly and almost\nsilently through the luxurious plantation. Now and then we catch its\ngleam among the lush foliage, and a mile or more beyond may be seen\nthe deep blue of the sea into which it pours its tiny tribute. Below\nthe edge of the Kieve is a flat slab, and the stream is broken as it\nshoots down; on one side is a bulging black rock which looks darker by\ncontrast with the shining waters. The trees form a screen through which\nthe light passes more dimly, and this secluded half-hidden spot is\nperceived to be a fitting scene for the stories it has inspired.\n\nThe Kieve as a place for complete retirement would, with many\ndisadvantages, possess the one strong and desirable advantage of being\ndifficult to discover without those written instructions as to the\nwinding path which are now placed in the visitor\u2019s hands. For, lying\na mile or more beyond the beaten track, it can be found only after\na confusing journey through the thick brush and weeds of the valley,\nover rudely constructed bridges, up steep and slippery embankments, and\nfinally through the doorway which is kept closed and locked against all\ncomers save those who have begun the search from the right and legal\nroad.\n\nIf we were to adhere strictly to Malory\u2019s narrative we should say\nthat the quest for the Holy Grail began at Camelot. Local tradition,\nhowever, is privileged to depart from written records, and it happens\nthat in this case the scene is transferred to this spot near King\nArthur\u2019s birthplace. We are asked to believe that the knights, standing\nwith bowed heads in the Kieve, undertook the search for the Holy Vessel\nof the Last Supper, brought by Joseph of Arimath\u00e6a to this land, the\nCup that had been hidden and lost, and was destined to be discovered\nonly by the pure and perfect knight. The king, standing on the bridge\nof rock above the torrent, watched his reverent followers in the stream\nbelow laving their brows in its waters, listening to the music of the\nfall, and, full of the inspiration of the scene, making their solemn\nvows, and with a firm desire after righteousness setting forth upon\nthe quest. Lancelot and Bors, Perceval and Galahad, when in the wild\nwoods far distant or among the ruined chapelries, when tormented by\ndoubts and wrestling with foes, might be expected to recall that cool\nand shady gathering-place, to see in a vision the flashing cascade, to\ndream of the crystalline brightness of the plunging water, and with\nrenewed hope and courage to continue their hard task.\n\nSome such sequestered place the poet of \u201cSir Galahad, a Christmas\nMystery,\u201d may have had in mind when he pictured the lonely knight\nstruck with awe by hearing a voice which said that the great Quest\nwould be achieved by him alone--\n\n                      \u201cFollowing\n  That holy Vision, Galahad, go on.\u201d\n\nTo this very spot, too, if legend be true, the knights who had failed\nreturned.\n\nThe story of the Holy Grail is too profound and complex a study to be\ntreated in these pages save in the most superficial and limited manner.\nVolumes have been and still can be devoted to the subject, and yet not\nexhaust all that is to be told of this world-legend with its infinite\nvariations and its numberless phases and meanings. Like a river of\nmany obscure sources, most of which are now partly known, thanks to\nthe perseverance of the most devoted and painstaking of exploring\nscholars, it gathers in volume upon the way, and to trace it backward\nor onward involves an equally long and tortuous journey. The primary\nform of the legend, the actual beginning of the Grail romance cycle,\nremains a mystery and seemingly undiscoverable. The oldest poems on\nthe subject, those of Christien de Troyes and Robert de Borron, were\nfounded upon a model, or models, absolutely untraced. That it was a\nprimitive Celtic tradition admits of no doubt, but when Walter Map\nincorporated the legend into the Arthurian story in the thirteenth\ncentury there were Latin, German, and French originals for him to work\nupon. In one chief version of the narrative Perceval is the supreme\nfigure; in the other Galahad, Perceval, and Bors all achieve a measure\nof success, the first named being the absolute victor and the others\nbeing admitted to partial triumph. The Christian element in the cycle\nis distinct almost throughout, and the many versions have one point in\ncommon--the sanctity of the Grail, its connection with the Saviour, or\nwith John the Baptist, and its continued miraculous power proceeding\nfrom this connection. But the Celtic originals would be free from\ntraces of Christian symbolism. In Malory we find the Holy Vessel in\nthe possession of King Pelleas, nigh cousin to Joseph. When the king\nand Sir Lancelot went to take their repast a dove entered the window\nof the castle, and she bore in her bill a little censer of gold from\nwhich proceeded a savour as if all the spicery of the world had been\nthere. The table was forthwith filled with good meats and drinks by\nmeans of the Grail, \u201cthe richest thing that any man hath living,\u201d as\nKing Pelleas declared. Whether the Grail was a chalice which received\nthe blood of the crucified Lord; whether, as others have affirmed, it\nwas the dish on which the head of John the Baptist had lain; or whether\nit was a miraculous stone which fell from the crown of the revolting\nangels made for Lucifer, the belief in its reality in early times must\nhave been sincere and ineradicable. It was said to have sustained\nJoseph during an imprisonment of forty-two years; the fisherman king,\nPelleas, needed no food while it was in his keeping. This is set forth\nin Wolfram\u2019s \u201cParzival\u201d--\n\n  \u201cWhate\u2019er one\u2019s wishes did command,\n  That found he ready to his hand.\u201d\n\nWolfram von Eschenbach, to whom both Germans and English owe so much,\nfound a collection of badly joined fables which he turned into an epic,\nmaking Parzival (Perceval) the hero and the Grail quest the central\nincident. Wolfram knew nothing of Joseph of Arimath\u00e6a; but Mr. Alfred\nNutt has pointed out that the Joseph form of the Grail story and the\nPerceval form may really form one organic whole, or the one part may\nbe an explanatory after-thought. Whether the Christian element was\ninfluenced by Celtic tradition, or whether the Christian legend was\nsuperimposed upon the Celtic basis, is the subtle point which few care\nto say is decided. The suggestion has been thrown out that the Grail\nlegend may even be of Jewish origin, and that in singing of their Holy\nCity whose walls should be called \u201csalvation,\u201d whose gates \u201cpraise,\u201d\nand whose \u201cstones should be laid in fair colours,\u201d they supplied the\ngerm from which in medi\u00e6val ages the Grail-myth sprang. The Grail was\nan article of strong belief with the Templars who worshipped the head\nof John the Baptist, which was reported to have been found in the\nfourth century, to have kept an Emperor from dying at Constantinople,\nand to have provided nourishment for all who were engaged upon\nreligious crusades. The idea of the Holy City seems again to recall the\naspiration of the Templars, and the Sarras of romance may have been\nnone other than Jerusalem. Mr. Nutt has been able to adduce Celtic\nparallels for all the leading incidents in the romance of the Grail,\nwhile the many inconsistencies in the versions are explained by the\nfusion of two originally distinct groups of stories. It is, as Mr.\nNutt aptly says, the Christian transformation of the old Celtic myths\nand folk-tales which \u201cgave them their wide vogue in the Middle Ages,\nwhich endowed the theme with such fascination for the preachers and\nphilosophers who use it as a vehicle for their teaching, and which has\nendeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism.\u201d\n\nFour of Malory\u2019s \u201cBooks\u201d treat of the quest of the Holy Grail and of\nthe adventures of the knights who undertook it. These \u201cBooks\u201d supply\nthe spiritual and religious leaven of the romance. Only by stainless\nand honourable lives, not by prowess and courage, so the knights were\ntaught, could the final goal be reached. Success in the tournament and\nin war was achieved by inferior means. Hardihood and skill were of no\navail where the Grail was the prize. \u201cI let you to wit,\u201d said King\nPelleas, \u201chere shall no knight win worship but if he be of worship\nhimself and good living, and that loveth God; and else he getteth no\nworship here, be he ever so hardy.\u201d Sinful Lancelot was fated to test\nthis truth. Struggle manfully as he would, victory was not for him,\nthough, as the old hermit told Sir Bors, \u201chad not his sin been, he\nhad passed all the knights that ever were in his days\u201d; but \u201csin is\nso foul in him that he may not achieve such holy deeds.\u201d The devoted\nknights might speak of Lancelot\u2019s nobleness and courtesy, his beauty\nand gentleness, but the quest was not for him. His expiation was\nsevere. Of the hundred and fifty knights--\u201cthe fairest fellowship and\nthe truest of knighthood that ever were seen together in any realm of\nthe world--whom King Arthur reluctantly allowed to seek for the Grail,\nonly one, the virgin Galahad, could enter the Castle of Maidens and\ndeliver the prisoners, could hear the voices of angels foretelling his\ntriumph, could find the Grail, and could be crowned in the holy city\nof Sarras, the \u2018spiritual place.\u2019\u201d It was in this city that Joseph had\nbeen succoured; it was here that Perceval\u2019s sister was entombed; it\nwas here by general assent that the pure Galahad was proclaimed king;\nand it was here that the Grail remained. \u201cAnd when he was come for to\nbehold the land, he let make about the table of silver a chest of gold\nand of precious stones, that covered the holy vessel; and every day in\nthe morning the three fellows (Perceval and Bors with Galahad) would\ncome before it, and say their devotions.\u201d At the year\u2019s end Galahad\nsaw a man kneeling before the Grail; he was in the likeness of\nthe bishop: it was Joseph. The saint told the virgin knight that his\nvictory had been complete and his life perfect. \u201cAnd therewith,\u201d runs\nthe beautiful chronicle, \u201che kneeled down before the table and made his\nprayers; and then suddenly his soul departed unto Jesus Christ, and\na great multitude of angels bare his soul up to heaven that his two\nfellows might behold it; also, his two fellows saw come from heaven a\nhand, but they saw not the body, and then it came right to the vessel\nand took it, and the spear, and so bare it up to heaven. Since then was\nthere never a man so hardy for to say that he had seen the Sancgreal.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nST. KNIGHTON\u2019S GLEN\n\n  [_To face p. 192_]\n\nWe turn instinctively to Tennyson for the poetisation of this incident.\nNo one has worked on the legends so wondrously as he, no one has\nadded more to their moral significance or to their mysticism. His\nparaphrase of the prose of Malory, his additions to the details, and\nhis glorification of the vision, rank among the greatest triumphs of\nhis peculiar art.\n\nWith what feelings is one likely to read his _Holy Grail_, and,\nstanding near the broken and gleaming torrent of St. Knighton\u2019s Kieve,\ntry to imagine that the marvellous quest which ended in Sarras began at\nthis spot?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nOF CAMELFORD AND THE LAST BATTLE\n\n  \u201cO\u2019er Cornwall\u2019s cliffs the tempest roar\u2019d,\n  High the screaming sea-mew soar\u2019d;\n  On Tintagel\u2019s topmost tower\n  Darksome fell the sheeting shower;\n  Round the rough Castle shrilly sung\n  The whirling blast, and wildly flung\n  On each tall rampart\u2019s thundering side\n  The surges of the tumbling tide:\n  When Arthur ranged his red cross ranks\n  On conscious Camlan\u2019s crimson banks.\u201d\n\n  WHARTON, _The Grave of King Arthur_.\n\n  \u201cOn Trinitye Mondaye in the morne\n    This sore battayle was doomed to be;\n  Where many a knight cry\u2019d \u2018Well-a-waye!\u2019\n    Alacke, it was the more pittie.\u201d\n\n  _Percy Reliques._\n\n\nSheer over the bleak Cornish hills, fifteen miles from Launceston,\nlies a small white-looking town with a precipitous highway along which\nthe principal houses and one or two poor-looking public buildings\nare ranged. It is a town without a church, and, except on market\nday, without the signs of stirring life and business; a remote and\nisolated little place which nevertheless once had its own Parliamentary\nrepresentative and not unfittingly chose \u201cOssian\u201d Macpherson as its\nmember. This is Camelford, and the ride by coach from Launceston is not\nuninteresting or uninstructive. The desolate aspect of the land, the\npoverty-stricken appearance of the few tiny villages passed on the way,\nthe barrenness of the hills, the scantness of the population, all serve\nto reveal the history, past and present, of this portion of England\nwhere only the hardiest of the race could live, and live somewhat\nprecariously. The land itself yields little; there are no rivers upon\nwhich a boat could be used, and the line of rough hills which form\nthe spine of the county pent the people as within a prison. Even now,\nCamelford and half a score of like places seem shut out of the world.\nThe stream of life is sluggish, luxuries are scarcely known, the habits\nof the villagers are primitive, and yet the Cornishmen retain that\nrugged independence for which they have at all times been noted. In old\ntimes the county produced a race of heroes and giants who preserved\ntheir liberties and were among the last to be subdued by English\nrulers. Both modern and ancient history, legends and facts, bear\ntestimony to the constant struggle which prevailed in this part, and\nhad there been no \u201cgiants\u201d in Cornwall, neither its traditions nor its\nhistory would be what they are. Queen Elizabeth said that the further\nshe travelled west in her dominions the more convinced she was that\nthe wise men came from the east. In a sense this was grossly unjust,\nfor the Cornishmen, though they may have seemed a little uncouth,\nwere by no means an uncultured race, and their literature proves how\nearly they had their thinkers and their scholars, their bards and\ntheir chroniclers. Taciturnity on the part of this people need not be\ntaken as a sign of unintelligence; rather is it proof to the contrary,\nfor the Cornishman thinks for himself; he has his own opinions, and\nsturdily maintains them. A certain aloofness is discernible, and this\nis characteristic of a race which has so many claims to a distinct\nrecord of its own. In the character, bearing, and habits of the men\nof to-day may be found considerable corroboration of the truth which\nunderlies the myths and legends of antiquity. If Camelford is now\ncommonplace, with its market, its commercial inn, its linen-drapers\u2019,\nironmongers\u2019, and greengrocers\u2019 shops, there may yet be found within\nand around it much to charm and much to kindle the enthusiasm of\nthe lover of romance. Here and there are the relics over which the\nantiquary gloats, and now and then a name is heard or seen which at\nonce revives olden memories, or suggests with more or less distinctness\na real connection with the last of the British race. It is not a little\nremarkable that while not a trace of the fourteenth century Charity\nChapel remains, the sites of camps and the scenes of battles of much\nremoter date are still to be found. Signs of British occupation are not\nlacking, and one entrenchment known as Arthur\u2019s Hill takes us right\nback to the time of the great king. Mere names may, however, in most\ncases count for nought, and the fact that hills, tarns, and fords bear\nthe classic designation and are reputed to have had connection with\nArthurian deeds is not equivalent to tangible proof of the truth of\nthe stories. Camelford is chiefly noted to-day for being the principal\ntown within access of the slate quarries, and of being within easy and\nconvenient distance of some of the most imposing and enchanting scenery\nof the north Cornwall coast. From a few points of vantage a glimpse of\nthe sea may be caught, and the lanes branch off to famed Pentargon Bay,\nTrebarwith Strand, Black Pit, St. Knighton\u2019s Kieve, and Tintagel--all\nArthurian haunts.\n\nAt the bottom of the hilly highway, beyond which stretch the meadows,\none catches the first glimpse of the shallow little river, more\nproperly called a brook, which, small and insignificant as it is, has\nbecome so prominently identified with the concluding scenes in King\nArthur\u2019s history. This is the river which gives its name to the town,\nthe Alan Camel, or Camlan (from _Crum hayle_, meaning \u201ccrooked river\u201d),\nby the side of which the last battle is said to have been fought. It is\na shallow stream and it has to find its way to the sea by a tortuous\ncourse between the hills which extend to the coast, a fact which the\npoet has not failed to turn to account, for Drayton wrote--\n\n  \u201cLet Camel of her course and curious windings boast,\n  .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .\n  .    .    .    Her proper course that loosely doth neglect,\n  As frantic, ever since her British Arthur\u2019s blood,\n  By Mordred\u2019s murtherous hand was mingled with her flood.\u201d\n\nNo one can look upon the Camel, and trace its rippling course between\nlow banks until it passes beneath the dark stone arch of Slaughter\nBridge, a mile or so distant, and feel that it is quite worthy of its\nfame. It is scarcely picturesque, and it needed a very daring and\nimaginative poet to speak of it as \u201cfrantic\u201d or to make reference to\nits \u201cflood.\u201d At its deepest one could wade across it and not be wet\nabove the ankles, but in most places there is no need to get wet at\nall, for a single stride would suffice to carry one from bank to bank.\nNor does the little stream in its course pass through that part of the\nland which appeals most strongly to the imagination of the pilgrim.\nIt runs sluggishly and muddily beneath the heavy-looking bridge, much\ntoo large for it, bearing an almost grotesquely terrible name in\ncommemoration of the fearful battle which took place thereabout between\nKing Arthur and his rebellious nephew. Where Slaughter Bridge--not by\nany means an ancient structure, by the way--crosses the Camlan Arthur\nis said to have received his death-wound, and to have given a fatal\nblow to Mordred. If we could only believe one-half that is told of\nSlaughter Bridge it would be veritably one of the most fascinating\nspots in all England, a Mecca for pilgrims and students, poets and\nromancists. But alas! Slaughter Bridge, despite its awe-inspiring name,\nis the greatest of illusions, and the most striking of proofs that the\nreal land of King Arthur is lost or changed beyond all recognition.\nNever can we believe that this most insipid scene in all north Cornwall\nwas the portion of Lyonnesse where the last great battle in the west\nwas fought, where Arthur met his doom, where the knights perished,\nand of all the great and noble company on either side only two knights\nsurvived to carry out their master\u2019s last behests.\n\nBut the tradition remains. Mordred had set his heart on the kingdom,\nand Arthur foresaw the end. \u201cNever,\u201d says the chronicler, \u201cwas there\nseen a more dolefuller battle in no Christian land: for there was but\nrushing and riding, foining and striking, and many a grim word was\nthere spoken either to other, and many a deadly stroke. But alway King\nArthur rode throughout the battle of Sir Mordred many times, and did\nthere right nobly as a noble King should do; and at all times he never\nfainted. And Sir Mordred that day ... put him in great peril, and thus\nthey fought all the long day, and never stinted till the noble knights\nwere laid to the cold ground. And ever they fought still till it was\nnigh night, and by that time was there a hundred thousand laid dead\nupon the down.... \u2018Jesu mercy,\u2019 said King Arthur, \u2018where are all my\nnoble knights become? Alas, that ever I should see this doleful day;\nfor now,\u2019 said King Arthur, \u2018I am come unto mine end.\u2019 Then was King\nArthur aware where Sir Mordred leaned upon his sword among a great heap\nof dead men. \u2018Now give me my spear,\u2019 said King Arthur, \u2018for yonder I\nhave spied the traitor which hath wrought all this woe.... Betide me\ndeath, betide me life,\u2019 said the King, \u2018now I see him yonder alone, he\nshall never escape my hands.\u2019 Then King Arthur gat his spear in both\nhis hands, and ran towards Sir Mordred, crying, \u2018Traitor, now is thy\ndeath-day come!\u2019 And when Sir Mordred heard King Arthur he ran unto\nhim with his sword drawn in his hand, and there King Arthur smote Sir\nMordred under the shield, with a foin of his spear, throughout the\nbody more than a fathom. And when Sir Mordred felt that he had his\ndeath-wound, he thrust himself with all the might that he had, up to\nthe end of King Arthur\u2019s spear with his sword, that he held in both\nhis hands, on the side of the head, that the sword pierced the helmet\nand the brain. And therewith Sir Mordred fell down stark dead to the\nearth, and the noble King Arthur fell down in a swoon to the earth. And\nSir Lucan and Sir Bedivere often-times heaved him up, and so weakly\nthey laid him between them both, unto a little chapel, not far from the\nseaside.\u201d Historians differ widely as to the date of this event, but\nmost are agreed that the time was winter--some say Christmas Day.\n\nMordred, Arthur\u2019s great opponent and eventual vanquisher, is the dark\nand sinister character, the man of mysterious origin and of blighting\ninfluence, moving gloomily through the drama. By some said to be\nArthur\u2019s own son, a child of sin and crime, and by others said to be\nthe son of King Lot and Arthur\u2019s sister, his life was miraculously\npreserved when the king ordered the slaying of all children born\non May-day, in the hope of removing the infant who, as Merlin had\nprophesied to him, \u201cshall destroy you and all the knights of your\nrealm\u201d; and thereafter he played a malignant part in the drama. If\nill-news were to be borne to the king, Mordred bore it; were trust to\nbe violated, Mordred violated it; were knights to be betrayed, Mordred\nwas the spy and informer. Left to rule the land in Arthur\u2019s absence,\nhe usurped the throne; left to guard Guinevere, he carried her away\nand attempted to force her in marriage; an outcast, he became Arthur\u2019s\ndeadliest rival and fulfilled Merlin\u2019s prediction. It was he, and not\nthe racial antagonist, who was destined to give the final blow to the\nOrder that the king had established. Tennyson, following the suggestion\nof the chroniclers, has sharply contrasted Mordred with Lancelot, whose\nenemy he was, not so much because Lancelot was sinful, as because\nhis sin gave him the opportunity of striking a blow against Arthur\u2019s\nfavourite knight. He was Lancelot\u2019s rival, too, his secret and\ncunning rival, for the love of Guinevere. All the pictures we have of\nMordred are adverse; he is the \u201cpassing envious\u201d man who hates all more\nsuccessful than himself, the man who \u201claid his ear beside the doors,\u201d\nwho was \u201calways sullen\u201d; the tale-bearer, whose narrow face and thin\nlips pictured the petty, spiteful spirit within; the man whose shield\nwas blank and unblazoned, but who\n\n                      \u201cLike a subtle beast\n  Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne,\n  Ready to spring, waiting a chance: for this\n  He chill\u2019d the popular praises of the King\n  With silent smiles of slow disparagement;\n  And tampered with the Lords of the White Horse,\n  Heathen, the brood by Hengist left; and sought\n  To make disruption in the Table Round\n  Of Arthur, and to splinter it into feuds\n  Serving his traitorous end; and all his aims\n  Were sharpen\u2019d by strong hate for Lancelot.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: _Photo: R. Webber, Boscastle_]\n\nMOUTH OF ROCKY VALLEY AND LONG ISLAND, TINTAGEL\n\n  [_To face p. 202_]\n\nSuch is Tennyson\u2019s portraiture of Mordred, and the depiction is\njustified by all that the chroniclers relate of the false knight who\nby fraud gathered the knights around him, caused himself to be crowned\nat Canterbury, and at Winchester declared that Guinevere should be his\nwife. The chronicle explicitly declares that the queen repelled his\nadvances, and flying to London, took refuge in the Tower, which she\ngarnished with her army. Sir Mordred, \u201cwroth out of measure,\u201d laid\nsiege to the Tower, defied the Archbishop, and at length, by spreading\nevil reports of King Arthur, drew \u201cmuch people\u201d to his side. This\ndefection supplied Malory with a fine opportunity for moralising on\nthe defaults of Englishmen, who are seldom satisfied--\u201cfor there may\nno thing please us no term.\u201d When King Arthur arrived off Dover with a\ngreat navy of ships, galleys, and carracks, he found Mordred and his\nhost awaiting him. Here the first encounter took place, and Mordred,\nbeing worsted, removed to Barham Down, where he again suffered defeat.\nBut these skirmishes, desperate as they were, were but preliminaries to\nthe real battle for which both sides were preparing. Mordred\u2019s force\nwas drawn from those \u201cthat loved not Lancelot,\u201d and from the people \u201cof\nLondon, Kent, Southsex, Surrey, Estsex, Southfolk, and Northfolk\u201d; and\nArthur, with his faithful band, moved westward past Salisbury, and on\nto the shore. Despite the warning of Sir Gawaine\u2019s ghost \u201cin no wise\nto do battle,\u201d but to make a month\u2019s treaty in order to profit by the\npresence of Lancelot, King Arthur found himself compelled to engage\nin the contest. A fair and generous offer had been made to Mordred:\nCornwall and Kent were to be his during King Arthur\u2019s lifetime, and\non the king\u2019s death he was to have \u201call England.\u201d But when the treaty\nwas made an adder stung a knight\u2019s foot, and his cry of pain was like\na clarion call to battle. In a moment the swords flashed, the trumpets\nwere blown, the horns sounded; and at sunset Mordred was dead, and\nArthur had received his death-wound.[28]\n\nUndeniably the most picturesque and romantic portion of the river\nCamlan is about half a mile away from Slaughter Bridge, towards\nTintagel, where it has worn a way between the grassy hills and lies\nhalf-hidden far below, crossed and re-crossed scores of times by\nfallen and inclining trees. The waters here hurry and chatter about\nthe stones, and find their way about the rank weeds and undergrowth\nwhich here and there impede their journey. It is with some difficulty\nthat the river is found at all, and with greater difficulty that it\nis approached. But those who persevere will find, where the banks are\nsteepest and the herbage and weeds thickest, that the brook washes a\nhuge engraved stone lying flat and half embedded in the earth. This is\nKing Arthur\u2019s grave, a secret place, and so near Tintagel that the poet\ndid not strain facts greatly when he pointed out that\n\n  \u201cNo other place on Britain\u2019s spacious earth\n  Were worthy of his end but where he had his birth.\u201d\n\nPilgrims find their way to that lonely spot, and resting near the huge\nstone, they may reflect at will upon the wondrous possibility of there\nbeing, after all, by the side of this stream, a tangible link with King\nArthur. The stone lies in a nook between two rocks, and three graceful\nand luxurious trees watch over it as if they were the metamorphosed\nthree Queens who received the wounded king in the magic boat which\nglided to Avalon. All around is a profound calm; not a sound but the\noccasional buzz of an insect comes from the long grasses of the meadows\nabove, or from the ferns and ivy which spring from the shady channel\nbelow. At sunset the scene is delightful. The high meadows are kindled\nwith brilliant light, but not a ray comes to that hollow where, it is\nsaid, Arthur was laid. His grave is in perpetual shadow, and when I\nlast saw it a long, gaunt, withered branch stretched over it like a\nspectral arm. The edacious tooth of time has bitten away the letters,\nand moss has overgrown a portion of the stone, so that the inscription\nis barely decipherable, but the words are known to be--\n\n  \u201c_Cotin hic jacit filius Magari._\u201d\n\nThe actual history is best given in the words of the local antiquary\nBorlase, who in his noted 1769 volume gave an illustration of the\nrelics and said--\n\n\u201cThis inscribed stone, nine feet nine inches long, and two feet three\ninches wide, was formerly a foot-bridge near the late Lord Falmouth\u2019s\nseat of Worthyvale, about a mile and a half from Camelford. It was\ncalled Slaughter Bridge, and as Tradition says, from a bloody battle\nfought on this ground, fatal to the great King Arthur. A few years\nsince, the late Lady Dowager Falmouth, shaping a rough kind of hill,\nabout 100 yards off, into spiral walks, removed this stone from the\nplace where it served as a bridge, and, building a low piece of\nmasonry for its support, placed it at the foot of her improvements,\nwhere it still lies in one of the natural grots of the hill. This\nstone is taken notice of by Mr. Carew in the following words: \u2018For\ntestimony of the last battle in which Arthur was killed, the old folks\nthereabouts (viz., round Camelford) show you a stone bearing Arthur\u2019s\nname, though now departed to \u201cAtry.\u201d This inscription has been lately\npublished; but so incorrectly that it may still be reckoned among the\nnondescripts. It is said there, \u201cthat this stone lay at the very place\nwhere Arthur received his mortal wound.\u201d All this about King Arthur\ntakes its rise from the last five letters of this Inscription, which\nare by some thought to be _Maguri_ (_quasi magni Arthuri_), and from\nthence others will have it, that a son of Arthur was buried here; but\nthough history, as well as tradition, affirms that Arthur fought his\nlast battle, in which he was mortally wounded, near this place, yet\nthat this Inscription retains anything of his name is all a mistake.\nThe letters are Roman, and as follow: _Cotin hic jacit filius magari_.\nBy the _i_ in _hic_ being joined to the _h_, by the _h_ wanting its\ncross link, the bad line of the writing, the distorted leaning of the\nletters, I conclude, that the monument cannot be so ancient as the\ntime of Arthur.\u2019\u201d It seems quite clear that what is now called King\nArthur\u2019s tombstone was originally called, when in position, Slaughter\nBridge, a name which has been transferred to the modern structure. That\nthe stone once served actually as a funeral monument is also pretty\nobvious, but whom it commemorates is a mystery. The engraved letters\nbelong to an era posterior to Arthur, and there are, as a fact, relics\nindubitably of an earlier date in the locality.\n\n\u201cGraves\u201d of King Arthur are so numerous as to make all claims more or\nless ridiculous. Even Camelford, as if fearing that the evidence in\none case may not be strong enough, provides an alternative, and points\nout that near at hand is Warbelow Barrow, an ancient fortification of\nconsiderable extent, in the centre of which is a large mound reputed\nalso to be King Arthur\u2019s burying-place. It would be easy to reduce\nthe whole subject to absurdity by saying that if there were a doubt\nthat King Arthur ever lived, his numerous \u201cgraves\u201d conclusively prove\nthat he died many times, despite the tradition, too, that he did\nnot die at all. The jumble of foolishness and contradictions does\nnot of course affect the real story; it is the resultant of popular\nsuperstitions and confusing traditions. Upon the smallest basis of\nancient fact superstition rears a stupendous edifice, and these many\nclaims to possess King Arthur\u2019s \u201cgrave\u201d arise from the eagerness of\na people to support the idea of their direct connection with a lost\nhero, and from their readiness to attach his name to those places which\nnaturally suggest a possible or a poetic connection. That a very strong\nand sincere belief exists that Arthur was buried near Camelford is,\nhowever, not to be questioned, and there is perhaps a better reason for\nconceding the point in this case than in all the others. All traditions\nagree that the last battle was fought in the vicinity and that it was\nfatal to Arthur, and his burial close at hand is the most natural of\nconclusions. Mr. King, an antiquary, declared that on the bank of the\nCamlan could be seen \u201ca fallen maen of the later British era, having\nthe name of Arthur inscribed on its lower side,\u201d but this seems to have\nbeen conjecture rather than established proof. Yet it is flying in\nthe face of the most cherished of beliefs to admit that any grave of\nArthur exists--to say nothing of a multitude of them. If he passed into\nthe land of Faerie, if he did not die but only awaits a call to \u201ccome\nagain,\u201d why do we expect to find the place of his sepulture?--why are\ntombs discovered?--why are lovely spots called King Arthur\u2019s graves?\nWhat said the ancient triad?--\n\n  \u201cThe grave of March is this, and this is the grave of Gwyther,\n  Here is the grave of Gwgawn Gleddyfrudd,\n  But unknown is the grave of Arthur.\u201d\n\nThe more popular and more befitting tradition deviates entirely from\nany commonplace termination of King Arthur\u2019s career, and gives a\nmagical end to his miraculous history. The king\u2019s brand, Excalibur or\nCalibur, the emblem of his kingship and the symbol of his power, the\nsword which he alone could wield, and by winning which he had gained\nhis crown, was given to Sir Bedivere by the dying chief to return unto\nthe Lady of the Lake. \u201cMy time hieth fast,\u201d said the king; \u201ctherefore\ntake thou Excalibur, my good sword, and go with it unto yonder\nwaterside, and when thou comest there I charge thee, throw my sword\ninto that water, and come again and tell me what thou shalt see.\u201d Twice\ndid Sir Bedivere falteringly go to dark Dozmare Pool, a melancholy\nsheet of water overshadowed by high and dreary hills which seem to keep\ngloomy watch over Camelford. Twice did Sir Bedivere\u2019s heart fail him,\nand instead of flinging the wondrous sword into the depths, supposed to\nbe unfathomable, of the black lake, he hid it among the many-knotted\nwaterflags that whistled stiff and dry about the marge. \u201cAuthority\nforgets a dying King,\u201d said Arthur to the faithless knight; but for the\nlast time asserting his power, he threateningly bade him to fulfil his\ntask; and the knight ran, leapt down the ridges, and threw the splendid\nbrand into mid-water.\n\n  \u201cBut ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm\n  Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,\n  And caught him by the hilt, and brandish\u2019d him\n  Three times, and drew him under in the mere.\u201d[29]\n\nPoets, in describing this scene, have found it scarcely possible to\ndo other than follow closely the words of Malory, which relate the\nincident with directness and yet with a charm of picturesqueness\nscarcely to be surpassed except by much elaboration--and elaboration\nwould be out of place in such a case, and would destroy the subtle\neffect of the narrative. After telling of the hiding of the sword by\nthe reluctant knight, and of Arthur\u2019s indignation at his evasive words\nand long tarrying, the chronicler says:--\u201cThen Sir Bedivere departed,\nand went to the sword, and lightly took it up, and went to the water\nside, and there he bound the girdle about the hilts, and then he threw\nthe sword as far into the water as he might, and there came an arm\nand a hand above the water, and met it, and caught it, and so shook\nit thrice and brandished it, and then vanished away the hand with the\nsword in the water.\u201d \u201cThe hand that arose from the mere,\u201d says Renan,\n\u201cis the hope of the Celtic heroes. It is thus that weak people, dowered\nwith imagination, revenge themselves on their conquerors. Feeling\nthemselves to be strong inwardly and weak outwardly, they protest, they\nexult, and such a strife unloosing their might renders them capable of\nmiracles.\u201d\n\nFour miles to the east of Camelford is Row Tor, 1,296 feet high, its\nsharp spine, broken and projecting in parts, no doubt suggesting the\nname it popularly bears of the Rough Mountain. On the left is Rame\nHead, another typical hill, bare and brown, and it is between these\ntwo that Dozmare Pool, the reputed scene of the incident with the\nsword and the magic hand, may be seen dimly glittering. It is a weird\nlegend-haunted spot. The traveller finds himself shut in between the\nfrowning hills and beside a dark tarn of most dismal aspect. It has\nbeen supposed that the waters of Dozmare Pool were once tidal, and\nfrom this supposition the name is derived, _dos_ meaning a drop, and\n_mari_ the sea. Instead of being unfathomable, however, the pool\nis now only a few feet deep, though its black appearance certainly\nsuggests a great depth. This and all other superstitions have probably\nbeen suggested by its gloom and desolation, by its situation among\nthe dreariest of hills, and by tragic events for which there is some\nhistoric foundation and which occurred in the vicinity. The wraith of\nthe place is one Tregeagle, an unjust and tyrannical man of yore, who\nin expiation of his many sins is doomed to visit Dozmare Pool, where\namid the terrific storms on the hills and moors during winter his\npiteous howling can be distinctly heard. His punishment is to empty the\npool with a limpet shell, and it may be due to his labours that the\nwaters have so considerably diminished in bulk since the time that they\nwere \u201cunfathomable.\u201d But Tregeagle loudly mourns because he considers\nhis task a hopeless one, and then the Evil Power comes in person and\npursues him round and round the dismal tarn until at last Tregeagle\nflies shrieking to the sanctuary at Roche Rocks, fifteen miles distant.\nThis is the tale told of the \u201cmiddle meer\u201d in which Excalibur was flung\nand lost to mortal sight for ever.\n\nSuch is Camelford; such are some of the traditions which make it\nalluring to the pilgrim. Leland was convinced that here the \u201cBritish\nHector\u201d was slain, and Stow in his _Chronicle_ affirmed that \u201cafter\nmany encounters in which Arthur had always the advantage, the two\nparties came to a decisive action at Camblan, on the River Camalan, in\nCornwall, near the place of Arthur\u2019s birth.\u201d These specific details\nleave no doubt as to the place meant. But Stow did not believe the last\nbattle occurred in the winter season. He declares that Arthur survived\nhis wounds \u201ca few days,\u201d and died on May 25th, in the year 542, at\nGlastonbury, to which shrine the pilgrims should last repair. From\nCamelford in Cornwall, therefore, we pass to the most mysterious region\nof all, the legendary and haunted Vale of Avalon.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nOF GLASTONBURY AND THE PASSING OF ARTHUR\n\n \u201cAnd so they rowed from the land; and Sir Bedivere beheld all the\n ladies go with him. Then Sir Bedivere cried, Ah my Lord Arthur, what\n shall become of me now ye go from me, and leave me here alone among\n mine enemies? Comfort thyself, said the King. For I will go into the\n vale of Avilon, to heal me of my grievous wound. And if thou never\n more hear of me, pray for my soul.\u201d--_Malory._\n\n  \u201cWhether the Kinge were there or not,\n  Hee never knewe, nor ever colde,\n  For from that sad and direful daye\n  Hee never more was seene on molde.\u201d\n\n  _Percy Reliques._\n\n  \u201cO, three times favoured isle, where\u2019s the place that might\n  Be with thyself compared for glory or delight\n  Whilst Glastonbury stood?...\n  Not great Arthur\u2019s tomb, nor holy Joseph\u2019s grave,\n  From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save,\n  He, who that God in man to his sepulchre brought,\n  Or he, which for the faith twelve famous battles fought.\u201d--_Drayton._\n\n\nA quaint old-world look is upon the face of the city of many legends,\nKing Arthur\u2019s \u201cisle of rest.\u201d It lies deep in a green well-watered\nvalley, and its steep sudden hill, the Tor, rising abruptly to\na height of over five hundred feet and crowned with a lonely\nsquare tower, seems to shelter and keep watch upon the traditional\napple-island. The orchard lawns are seen everywhere with their\ndeep-green carpet and the crooked branches of innumerable fruit-laden\ntrees casting grotesque shadows upon it. The whole year round the\nwestern airs are balmy, though in spite of hoary legend and poetic\neulogy Glastonbury has felt the effects of terrific storms, whirlwinds,\nand earthquakes. Its history--a history of marvel and wonder,\ninextricably mingled for many centuries with superstition--takes us far\nback into the misty past when the ancient Britons named the marshland,\noften flooded by the water of the Bristol Channel, Ynyswytryn, or Inis\nvitrea, the Glassy Island; either, it has been surmised, on account\nof the \u201cglasten\u201d or blue-green colour of its surface, or from the\nabundance of \u201cglass\u201d (or woad) to be found in the vicinity.[30] On\nthe other hand Professor Freeman believed that Glastonbury was the\nabode and perhaps the possession of one Gl\u00e6sting, who, on discovering\nthat his cattle strayed to the rich pastures, settled in that part,\nwhich in the natural order of things became Gl\u00e6stingaburgh. That it\nwas veritably an island admits of no doubt; the circuit of the water\ncan still be traced; and when the Romans in turn made discovery of\nthe fruitfulness of the region enclosed by the waters of the western\nsea, they denominated it Insula Avalonia, or Isle of Apples. This was\nthe \u201cfortunate isle,\u201d celebrated in the ancient ode of which Camden\nhas given us a version, \u201cwhere unforced fruits and willing comforts\nmeet,\u201d where the fields require \u201cno rustic hand\u201d but only Nature\u2019s\ncultivation, where\n\n  \u201cThe fertile plains with corn and herds are proud,\n  And golden apples shine in every wood.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: ST. MICHAEL\u2019S TOWER, GLASTONBURY\n\n  [_To face p. 218_]\n\nThe inflowing of the sea made islands not only of Glastonbury, but\nof Athelney, Beckery, and Meare; and not many centuries ago, when a\ntempest raged, the sea-wall was broken down and the Channel waters\nswept up the low-lying land almost as far as Glastonbury Church. The\nsimple record of this event reads: \u201cThe breach of the sea-flood was\nJanuary 20th, 1606.\u201d Again in 1703 was Glastonbury threatened with\na deluge, and the water was five feet deep in its streets; but as\ngeologists are able to affirm that the sea is receding from the western\ncoast it is unlikely that such catastrophes will recur. A little lazy\nstream, the Brue, almost engirdles the city, and thus permits the\ninhabitants with seeming reasonableness to retain for Glastonbury the\nname loved best--the Isle of Avalon. That Roman name has been full\nof dreamy suggestiveness to the poet\u2019s mind; and though the poet\u2019s\nAvalon may often have been an enchanted city, the \u201cbaseless fabric of a\nvision,\u201d the Avalon of Somerset, with its two streets forming a perfect\ncross, its Abbey ruins, its antiquities, and its slumbrous aspect, is\nassuredly not unworthy of the legends clustering about it.\n\nOnly by devious paths can Glastonbury, once the remote shrine for\ndevout pilgrims from all parts of the land, be reached, for it is\nstill somewhat out of the common track. But to wander awhile in\nthe apple-country is delightful alike to the mind and the physical\nsense--to drink in its associations, to inhale its warm, sweet air,\nto see the gleam of white blossoms and the crimson softening upon\nthe round ripened cheeks of the pendent fruit, these are the sources\nof enjoyment and the elements of the charm. Countless gardens send\nforth a rare perfume, and the quiet of the whole city in the midst\nof orchards and streams and showing the relics of by-gone splendour\nhas a lulling effect upon the traveller who comes from the roaring\ntown and the busy mart. When the twin dark towers of Wells Cathedral\nare fading shadow-like in the distance the new strange picture of the\nisland-valley is revealed. There stretch the long level meadows of deep\nemerald, there glooms a forest of trees whose twisted branches are\nbright with apple-blossoms. The high Tor hill looks stern and bare, but\ncosy and inviting is the town below with its rows of irregular houses,\nmany of which date back to long past days, while others, constituted\nof stone with which the architects of Dunstan\u2019s and of Becket\u2019s time\nwrought, seem to bear mute tribute to the famous era when the Abbey was\nin its glory and reverend pilgrims from afar came to bring oblations\nto that hallowed shrine. To-day the visitor finds a welcome at the\n\u201cInne\u201d built in 1475 for the devout travellers whom the Abbot could not\naccommodate within the walls of the Abbey; and so few are the changes\nof time that the lofty fa\u00e7ade, the parapet and turrets, the wide\narchway, the ecclesiastical windows, and the long corridors, remain\nalmost as they were first designed and made. Side by side stand \u201cYe\nOlde Pilgrim\u2019s Inne\u201d and the Tribunal, or Court House, built by Abbot\nBeere, for the trial of petty offenders against the law. Unexplored\ndungeons are reported to exist underground, together with subterranean\npassages communicating with the Abbey from the \u201cInne\u201d and the Tribunal.\nIn the neighbourhood is a conspicuous building once used for collecting\nthe tithes, called the Abbey Barn, dating from 1420, in some respects\nthe best preserved of all the ancient memorials. But the pride and\nglory of Glastonbury centre in the wondrously beautiful remains of\nthe oldest, richest, and stateliest of English Abbeys--an Abbey whose\nreputed founder was Joseph of Arimath\u00e6a, that Joseph who had seen the\nface and heard the voice of the Saviour of mankind. It was the only\nchurch of first rank in England standing as a monument of British days\nwhich escaped the scath and wreck which followed the storm of Norman\nconquest.\n\n[Illustration: THE OLDE PILGRIM\u2019S INN, GLASTONBURY\n\n  [_To face p. 222_]\n\nTo what dim epoch the earliest history of Glastonbury belongs is more\nor less conjectural, though the discovery of some sixty low mounds\nby arch\u00e6ologists led to the discovery that a prehistoric lake-village\nin remote times occupied the site. Excavations revealed the remains\nof human habitations and of successive occupation by the same race--a\nrace which hunted the boar, the roebuck, and the deer, and whose sole\naccomplishment was the making of coarse, rude pottery. But this people\nhas passed away and not even a tradition of its existence is extant.\nIt was at a much later period, though, looking backward, the time\nseems far distant, that the first legend of Glastonbury took root and\nflowered. So pure, fragrant, and beautiful is that treasured blossom\nthat it would seem ruthless to attempt to pluck it by the roots from\nthe ground, and to cast it aside as a worthless weed of ignorance and\nsuperstition. It brings to us the memory of that time when the Son of\nMan was on earth; it is a seed blown from that land which His presence\nsanctified. Nearly two thousand years ago the crucified Nazarene was\nwatched by agonised crowds upon Calvary. Joseph of Arimath\u00e6a, \u201ca\ngood man and a just,\u201d begged the dead body from Pilate and buried it\nin his own garden, thereby incurring the fierce resentment of the\nJews. He fled from Palestine, fearing for his life, and so enraged\nwere his enemies at his escape that they expelled his friends\nalso--Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and Philip among others--putting them\nout to sea without oars or sail. \u201cAfter tossing about many days,\u201d says\none writer, \u201cthey were driven in God\u2019s providence to Marseilles, and\nfrom Marseilles St. Joseph came to Britain, where he died at a good\nold age, after having preached the Gospel of Christ with power and\nearnestness for many years.\u201d This was about A.D. 63. \u201cThe happy news of\nthe Saviour\u2019s resurrection, and the offer of the only assured means of\nsalvation to all who would embrace it\u201d were welcomed by King Arviragus,\nwho assigned to St. Joseph the Isle of Avalon as a retreat. When Joseph\nand his little Christian band, passing over Stone Down where stand the\ntwo notable Avalon Oaks, came to the place, weary with long travelling,\nthey rested on the ridge of a hill, which in its name of Weary-all Hill\n(really Worall) is supposed to commemorate this incident; and where the\nsaint\u2019s staff touched the sod, a thorn tree miraculously sprang up, and\nevery Christmas Day it buds and blossoms as a memorial of our Lord,\nand of the first Christian festival.[31] Another story says that the\nsaint was met by a boisterous mob of the heathen, and that, planting\nhis pilgrim\u2019s staff in the earth, he knelt down to pray; and as he\nprayed, the hard, dry staff began to bud and give forth fragrance, and\nbecame a living tree. Then said Joseph, \u201cOur God is with us,\u201d and the\nheathen, transfixed by the miracle, were convinced and pacified. So\nruns the earliest Christian legend in England, and as a fitting sequel\nwe learn that not long after Joseph\u2019s mission had begun the first\nChristian chapel was built, and occupied part of the site on which the\nmost beautiful of holy houses was afterwards reared--Glastonbury Abbey.\nSt. Joseph\u2019s Chapel, magnificent in ruin, is one of those hallowed\nplaces in which one might spend hours in silent contemplation. Through\nmany centuries the legend of the Holy Thorn has been preserved, and\nGlastonbury has remained distinguished by the fact that there the\n\u201cwinter thorn\u201d has blossomed every Christmas \u201cmindful of our Lord,\u201d or,\nas a pupil of Caxton\u2019s wrote in 1520--\n\n  \u201cThe hawthornes also that groweth in Werall\n  Do burge and bere green leaves at Christmas\n  As fresh as other in May.\u201d\n\nThe tree was regarded with great awe and superstition by the\ninhabitants, and when the change in the calendar was made they looked\nto the \u201csacra spina\u201d for confirmation of the righteousness of what had\nbeen done. Many people refused to celebrate the new-style Christmas\nDay because the Thorn showed no blossoms, and when the white flowers\nappeared on January 5th, the old-style Christmas was held to have been\ndivinely sanctioned. A trunk of the tree was cut down by a Puritan\nsoldier, though his sacrilege caused him to be severely wounded by a\npiece of the dismembered tree striking him; but when the Thorn was cast\ninto the river as dead and worthless it miraculously took root again.\nThe spot where it grew is marked by a monumental stone bearing the\ninscription:--I. A. A.D. XXXI.\n\n[Illustration: ST. JOSEPH\u2019S CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY ABBEY\n\n  [_To face p. 224_]\n\nA Somerset historian likewise records that in addition to the Holy\nThorn there grew in the Abbey churchyard a miraculous walnut tree,\nwhich never budded forth before the feast of St. Barnabas, namely, the\n11th of June, and \u201con that day shot forth leaves and flourished like\nits usual species.\u201d This tree is gone, but another \u201cof the commonplace\nsort\u201d stands in its place. \u201cIt is strange,\u201d we read, \u201cto say how much\nthis tree was sought after by the credulous; and though not an uncommon\nwalnut, Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm,\neven when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large\nsums of money for small cuttings from the original.\u201d The walnut tree,\nhowever, never vied with the Holy Thorn in popularity. The \u201cAthenian\nOracle\u201d (1690) wriggled out of the difficulties attending a belief\nin the budding of the hawthorn tree with characteristic ingenuity,\nand supplied an example that most of us would gladly imitate. To\nan inquirer who asked for information and an opinion, the \u201cOracle\u201d\nreplied (none too grammatically), \u201cAll that Mr. Camden says of it is,\nthat if any one may be believed in matters of this nature, this has\nbeen affirmed to him to be true by several credible persons; it was\nnot in Glastonbury itself, but in Wirral Park, hard by it; however,\nthis superstitious tree, true or false, was cut down in the last\nreforming age, though it seems they did not make such root and branch\nwork with it but that some stumps remained, at least some branches or\ngrafts out of it were saved, and still growing in the same country;\nthough whether they have the same virtue with the former, or that\nhad any more than any other hawthorn, we don\u2019t pretend to determine\nany more than the forementioned historian.\u201d The belief in the tree\nand the knowledge of its peculiar properties were so wide-spread\nthat Sedley\u2019s verse on Cornelia, who \u201cbloomed in the winter of her\ndays like Glastonbury Thorn\u201d was easily understood. Bishop Goodman,\nwriting to the Lord General Oliver Cromwell in 1652, said he could\n\u201cfind no naturall cause\u201d either in the soil or other circumstances\nfor the extraordinary character of the tree. \u201cThis I know,\u201d said the\nprelate, \u201cthat God first appeared to Moses in a bramble bush; and that\nAaron\u2019s rod, being dried and withered, did budde; and these were God\u2019s\nactions, and His first actions; and, truly, Glastonbury was a place\nnoted for holiness, and the first religious foundation in England, and,\nin effect, was the first dissolved; and therein, was such a barbarous\ninhumanity as Egypt never heard the like. It may well be that this\nWhite Thorne did then spring up, and began to blossome on Christmas\nday, to give a testimony to religion, and that it doth flourish in\npersecution,\u201d and so forth. Infinite meanings and significances could\nbe extracted from the legend, that fantastic casket of man\u2019s art and\ndevising which is made to enshrine the small pure pearl of truth.\nIf this were the place for sermons it might be pointed out that the\nvitality of the Thorn is an emblem of the vitality of the religion it\ncommemorates; but our duty is to trace its connection with history.\nThe legend has been somewhat altered in form in order to bring it into\ndirect association with the building of the Abbey. This new version\nof the miracle is that Joseph of Arimath\u00e6a was commanded to build a\nchurch in honour of the Virgin Mary, but finding that the natives\nwere distrustful of him and his mission he prayed, like Gideon,\nfor a miracle. Forthwith his staff began to shoot forth leaves and\nblossoms, and the unwithered Thorn took root. Be that as it may, the\nfirst Christians built a chapel of twisted alder, in the form of a\nparallelogram, 60 feet long and 26 feet broad (to come to details),\nand having \u201ca window at the west end and one at the east; on each side\nwere three windows, and near the western angle was a door each side.\u201d\nA representation of the first building for Christian worship erected\nin this country is found on an old document now in the British Museum,\nand it is said to have been copied from a plate of brass which had been\naffixed to an adjoining pillar. The chapel is variously referred to\nin ancient records as \u201cLignea Basilica,\u201d \u201cVetusta Ecclesia,\u201d and the\n\u201cEaldechirche,\u201d and with its walls of wattles and its roof of rushes it\nmust long have been an object of revered contemplation. Joseph built\nand preached in \u201cthe little lonely church,\u201d \u201cbuilt with wattles from\nthe marsh,\u201d journeying from thence across the plain to the Mendips,\nwhere he found other half barbarous Britons to listen to the story of\nthe Redemption. He laid the foundations of a bishopric at Wells, which\nwas afterwards to be the rival of Glastonbury Abbey itself, and to the\nend of a long and fruitful life continued his ministry to the people.\n\nChalice Hill revives by its name and associations another reminiscence\nof our Lord even more amazing. St. Joseph was the bringer to this\ncountry of two precious relics--one--\n\n  \u201cThe Cup itself from which our Lord\n  Drank at the last sad supper with His own,\u201d\n\nthe other, some of the blood which oozed from the crucified Saviour\u2019s\nbody. The chalice, or sacred cup, was buried by Joseph at the spot\nwhere a perpetual spring of water bubbles--the \u201cBlood Spring,\u201d which\nsupplies the Holy Well, scene of many miraculous cures in times past.\nThat the waters are medicinal admits of no doubt; that it issues from\nthe Cup is a matter of faith, especially as the Holy Grail is claimed\nto be now in safe keeping by more than one far-distant Abbey.[32] As\nfor the second relic, it is said that St. Joseph confided the memorial\nto his nephew Isaac, who sealed up the blood in two vials and secreted\nthem from the invading Roman pagans. When danger menaced him, he hid\nthe phials in an ancient fig-tree, which he then cast into the sea.\nCarried by the waves to Gaul, the fig-tree was cast up at the spot\nwhich now forms F\u00e9camp harbour; and there a few centuries later it was\nfound with the two phials secure. Fearless Duke Richard of Normandy\nwas so impressed by the discovery that he built an Abbey in which\nfitly to enshrine the Precious Blood, and F\u00e9camp Abbey bears witness\nalike to his faith and his devotion. It was upon the story of the\nGrail that chroniclers seized with avidity after Borron had once shown\nits capabilities--a story now believed by many to be almost wholly of\nCeltic origin, the Sancgreal being none other than Fionn\u2019s healing\ncup. Mr. Nutt, to whose exhaustive work on the subject reference\nhas previously been made, has told us of every form, rudimentary\nand developed, in which the Grail legend has appeared, and of every\nexplanation advanced as to its meaning. Whether the legend is based\nupon Christian canonical or uncanonical writings, or whether it is an\nancient saga into which a Christian element was imported, whether it\nwas extant in any definite form before the time of Robert de Borron,\nor whether it was a fabrication of the era to which many monkish\nfables have been traced, are points which to discuss in detail would\nrequire, and have had, volumes devoted to them. Within fifty years\n(1180-1225) there were eight versions of the story in which the idea of\nthe Grail was elaborated, and we know how the idea has been developed\nand enriched and idealised until our own time. \u201cThe vanished Vase of\nHeaven that held like Christ\u2019s own Heart an Hin of Blood,\u201d has been a\nmarvellously fecund seed of inspiration to romancist and poet. Percival\nand Galahad are the highest human conceptions of purity, and their\nquest is the most exalting and ennobling upon which heroes can set\nforth. Yet, as we have already seen, the conclusion cannot be resisted\nthat the story had its root in paganism, and that the history of the\nGrail is nothing but the history of the gradual transformation of old\nCeltic folk-tales into a poem charged with Christian symbolism and\nmysticism. \u201cThis transformation, at first the inevitable outcome of its\npre-Christian development, was hastened later by the perception that it\nwas a fitting vehicle for certain moral and spiritual ideas.\u201d Avalon,\nlying not far from the western sea beyond which tradition said were\nthe happy isles of the blessed dead, was the Cymric equivalent for the\nCeltic paradise, and thus did Glastonbury become associated with the\nglorious legends which have made it in the eyes of the romancists the\nmost sacred and wondrous city of earth. So may Glastonbury truly be\nsaid to gather round it \u201call the noblest memories alike of the older\nand the newer dwellers in the land.\u201d Nor is it surprising that in a\nplace of so much reputation modern marvels should be reported to occur\nor wonderful discoveries be made. An elixir was found in the ruins of\nthe Abbey in 1586, one grain of which, being dropped upon an ounce and\na quarter of mercury, was found to transmute the mercury into an ounce\nof pure gold. Another grain of it, dropped upon a piece of metal cut\nout of a warming-pan, turned the metal into silver, and this with the\nwarming-pan was sent to Queen Elizabeth that she might \u201cfit the piece\nwith the place where it was cut out.\u201d\n\nSuch facts are worthy of being related at some length not only on\naccount of any curious interest they possess in themselves, but because\nthey enable us to understand a number of allusions in the Arthurian\nstory, and help to account for the selection of Glastonbury as the\nscene of the most solemn episodes in the career of the British king and\nhis knights. The poet Spenser, in recording that Sir Lucius was the\nfirst to receive \u201cthe sacred pledge of Christ\u2019s evangely,\u201d hastens to\nrecall the Glastonbury legend, and to explain that--\n\n                        \u201cLong before that day\n  Hither came Joseph of Arithmathy,\n  Who brought with him the Holy Grayle, they say,\n  And preacht the truth.\u201d\n\nAll the chief points in the old beliefs and the myths and traditions\nare caught up in Malory\u2019s history. The account of Joseph and his coming\nto England may be read in the Book of Sir Galahad, for the story was\ntold by the stainless knight who bore the marvellous shield--\n\n \u201cSir,\u201d said Sir Galahad, \u201cby this shield beene full many mervailes.\u201d\n \u201cSir,\u201d said the knight, \u201cit befell after the passion of our Lord Jesu\n Christ thirtie yeare, that Joseph of Aramathy, the gentle knight,\n that tooke downe our Lord from the crosse, and at that time hee\n departed from Jerusalem with a great part of the kindred with him,\n and so they laboured till they came to a citie that hight Sarras. And\n at that same houre that Joseph came unto Sarras there was a king\n that hight Evelake, that had great warre against the Sarasins, and\n in especial against one Sarasin, the which was King Evelake\u2019s cosin,\n a rich king and a mighty, the which marched nigh this land, and his\n name was called Tollome le Feintes. So, upon a day these two met to\n doe battaile. Then Joseph, the son of Joseph of Aramathy, went unto\n King Evelake, and told him that he would be discomfited and slaine\n but if he left his beleeve of the ould law and beleeve upon the new\n law. And then he shewed him the right beleeve of the Holy Trinity,\n the which he agreed with al his hart, and ther this shield was made\n for King Evelake, in the name of him that died upon the crosse; and\n then through his good beleeve hee had the better of King Tollome. For\n when King Evelake was in the battaile, there was a cloath set afore\n the shield, and when hee was in the greatest perill hee let put away\n the cloath, and then anon his enemies saw a figure of a man upon the\n crosse, where through they were discomforted. And so it befell that\n a man of King Evelake\u2019s had his hand smitten off, and beare his hand\n in his other hand, and Joseph called that man unto him, and bad him\n goe with good devotion and touch the crosse; and as soon as that man\n had touched the crosse with his hand, it was as whole as ever it was\n before. Then soone after there fell a great mervaile, that the crosse\n of the shield at one time vanished away that no man wist where it\n became. And there was King Evelake baptised, and for the most part\n all the people of that cittie. So soone after Joseph would depart,\n and King Evelake would go with him whether he would go or not; and so\n by fortune they came into this land, which at that time was called\n Great Brittaine, and there they found a great felon panim that put\n Joseph in prison. And so by fortune tidings came unto a worthy man\n that hight Mondrames, and hee assembled all his people, for the great\n renown that he had hard of Joseph; and so he came into the land of\n Great Brittaine, and disherited the felon panim and consumed him,\n and therewith delivered Joseph out of prison. And after that, all the\n people were turned to the Christian faith.\u201d\n\nAccording to Malory it was \u201cNot long after that,\u201d that Joseph was\n\u201claid in his death bed,\u201d his last act being to make \u201ca crosse of his\nowne blood\u201d upon the shield before giving it to King Evelake. \u201cNow\nmay yee see a remembrance that I love you,\u201d he said, \u201cfor yee shall\nnever see this shield but that yee shall thinke on mee, and it shall\nbe alwayes as fresh as it is now. And never shall no man beare this\nshielde about his necke but hee shall repent it, unto the time that\nSir Galahad the good knight beare it.\u201d It is the general opinion that\nJoseph of Arimath\u00e6a was buried in the ground surrounding the church of\nhis foundation, for a burial ground to contain a thousand graves had\nbeen prepared in his time. William of Malmesbury wrote that there were\npreserved in that consecrated place \u201cthe remains of many saints, nor is\nthere any space in the building that is free of their ashes. So much\nso that the stone pavement, and indeed the sides of the altar itself,\nabove and below, is crammed with the multitude of the relics. Rightly,\ntherefore, it is called the heavenly sanctuary on earth, of so large a\nnumber of saints it is the repository.\u201d There is no clear record of who\nimmediately succeeded Joseph, but his ministry was carried on by St.\nPatrick, who was a native of Glastonbury,[33] by St. David, by Gildas,\nand by Dunstan. It was St. Patrick who, returning from his labours\nin Ireland in 461, found that the church built with wattles from the\nmarsh was in a state of decay, and erected a substantial edifice on\nTor Hill, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Michael. He was Glastonbury\u2019s\nfirst abbot, though this fact is traditionary rather than historical,\nand his grave was near the altar of the original church. An oratory had\npreviously existed on the site, having been founded a century after\nJoseph\u2019s arrival by two saints, Phaganus and Duruvianus. The Abbey\nitself now began to take definite shape, the eyes of all Christians\nbeing drawn to Glastonbury by reason of its sacred record. In the sixth\ncentury, in King Arthur\u2019s time, it was approaching its fulness of power\nand nearing that zenith of fame and splendour which did not decline for\nnearly a thousand years.\n\n[Illustration: WELLS CATHEDRAL\n\n  [_To face p. 236_]\n\nAccording to Professor Freeman, Glastonbury became, in the year 601,\nthe great sanctuary of the British in the place of Ambresbury, which\nhad but lately fallen. How it grew, how it was ruled by great leaders\nin the church, how it became the largest, the most beautiful, the most\nwealthy of all abbeys, how its fall was compassed, and how the last of\nits abbots, an aged man, was dragged to the hill-top and hanged, are\nhistoric facts which belong to a date far later than that with which\nwe are concerned. We cannot even dwell upon St. Patrick\u2019s sojourn at\nGlastonbury, or upon Dunstan\u2019s retirement to its cloisters in order to\ndevote himself to study and music. Here it was that he wrestled with\nthe Evil One in person while labouring at his forge; here it was that\nheavenly visions were vouchsafed to him; here it was that he began\nhis work of reformation in the Church and made the Abbey the centre\nof religious influence in the kingdom. After the lapse of centuries\nwe gaze only upon the ruins of the fabric, and from them learn how\nmajestic the temple in its prime must have been, comprehending a little\nof the truth half revealed and half concealed in the silent storied\nplaces with their shattered walls, their crumbling archways, their\nunroofed chambers, their windows darkened with trailing weeds, and\ntheir floors overgrown with lank grasses and moss.\n\nKing Arthur\u2019s connection with Glastonbury cannot be deemed wholly\nmythical, though the mysteriously beautiful narrative which tells of\nhis last days in Avalon seems too poetical for reality. There are,\nhowever, other links, not so generally recognised, connecting him with\nthis consecrated place. Glastonbury was not only his \u201cisle of rest;\u201d\nnor was the Abbey known only to him as a shrine. He claimed, or it\nwas claimed for him, that he was descended on his mother\u2019s side from\nJoseph of Arimath\u00e6a, the genealogy being thus given:--\u201cHelianis, the\nnephew of Joseph, begat Joshua; Joshua begat Aminadab; Aminadab begat\nCastellos; Castellos begat Mavael; Mavael begat Lambord, who begat\nIgerna of whom Uther Pendragon begat the famous and noble Arthur.\u201d\nGlastonbury, in addition to its celebrity as a Christian sanctuary,\nwould therefore have a claim upon King Arthur\u2019s attention for the sake\nof his venerated ancestor, though there seems little reason to doubt\nthat in his day it was the cynosure of the eyes of all who claimed\nto be within the religious fold. Lady Charlotte Guest, in one of the\nvaluable notes to her translation of the _Mabinogion_, calls attention\nto a record of William of Malmesbury, which proves how much Glastonbury\nwas in King Arthur\u2019s mind on all occasions. \u201cIt is written in the Acts\nof the illustrious King Arthur,\u201d we read, \u201cthat at a certain festival\nof the Nativity, at Caerleon, that monarch having conferred military\ndistinction upon a valiant youth of the name of Ider, the son of King\nNuth, in order to prove him, conducted him to the hill of Brentenol,\nfor the purpose of fighting three most atrocious giants. And Ider,\ngoing before the rest of the company, attacked the giants valorously,\nand slew them. And when Arthur came up he found him apparently dead,\nhaving fainted with the immense toil he had undergone, whereupon he\nreproached himself with having been the cause of his death, through\nhis tardiness in coming to his aid; and _arriving at Glastonbury_, he\nappointed there four-and-twenty monks to say mass for his soul, and\nendowed them most amply with lands, and with gold and silver, chalices,\nand other ecclesiastical ornaments.\u201d From this we might well infer\nthat King Arthur was in the habit of paying periodical visits to the\nisland-valley. \u201cThe great Lady Lyle of Avelyon,\u201d girt with a sword\nwhich only Balin could draw from its scabbard, with results afterwards\ndisastrous to himself, is a link in the associations of Arthur and his\ncourt with the island-valley.\n\nHis war with King Melvas, of Somersetshire (strongly reminiscent of\nthe last war with Mordred, as related by Malory), reads like veritable\nhistory. While engaged in subduing the savage hordes in Wales and\nCornwall, and in beating back the advancing Saxons, he found that\nthe \u201cRex Rebellus\u201d Melvas had stolen away his wife Guinevere, and\ncarried her to Ynyswytryn. King Arthur gathered a large force, and\nset out with his knights to take summary vengeance on the ravisher,\nwhom he forthwith besieged. A well-known antiquary has found reason to\nbelieve that Arthur\u2019s force was \u201ca numberless multitude;\u201d but at all\nevents there is little doubt that Melvas, who was only an \u201cunderlord,\u201d\nwould have been heavily defeated had a battle ensued. But conflict\nwas avoided by the intervention of Gildas, the Abbot, who commanded\nMelvas to restore Guinevere to her rightful lord, and then succeeded in\nreconciling the two foes. They both ended by swearing friendship and\nfidelity to the Abbot, and the facts go far to show the potentiality\nof that dignitary at this period. Thus, by establishing King Arthur\u2019s\nconnection with Glastonbury, we increase the likelihood of his choosing\nthe holy place at Avalon for his last resting-place. He knew the shrine\nwell and had visited the fruitful, balmy island-valley in which his\nancestor\u2019s name was deeply revered; and when his time drew nigh he\ncould think of no sweeter, better spot in which to seek for peace.\n\u201cComfort thy selfe,\u201d said the king to weeping Sir Bedivere after the\nlast battle, \u201cand do as well as thou maiest, for in mee is no trust for\nto trust in; for I wil into the vale of Avilion for to heale me of my\ngrievous wound; and if thou never heere more of me, pray for my soule.\u201d\nAnd with the three mourning queens he passed from the bloody field of\nCamlan up the waters of the Bristol Channel to the isle\n\n  \u201cWhere falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,\n  Nor ever wind blows loudly.\u201d\n\n\u201cKing Arthur, being wounded in battle, was brought to Glastonbury\nto be healed of his wounds by the healing waters of that place,\u201d an\nold record runs. But his wound was too grievous; and though Merlin\nprophesied that he \u201ccannot die,\u201d the current tradition is that when\nhe reached the sacred isle he \u201ccame unto his end.\u201d In the time of the\nfirst Plantagenet, when the fame of King Arthur was revived, search\nwas made at Glastonbury for the bones of the great British chief.\nHenry II. was then on his way to Ireland, and Henry of Bloys, then\nAbbot of Glastonbury, undertook the task, fully intending, no doubt,\nthat it should be successful. Between two pillars at a depth of nine\nfeet a stone was found with a leaden cross inscribed on its under side\nin Latin, \u201cHere lies buried the renowned King Arthur, in the isle of\nAvalon\u201d; and seven feet lower down his body was found in an oaken\ncoffin. The historian Selden gives us an instructive report of how King\nHenry was induced to set about the strange enterprise of discovering\nthe remains of King Arthur. He tells us that the king in his expedition\ntowards Ireland was \u201centertained by the way in Wales with bardish\nsongs, wherein he heard it affirmed that in Glastonbury (made almost\nan isle by the river\u2019s embracements) Arthur was buried betwixt two\npillars. He therefore gave commandment to Henri of Blois, then Abbot,\nto make search for the corps, which was found in a wooden coffin\n(Girald saith oaken, Leland thinks alder), some sixteen foot deep; but\nafter they had digged nine foot they found a stone on whose lower side\nwas fixt a leaden cross (crosses fixt upon the tombs of old Christians\nwere in all places ordinary) with his name inscribed, and the letter\nside of it turned to the stone. He (King Arthur) was then honoured with\na sumptuous monument, and afterwards the sculls of him and his wife\nGuinevere were taken out (to remain as separate relics and spectacles)\nby Edward Longshanks and Eleanor.\u201d But notwithstanding the useful\nand apposite inscription on the leaden cross, \u201cHic jacet sepultus\ninclytus rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia\u201d; or as it is otherwise more\nepigrammatically given, \u201cHic jacet Arthurus, Rex quondam, Rexque\nfuturus\u201d--\n\n  \u201cHis Epitaph recordeth so certaine\n  Here lieth King Arthur that shall raigne againe;\u201d--\n\nit is hardly necessary to add that there is almost every reason to\nbelieve that this extraordinary \u201cfind\u201d could have been nothing but\na pious fraud, _in majorem monasterii gloriam_. If the truth be not\nestablished, however, it has been incorporated into many chronicles\nas genuine history. Bale, in his _Actes of English Votaries_, bears\ntestimony in these words: \u201cIn Avallon, annus 1191, there found they\nthe fleshe bothe of Arthur and of hys wyfe Guenever turned all into\nduste, wythin theyr coffins of strong oke, the bones only remaynge. A\nmonke of the same Abbeye, standing and beholding the fine broydinges\nof the womman\u2019s heare as yellow as golde there still to remayne: as a\nman ravyshed, or more than halfe from hys wyttes, he leaped into the\ngraffe, XV fete depe, to have caughte them sodenlye. But he fayled\nof hys purpose. For so soon as they were touched they fell all to\npowder.\u201d The reference to the depth of the grave reminds us that Stow,\nin his _Chronicle_, declares that King Arthur was buried sixteen\nfeet underground to prevent the Saxons offering any indignity to his\ncorpse, \u201cwhich Almighty God, for the sins of the Britons, afterwards\npermitted,\u201d he disappointingly concludes.\n\nCamden\u2019s account of the discovery is in these words: \u201cWhen Henry II,\nKing of England, had learned from the songs of the British bards, that\nArthur, the most noble hero of the Britons, whose courage had so often\nshattered the Saxons, was buried at Glessenbury between two pyramids,\nhe order\u2019d search to be made for the body; and they had scarce digg\u2019d\nseven feet deep, but they light upon a cross\u2019d stone (cippus) or a\nstone in the back part whereof was fastened a rude leaden cross,\nsomething broad. This being pulled out, appeared to have an inscription\nupon it, and under it, almost nine foot deep, deposited the bones of\nthe famous Arthur. The letters have a sort of barbarous and Gothic\nappearance, and are a plain evidence of the barbarity of the age,\nwhich was involved in a fatal sort of mist, that no one was found to\ncelebrate the name of King Arthur.\u201d The most detailed account of all is\ngiven in Joseph Ritson\u2019s scholarly work on King Arthur, and the famous\nantiquary\u2019s outspoken comments on the records \u201cand other legendary\nrhodomontades\u201d of the monks of Glastonbury can be read with amusement\nas well as with profit. It is a sufficiently remarkable fact that none\nof the chroniclers agree in their details, and Matthew Paris distinctly\ndeclares that the letters inscribed upon the tomb could \u201cin no wise\nbe read on account of too much barbarism and deformity.\u201d Antiquary\nLeland was sceptical as to the coffin, and William of Malmesbury\n(1143) said \u201cThe sepulchre of Arthur was never seen\u201d; but, despite all\ncontradictions and doubts, the discovery seems to have been generally\naccepted as genuine, while for many reasons it was gratifying to the\npeople of that and subsequent ages. Caxton would have regarded it as\n\u201cmost execrable infidelity\u201d to have had a doubt upon the subject. At\nGlastonbury we indubitably seem to get nearer the real Arthur than we\nare able to do in any of the other localities mentioned by Geoffrey\nand the later chroniclers. Whether he was the monarch described in the\nromances or a semi-barbarous chieftain leading the Britons to a final,\nthough only temporary, victory against the Saxons, there remains the\nsame likelihood of his connection with the first Abbey raised in the\nland.\n\nOn the authority of Gildas, we learn that when the Abbot brought about\npeace between Arthur and Melvas, both kings made oath never to violate\nthe holy place, and both kings gave the Abbot much territory in token\nof their gratitude. If, however, it is hard to reconcile the death of\nKing Arthur with Merlin\u2019s prophecy, it is harder still to account for\nthe discovery of his bones and his grave in face of the ancient triad\nwhich declared his grave to be unknown, and remembering which Tennyson\nrelated--\n\n  \u201cHis grave should be a mystery\n  From all men, like his birth;\u201d\n\nwhile the older poet tells how he \u201craygnes in faerie.\u201d There was,\nhowever, a substantial reason for the finding of King Arthur\u2019s tomb by\nHenry of Blois, for at that time the revenues brought by pilgrims to\nthe shrine were not sufficient to provide funds for the building. The\ncontest between Wells and Glastonbury had also begun, and the discovery\nof the bones of a saint was one of the surest methods of obtaining an\nadvantage. According to Stow\u2019s _Chronicle_, the body was found \u201cnot\nenclosed within a tomb of stone, but within a great tree made hollow\nlike a trough, the which being digged upon and opened, therein were\nfound the bones of Arthur, which were of a marvellous bigness.\u201d This\ncircumstantial evidence seems almost irresistible, and no doubt there\nwas a conscientious belief in the discovery at the time it was reported\nto have been made. Stow has further details to give on the authority\nof Giraldus Cambriensis, \u201ca learned man that then lived, who reporteth\nto have heard of the Abbot of Glastonbury that the shin-bone of Arthur\nbeing set up by the leg of a very tall man, came above his knee by\nthree fingers. The skull of his head was of a wonderful bigness; in\nwhich head there appeared the points of ten wounds, or more, all which\nwere grown in one seam, except only that whereof he died, which being\ngreater than the other, appeared very plain.\u201d Such, then, are the\nrecords of this wondrous discovery.\n\nModern Glastonbury has its museum in which may be seen some pottery\nfrom \u201cKing Arthur\u2019s Palace at Wedmore,\u201d and a thirteenth or fourteenth\ncentury representation on the side of a mirror case of Queen Guinevere\ndeserting with Sir Lancelot, the only two relics, I believe, which in\nany way recall the connection of King Arthur with the place. There are\nevidences of the antiquity of the Abbey in abundance; though pilgrims\u2019\nstaffs, leather bottles, palls, grace cups, roods, \u201ccounters\u201d made by\nthe monks to serve as coin, and even the reliquary containing a small\npiece of bone supposed to be of St. Paulinus, sent or left by St.\nAugustine himself for the purpose of establishing the modified form of\nthe Benedictine rule, do not quite take us back to the sixth century.\nThough the actual date of King Arthur\u2019s death is not known, and though\nhis age is variously given from just over fifty to passing ninety, and\nthough there is no consensus of opinion as to the length of his reign,\nwe never hear of him at a later date than 604; and unfortunately all\nthe Glastonbury relics take us back at most to the tenth century. Yet\nenthusiastic Drayton might well be carried away with the theme with\nwhich Glastonbury supplied him; and remembering the marvels of its past\nand the splendour of its aspect in his own day, he asked what place was\ncomparable with the \u201cthree times famous isle?\u201d\n\n  \u201cTo whom didst thou commit that monument to keep,\n  When not great Arthur\u2019s tomb, nor holy Joseph\u2019s grave\n  From sacrilege had power their holy bones to save?\u201d\n\n[Illustration: THE ABBEY BARN, GLASTONBURY\n\n  [_To face p. 248_]\n\nThis is one of the insoluble mysteries. The remains of Arthur and\nGuinevere are stated to have had noble burial by King Henry\u2019s command\nin \u201ca fair tomb of marble,\u201d and the cross of lead bearing the\noriginal inscription was placed in the church treasury. At the\nsuppression of the monasteries it is assumed that all the tombs and\nmonuments shared one fate. Edward I and his queen visited Glastonbury\nin 1278, and after seeing the shrine, fixed their signets upon the\nseparate \u201cchests\u201d in which the dust was deposited. Within the sepulchre\nthey placed a solemn written record of what they had seen, together\nwith the names of the principal witnesses. King Edward is also said to\nhave had Arthur\u2019s crowns and jewels rendered to him. He and his queen\nwere satisfied that they had gazed upon \u201cthe bones of the most noble\nArthur\u201d; and theirs were the last eyes to see the remains, false or\ntrue. The historian Speed, in indignant strain, tells of the doom that\nbefell the Abbey in Henry VIII.\u2019s days, when \u201cthis noble monument,\namong the fatal overthrows of infinite more, was altogether razed by\nthose whose over-hasty actions and too forward zeal in these behalfs\nhath left us the want of many truths, and cause to wish that some\nof their employments had been better spent.\u201d Whatever sign of King\nArthur\u2019s tomb, real or pretended, had existed, thus vanished for ever,\nand the prophesied mystery of his grave became fulfilled.\n\nAll that now remains in association with his name, and his final acts,\nand his uncomprehended fate, is the Abbey, surpassingly beautiful in\nruin, founded in times faded almost from the recollections of a race;\nit is itself half mystery and half monument. The stateliest of its\nchambers still bears the name of St. Joseph\u2019s Chapel, and itself with\nits delicate tracery, its exquisitely designed windows, its carved\npillars, is like a fairy tale in stone. The little church built with\nwattles from the marsh became the church triumphant and the church\nsupremely beautiful in after-time. When the second Henry visited it\nthe already venerable Abbey was a pile of architectural wonders and\nmagnificence, thanks to the labours of Abbot Harlewinus. It was he who\ndesigned and erected that veritable gem of architecture, gorgeously\nornamented and finished in classic grace, which serves as memorial to\nthe first Christian saint in England. \u201cImagination cannot realise,\u201d\nsays one chronicler, \u201chow grand and beautiful must have been the\nview from St. Joseph\u2019s Chapel through its long-drawn fretted aisles\nup to the high altar with its four corners, symbolising the Gospel\nto be spread through the four quarters of the world.\u201d The matchless\ntemple was over a hundred feet longer than Westminster Abbey; and its\nspaciousness was only equalled by its riches. Lofty mullioned windows\nrose nearly to the vaulting, richly dight and casting a dim religious\nlight; and the profuse decorations of the walls took the form of\nrunning patterns of foliage, while vivid paintings of the sun and stars\ngave colour and animation to the cold stone. Little wonder that the\ngorgeous Abbey in all its loveliness and noble proportions was deemed a\nfitting resting-place for kings and saints. Claiming St. Joseph as its\nfounder, it was almost in natural sequence that it should make claim\nto be the shrine of the last and greatest of the Christian kings, the\nArthur whom Geoffrey of Monmouth had made renowned--\u201cthe most king and\nknight of the world, and most loved of the fellowship of noble knights,\nand by turn they were all upholden.\u201d It was to Glastonbury that the\n\u201cBishop of Canterbury\u201d fled, and took his goods, and \u201clived in poverty\nand in holy prayers\u201d when the war with Mordred broke out. To this\nhermit came Sir Bedivere, and found him by a tomb new-graven. \u201cSir,\u201d\nsaid Sir Bedivere, \u201cwhat man is there interred that ye pray so fast\nfor?\u201d \u201cFair son,\u201d said the hermit, \u201cI wot not verily, but by deeming.\nBut this night, at midnight, here came a number of ladies, and brought\nhither a dead corpse, and prayed me to bury him; and here they offered\nan hundred tapers, and gave me an hundred besants.\u201d \u201cAlas,\u201d said Sir\nBedivere, \u201cthat was my lord King Arthur, that here lieth buried in this\nchapel!\u201d Then Sir Bedivere swooned, and when he awoke prayed that he\nmight abide there henceforth and live with fasting and prayers. \u201cFar\nfrom hence will I never go,\u201d said he, \u201cby my will, but all the days of\nmy life to pray for my lord Arthur.\u201d\n\nGlastonbury to-day, amid all its ruin, spoliation and change, hints\neverywhere of the glory of its past. The charm of it lingers though\nthe excellence of it has vanished. In its stillness and seclusion it\nretains an old-world air of beauty and of simplicity; time which has\noverthrown so much has tainted nought. Tower, wall, and roof mingle\ntheir grey and brown and red in the peaceful valley which the sparkling\nrivulets water and entwine as with silver threads. The sheltered\ngardens upon which the sunlight falls luxurious are bounteous as\never they were, and one might almost expect to see in the shadowy\nconsecrated places cowled and hooded monks pacing noiselessly, their\neyes intent upon black-letter missals, or uplifted to behold the magic\nand splendour of hill and dale. The winding road has felt the pressure\nof many pilgrims\u2019 feet; at the vesper hour the weary fervent throng\ngathered about the Abbey doors; and through the spacious aisles, cool\nand shadowy, or stained with the rich colours carried by slanting beams\nthrough the painted windows, the holy brothers moved in slow and solemn\nprocession, their voices subdued in chant, the air they breathed sweet\nwith incense. Easily imagined is the hallowed aspect of the lofty fane\nwhen the last rays of the sun shot redly within, suffused the altar\nin a crimson haze, and glowed upon the burnished ornaments and the\ncarvings of veined marble and whitest stone; when the darkness gathered\nhauntingly, and one by one the tapers were lit, while the people were\nhushed and expectant, and the monks bowed themselves in adoration.\nHoly relics would show dimly in their places, rod and crucifix stand\nout dark against the walls, the royal tombs be covered as with a pall,\nand a mysterious awe descend upon the worshippers in the temple.\nOutside the world would be hushed, even as it is hushed to-day when\nthe pilgrim stands amid the broken walls of St. Joseph\u2019s Chapel, or\ntreads the thick green turf between crumbling vestibule and arch. Truly\nGlastonbury was an isle of rest.\n\nKing Arthur had fought against the pagan horde and \u201cupheld the\nChrist.\u201d Glastonbury withstood the heathen, and boasted to the last\nof never having fallen into sacrilegious hands. It was Christian\nalways--the Church of martyrs like Indractus, of saints like Cuthbert,\nPatrick, David, and Dunstan, and of kings like Ina, Edmund, and Arthur.\nThe massive walls nobly withstood the assault of time, and the ruins\nof to-day are the work of the iconoclast, due to desecration and not\ndecay. The remnants are pathetic in their significance; the scene\nof mutilated beauty is mournful beyond expression. Yet the beauty\nremains, though it is not the beauty of spirituality and life, but\nof the ethereality of death. As we gaze we are with a bygone age and\ngeneration, and that age seems to imbue our thought and tinge our\nreflections. Everywhere may be seen mementoes; all sounds are like\nechoes, faint and far; all sights are dim with haze. Glastonbury is for\nretrospection. The air is full of traditions; its history deals with\nphantoms and its opening page is of myths.\n\n[Illustration: RUINS OF ST. JOSEPH\u2019S CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY\n\n  [_To face p. 254_]\n\nTake your stand on Wearyall Hill, and brood awhile upon the\nsurroundings. You thrill to think that here St. Joseph might have\npaused; that here, where lies a stone engraved with J. A., his withered\npilgrim\u2019s staff might have burst into bloom. A few young trees are\nbending to the wind; down below the old city stretches away in grey\nlines, and there are some tumble-down houses of antique appearance\nproduced by the old rafters and rough stone of which they are\nconstructed. Bright and cheerful are many lattice windows which twinkle\nout between the heavy time-scarred mullions wrought long and long ago.\nYonder is Tor Hill, and the great green valley spreads southward,\nstrewn with trees thickly, and ending only where the dipping horizon\nmeets it. The two Glastonbury towers are standing out boldly, almost as\nif defiant; the red roofs of the city cluster below; and, set deeply\nand immutably among aged and dark green trees, are the rent but erect\nwalls of the first Christian Abbey.\n\nOr retrace your steps, and after passing the Abbey bounds, mount the\nsteep Tor and stand by the Tower which alone escaped the shattering\nforce of earthquake. From this summit the view of the landscape is far\nand good. Scarcely can you realise that once the salt waves lapped\nthis steep eminence, but the sand and shells mixed and embedded in the\nsoil have graven that event more legibly than the pen of man could\nhave inscribed it. It is sunset--sunset over the Avalonian isle. The\nday has been calm and grey, and the end is to be calm, autumnal,\nsubdued. There is one long quivering stretch of cardinal in the west,\nbut elsewhere the sky is wonderfully sombre, yet exquisitely soft and\npearly clear. The furthermost limit of the vale fast becomes invisible,\nfading imperceptibly, apparently merging into the sky as it becomes\na pure deep blue. Here and there a purple peak of the range of hills\nrunning seaward rises sharply and pierces the thin gauzy clouds which\nthe wind brings up. The white road gleams below, wholly deserted, yet\nfancy may conjure up spectres gliding at nightfall along the once\nhallowed way to the shrine. On this steep hill, alone, cloud-high, you\nfeel that the silence is mystical, and wonder if the sleeping city with\nits ghosts and traditions is like the fabled cities of enchanters which\nrise at night without foundation and dissolve like mist in the earliest\nlight of morning.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n(_Mainly of persons and places_)\n\n\n  Aberystwyth, relics near, 11\n\n  Akeman Street, 123\n\n  Almesbury (Amesbury), 175-80\n\n  Alnwick, 44\n\n  Ambrosius, 15\n\n  Aneurin, his testimony to Arthur, 9\n\n  Arderydd, 66, 71, 82\n\n  Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 30, 35, 80\n\n  ARTHUR (Artus, Arcturus), King--\n    his widespread fame, 2, 3;\n    Saxon opponents of, 4;\n    an allegorical figure, 6, 27, 61;\n    Caxton on his identity, 9;\n    bardic chroniclers, 9-18, 62;\n    Geoffrey\u2019s history of, 18;\n    the elemental hero, 29, 33, 149;\n    his domain, 31, 38, 39, 46-59, 64;\n    Scotch references, 52, 68;\n    his birth, 90;\n    his coronation, 115;\n    his Round Table, 130-58;\n    as warrior, 149;\n    as national hero, 150, 151;\n    his battle at Badon, 155-6;\n    in Italy, 157;\n    his marriage, 160;\n    at Camelot, 159 _et seq._;\n    battle at Slaughter Bridge, 200;\n    his death-wound, 205;\n    his tomb, 207-9;\n    in Avalon, 238-47;\n    supposed remains, 241, 249\n\n  Arviragus, King, 223\n\n  Astolat, 55\n\n  Aurelius Ambrosius, 71, 74\n\n  Avalon (Avilion), 43, 51;\n    described 216 _et seq._ _See_ \u201cGlastonbury\u201d\n\n\n  Badbury Rings, 153\n\n  Badon (Mons Badonicus), 4, 13, 51, 152-6\n\n  Bagdemagus, Sir, 77\n\n  Balin, Sir, 84, 129, 167\n\n  Bamborough Castle, 44\n\n  Barham Down, 156, 204\n\n  Bath, 152\n\n  Battles, King Arthur\u2019s, 4, 29, 62, 125, 151;\n    the last at Camelford, 198, 200-1, 204, 208;\n    with Melvas, 240\n\n  Bedivere, Sir, 205 _n._, 211, 213, 251\n\n  Belenus, 123\n\n  Blackmore, poet, 30\n\n  Blaise (Bleys), 83\n\n  Borron, Robert de, 188, 230\n\n  Borrow, George, quoted, 90 _n._, 188, 230\n\n  Bors, Sir, 188, 191\n\n  Boscastle, 101\n\n  Bossiney, 101, 183\n\n  Brecknock, 46, 49, 144\n\n  Br\u00e9c\u00e9liande (Broceliand, Brocelinde), forest of, 79, 81\n\n  Brittany, 43, 68\n\n  Brue, river, 219\n\n  Brythons, the, 3, 4, 47\n\n  Bude, 101-2\n\n\n  Cadbury Camp, Somerset, 141, 160, 171-2\n\n  Cadwalla, 5\n\n  Caerleon, 39, 53;\n    described, 113-29\n\n  Caerwent, 125, 126, 168\n\n  Camden, quoted, 96, 244\n\n  Camel, river, 198-9\n\n  Camelford, 55-7, 101; described, 194 _et seq._\n\n  Cameliard, 39, 46-9\n\n  Camelot, described, 159 _et seq._\n\n  Caractacus, 129\n\n  Carbonek, 38\n\n  Carew, historian, 95\n\n  Carmarthen, Merlin\u2019s Cave at, 67, 78\n\n  Carobaise, 46\n\n  Castle Denis, 49\n\n  Castle-an-Dinas, 111\n\n  Cattraeth, battle of, 9-10\n\n  Caxton, his testimony to Arthur, 8, 9, 26\n\n  Cefn Bryn, 48\n\n  Celts, the, and their influence on history and legend, 3, 23, 31, 35,\n      66, 176, 213, 230, 231\n\n  Cerdic, 4, 5, 48, 153, 155\n\n  Chalice Hill, 229\n\n  Clevedon, 172\n\n  Constantinople, 39\n\n  Cormac, 107\n\n  Craik, Mrs., 96\n\n\n  David, St., 63, 236\n\n  Dawstane, 10\n\n  Dinas Emrys, 71, 76 _n._\n\n  Douarnenez, 46\n\n  Dozmare Pool, 211-14\n\n  Drayton, quoted, 144, 155, 171\n\n  Dryden, 30\n\n  Dubric (Dubritius), 115, 125, 129, 155\n\n  Dunchine, 93\n\n  Dunstan, 236, 237\n\n\n  Ector, Sir, 90, 180\n\n  Edinburgh, 52\n\n  Edward I, King, at Glastonbury, 249\n\n  Eildon Hills, 51\n\n  Emerson, quoted, 33\n\n  Ettarde, 164\n\n  Evelake, King, 235\n\n  Excalibur, 211\n\n\n  Freeman, Professor, quoted, 153, 218, 236\n\n  Frere, J. K., quoted, 136\n\n\n  Gaisnar, 21\n\n  Galahad, 23, 41, 145, 148, 187, 191, 233\n\n  Gawaine, 79, 81, 161;\n    his character, 161-3, 166, 204\n\n  Geoffrey of Monmouth, 18-21, 95, 115, 118, 131, 251\n\n  Geraint, 129\n\n  Gibbon, 27\n\n  Gildas the historian, 10, 12, 13-16, 153, 246\n\n  Giraldus Cambriensis, 20\n\n  Glastonbury, Gildas at, 15;\n    history and description of, 216-56\n\n  \u201cGleam, The,\u201d 69\n\n  Glennie, Stuart, quoted, 54, 66, 76 _n._\n\n  Goothe, 38\n\n  Gorlois, 90, 91\n\n  Grail, the. _See_ \u201cHoly Grail\u201d\n\n  Gray, 30\n\n  Guenevere (Guinevere, Gwenhwyvar), Queen, 62, 114, 132, 175-82, 240\n\n  Guest, Lady Charlotte, 78, 153, 162, 238\n\n  Guildford, 55-7\n\n\n  Henry II, King, at Glastonbury, 241-4\n\n  Henry of Bloys, 241\n\n  Holy Grail, the, 23, 133, 145;\n    the quest of, 186;\n    legend of, 187-93, 230\n\n  Holy Thorn, in Scotland, 52;\n    legend of, 223-28\n\n  Hueil (Howel), 15, 16, 50\n\n\n  Iceland, 64\n\n  Ider, 239\n\n  Igraine, 90\n\n  Inis vitrea (Ynyswytryn). _See_ \u201cGlastonbury\u201d\n\n  Iseult (Isoud). _See_ \u201cTristram and Iseult\u201d\n\n\n  Jagent, 38\n\n  Joseph of Arimath\u00e6a, 186, 188, 193;\n    at Glastonbury, 221-33 _passim_\n\n  Joyous Gard, 43, 44, 45, 53, 179\n\n  Julian Way, the, 123, 168\n\n\n  Kay (Kaye), Sir, 91, 161\n\n  Knighton\u2019s (Nectan\u2019s) Kieve, St., 183-93\n\n  Knights, the, 37; their Round Table, 131 _et seq._;\n    adventures at Camelot, 161, 166;\n    the last, 200\n\n  Kynon, 11\n\n\n  Lancelot, Sir, 44, 45, 55, 160, 166, 174, 178, 191\n\n  Landerneau, 45\n\n  Land\u2019s End, 42\n\n  Layamon, 21, 22\n\n  Leland, quoted, 14, 94, 95, 126, 142, 168, 171, 182, 245\n\n  Leodegraunce, King, 132-3\n\n  Llanilterne, Guinevere\u2019s tomb at, 179\n\n  Llywarch H\u00ean, 9, 11, 34\n\n  Logris, 36\n\n  Lonazep, 38\n\n  Lot, King, 174\n\n  Lowell, J. R., 30\n\n  Lyonnesse, 40, 42, 43\n\n  Lytton, Lord, quoted, 30, 111, 128, 158, 163 _n._\n\n\n  \u201cMabinogion,\u201d the, 117, 129\n\n  Mackinnon, Dr., quoted, 13\n\n  Malory, Sir Thomas, 25, 26, 27, 106, 191, 212\n\n  Map (Mapes), Walter, 22-5, 188\n\n  Mark (Marc\u2019h), King, 41, 46, 104, 106\n\n  Melvas, King, 239\n\n  Merlin, 25, 43, 66, 132; his history, 67-71;\n    drama of, 72-5;\n    his doom, 75-8;\n    his influence, 83;\n    his prophecies, 246\n\n  Milton, 24, 30, 62\n\n  Moel Arthur, 49\n\n  Mons Badonicus. _See_ \u201cBadon\u201d\n\n  Mordred, 129, 200-3\n\n  Morris, William, 30\n\n  Mount, St. Michael\u2019s, 42\n\n  Myrdin Emrys, 67, 71\n\n\n  Nantanleod, King, 4\n\n  Nennius, 12, 16\n\n  Nimu\u00eb (Vivien), 72, 77\n\n  Norden, on Tintagel, 97\n\n  Nutt, David, 191\n\n\n  Odin, 64\n\n  Olaf, 64\n\n  Orkneys, 52\n\n\n  Patrick, St., 236\n\n  Pelleas, 163-5, 188-9\n\n  Pellinore, King, 146\n\n  Pendragon Castle, 51\n\n  Penrith, 141\n\n  Pen-y-Van, 144\n\n  Percivale (Parzifal, Perceval), 134, 186, 189\n\n  \u201cPerilous, Siege,\u201d 146, 165\n\n  Petersaint, 38\n\n\n  Quoits, Arthur\u2019s, 48-9\n\n\n  Renan, 46, 80, 176\n\n  Ritson, Joseph, 46, 154, 156\n\n  Rocky Valley, Tintagel, 183\n\n  Rome, 65, 151, 157\n\n  Round Table, the, 119;\n    history of, 130-58;\n    supposed localities, 141 _et seq._;\n    its symbolism, 145\n\n  Row Tor, 213\n\n\n  Sancgreal, the. _See_ \u201cHoly Grail\u201d\n\n  Sandwich, 158\n\n  Sarras, 190, 192, 193\n\n  Scilly, 40\n\n  Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 12, 26, 30, 68, 141, 142\n\n  Shalott, 163, 181\n\n  Silchester, 116 _n._\n\n  Silures, the, 24, 47, 126\n\n  Slaughter Bridge, 199, 205\n\n  Snowdon, 71, 76\n\n  Sommer, Dr., 26, 29\n\n  Southey, 29\n\n  Souvestre, Emile, 81\n\n  Spenser, 30, 77, 233\n\n  Steep Holm, 14\n\n  Stephen\u2019s, St. (Steven\u2019s), Camelot, 160, 174\n\n  Stonehenge, 3, 75, 154\n\n  Stow\u2019s _Chronicle_, 215\n\n  Strachey, Sir E., quoted, 27, 64\n\n  Surluse (Surluce), 40, 41\n\n  Swinburne, quoted, 30\n\n\n  Talhairan, 129\n\n  Taliesin, 9, 11, 129\n\n  Ten Brink, quoted, 135\n\n  Tennyson, 30;\n    at Caerleon, 126-28, 155, 162;\n    description of Camelot, 170;\n    on Guinevere, 175;\n    the Grail legend, 193;\n    on Mordred, 203\n\n  Terabyl, 91, 92\n\n  Thierry, 34\n\n  Thomas the Rhymer, 104\n\n  Tintagel, 53;\n    described, 88-111 _passim_\n\n  Tor, the Glastonbury, 220, 236, 255\n\n  Tristram and Iseult, 44, 46, 89, 103-6, 174\n\n  Tweed, the, 68, 69, 70\n\n\n  Urien, 11\n\n  Usk, river, 67, 115, 119\n\n  Uther (Uter), King, 64, 71, 74, 75, 89, 90, 132\n\n  Uwaine, Sir, 72\n\n\n  Veitch, professor, 71\n\n  Vellan, 42\n\n  Vivien, 77, 79, 81\n\n  Vortigern, 63 _n._, 71, 76\n\n\n  Wace, 21, 80, 131\n\n  Wagner, 107\n\n  Warton, 30, 139\n\n  Waste Lands, the, 38\n\n  Weary All (Wirral, Worall) Hill, 223\n\n  Wedmore, palace at, 247\n\n  Wells Abbey, 229\n\n  Wigan, battle at, 51\n\n  William of Newburgh, 20\n\n  Winchester, 55, 131, 143, 167, 139-41 _passim_\n\n  Wodensbury, battle at, 5\n\n  Wolfram von Ezchenbach, 189\n\n\n  Ynyswytryn. _See_ \u201cGlastonbury\u201d\n\n\n  RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,\n  BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND\n  BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.\n\n\n\n\nNEW TOPOGRAPHICAL BOOKS\n\n\n_BRIGHTON_:\n\nIts History, Its Follies, and its Fashions\n\n_By LEWIS MELVILLE_\n\n Author of \u201cThe First Gentleman of Europe,\u201d etc., etc. With Portraits,\n Caricatures, Views, etc.\n\n  Demy 8vo, =10s. 6d.= net.\n\nThis is a book dealing with the history of Brighton on its social side,\nand full of stories of the romances, adventures, quarrels, duels, etc.,\nwhich have taken place in that city since the time when it became\nfashionable under the Georges. It will be extremely entertaining.\n\n\n_PICCADILLY_:\n\nPast and Present\n\n_By ARTHUR IRWIN DASENT_\n\n Author of the \u201cLife of Delane,\u201d the \u201cHistory of St. James\u2019s Square,\u201d\n etc. With Illustrations.\n\n  Demy 8vo, =16s.= net.\n\nThis book, by the author of the immensely successful \u201cLife of Delane,\u201d\nis a picturesque and anecdotal History of Piccadilly, giving stories of\nall the more famous people who have lived there and the historic events\nconnected with that great and fashionable thoroughfare. It will be\nfound, we can confidently state, one of the most entertaining books of\nthe season.\n\n\n  CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD.\n\n\n_THE TOWER OF LONDON_:\n\nFortress, Palace, and Prison\n\n_By CHARLES G. HARPER_\n\n Author of \u201cRural Nooks round London,\u201d \u201cThe Histories of English\n Roads,\u201d etc., etc. With 50 Illustrations.\n\n  Crown 8vo, =6s.= net.\n\nThe Tower of London occupies a position in the history of England\nunmatched by any of the ancient castles of the land. From the time of\nWilliam the Conqueror the Tower of London figured forth more and more\nclosely as the centuries went on the story of the English Sovereigns\nand the English people, and it is not too much to say that the intimate\nstory of the Tower is, in fact, the history of England. In this book an\naccount will be found alike of the Architecture and the living history\nof the place, and of the prisoners whose blood was shed upon Tower\nGreen or Tower Hill. The illustrations are chiefly from a fine set of\nphotographs by Mr. W. S. Campbell.\n\n\n_MEMORIALS OF ST. PAUL\u2019S CATHEDRAL_\n\n_By ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR_\n\n With many Illustrations in black and white and silverpoint, by Louis\n Weirter.\n\n  Demy 8vo, =16s.= net.\n\nThis is an authoritative history of the Cathedral from the earliest\ndays to the present by the Archdeacon of London, and it will aim at\ngiving a popular and at the same time an accurate account of the\nCathedral\u2019s history. The pictures are a special feature, being of\nunusual beauty.\n\n\n  CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD.\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n[1] Aneurin was born about the year 500, and as \u201ca monarch of bards\u201d\nwas of much repute in Manan Gododin, a part of Cymric Scotland. The\nWelsh Britons included all the Lowlands in their territory, and, as is\nwell known, the names familiar in Arthurian romance can be traced to\nScotland, the West of England, and France alike, as will afterwards be\nshown in these pages. Aneurin\u2019s nationality, however, is particularly\nwell worth recalling in view of the theory that Arthur was Scotch.\n\n[2] A Badon in Linlithgowshire is the reputed site.\n\n[3] Take, for instance, the song in which he expresses the wish to die\nwhile drinking in a tavern,--\u201cMeum est propositum in taberna mori.\u201d\n\n[4] William Caxton, \u201csimple person,\u201d as he styled himself, urged that\nhe undertook the work at the request of \u201cdivers gentlemen of this realm\nof England.\u201d\n\n[5] It is interesting and somewhat amusing to note the lament of\nCharles Waterton, author of _Wanderings in South America_, who thought\nEngland as a field for knightly adventure had degenerated. \u201cEngland\nhas long ceased to be the land of adventures,\u201d said he. \u201cIndeed, when\ngood King Arthur reappears to claim his crown he will find things\nstrangely altered here.... It is certain that when he reigned here\nall was harmony and joy. The browsing herds passed from vale to vale,\nthe swains sang from the bluebell-teeming groves, and nymphs, with\neglantine and roses in their neatly braided hair, went hand in hand to\nthe flowery meads to weave garlands for their lambkins. If by chance\nsome rude uncivil fellow dared to molest them, or attempted to throw\nthorns in their path, there was sure to be a knight-errant not far off\nready to rush forward in their defence. But alas, in these degenerate\ndays it is not so. Shall a harmless cottage-maid wander out of the\nhighway to pluck a primrose or two in the neighbouring field, the\nhaughty owner sternly bids her retire; and if a pitying swain hasten\nto escort her back, he is perhaps seized by the gaunt house-dog ere he\nreach her.\u201d\n\n[6] By some Lyonnesse is identified with L\u00e9onnois in Brittany, but as\nMr. Aldis Wright has pointed out, the continuous references in the\nromance to \u201criding\u201d from Lyonnesse to other parts of Cornwall shows\nthat Lyonnesse and Cornwall were on the same land.\n\n[7] A. J. C. Hare\u2019s _North-Western France_.\n\n[8] \u201cIl est donc constant que la chevalerie prit naissance en\nBretagne,\u201d says Emile Souvestre, \u201cet y brilla de tout son \u00e9clat; que\nles premiers po\u00e9mes chevaleresques furent \u00e9crits en langue celtique.\nLes monuments, les traditions, _les noms_, les indications des plus\nanciens auteurs s\u2019accordent pour faire de la Bretagne la patrie de\ntout ce monde chevaleresque et f\u00e9erique dont, plus tard, le Tasse et\nl\u2019Arioste tir\u00e8rent tant de parti.\u201d\n\n[9] Bamborough Castle, says Professor Burrows, was the centre of the\nKingdom of Bryneck, or Bernicia. \u201cIn founding it the Angles encountered\na determined opposition at the hands of a British chief named Arthur.\nWhether he is the same as the Arthur of South-Western Britain, or\nwhether the exploits of one have been transferred by legend to the\nother, is still under dispute.\u201d\n\n[10] According to Villemarqu\u00e9 the name of Lancelot is a translation of\nthat of the Welsh hero Ma\u00ebl, who exhibits the fullest analogy with the\nLancelot of the French romances.\n\n[11] \u201cArthur\u2019s seat\u201d may be but an adaptation of the Gaelic\nArd-na-said, or \u201cthe height of the arrows.\u201d\n\n[12] Arthur\u2019s career has been thus conveniently summarised: \u201cAt the\nage of fifteen he succeeded his father as King of Damnonium. He was\nborn in 452, had three wives, of whom Guinevere was the second, and\nwas betrayed by the third during his absence in Armorica. Mordred\nconcluded a league with Arthur\u2019s great foe, Cedric the Saxon; and at\nthe age of ninety, after seven years\u2019 continual war, the famous king\nwas defeated at Camelford in 543.\u201d Fuller compares him to Hercules in\n(1) his illegitimate birth, (2) his arduous life, and (3) his twelve\nbattles. Joseph Ritson, whose antiquarian researches are noted for\ntheir fullness and originality, came to the conclusion that though\nthere were \u201cfable and fabrication\u201d in the hero, a real Arthur lies\nbehind the legendary hero. He appeared when the affairs of the Britons\nwere at their worst after Vortigern\u2019s death, checked the ravages of\nthe Romans, and kept the pillaging Saxons at bay. Professor Montagu\nBurrows, in his commentaries on the history of England, argues that\nthe Cymry of Arthur\u2019s time were a band of Romano-Britons who produced\nleaders like Cunedda to take command of the native forces left by the\ndeparting Romans. They remained more British than Gaelic, but were\ngradually driven, with their faces to the foe, into Wales and the Welsh\nborderland. \u201cThe Arthurian legends,\u201d he continues, \u201cembody a whole\nworld of facts which have been lost to history in the lapse of time,\nand form a poetry far from wholly fictitious.\u201d Renan declares that few\nheroes owe less to reality than Arthur. \u201cNeither Gildas nor Aneurin,\nhis contemporaries, speaks of him; Bede did not know his name; Taliesin\nand Llwarc\u2019h H\u00ean gave him only a secondary place. In Nennius, on the\nother hand, who lived about 850, the legend has been fully unfolded.\nArthur is already the exterminator of the Saxons; he has never\nexperienced defeat; he is the suzerain of an army of kings. Finally, in\nGeoffrey of Monmouth, the epic creation culminates.\u201d\n\n[13] Ashmole, in his _History of the Order of the Garter_, declares\nthat, in addition to the dragon, King Arthur placed the picture of St.\nGeorge on his banner.\n\n[14] Mr. Glennie thinks the scene is in Carnarvonshire, to the south\nof Snowdon, overlooking the lower end of Llyn y Dinas. Here is Dinas\nEmrys, a singular isolated rock, clothed on all sides with wood,\ncontaining on the summit some faint remains of a building defended by\nramparts. It was of this place Drayton wrote--\n\n  \u201cAnd from the top of Brith, so high and wondrous steep\n  Where Dinas Emris stood, showed where the serpents fought,\n  The White that tore the Red; from whence the prophet wrought\n  The Briton\u2019s sad decay then shortly to ensue.\u201d\n\nOn the south of Carnarvon Bay is Nant Gwrtheryn, the Hollow of\nVortigern, a precipitous ravine by the sea, said to be the last\nresting-place of the usurper, when he fled to escape the rage of his\nsubjects on finding themselves betrayed to the Saxons.\n\n[15] The Cornish language was spoken until 1768. In that year Daines\nBarrington met the old fish-wife Dolly Pentreath, whose name has become\nmemorable as that of the last person to speak Cornish. The last sermon\nin Cornish was preached in 1678 in Landewednack Church. The slackening\nof the Saxon advance at the Tamar enabled the Cornish to preserve their\ntongue, closely allied to that of Wales and Brittany, and described as\n\u201cnaughty Englysshe\u201d in the reign of the eighth Henry.\n\n[16] The following curious little item from R. Hunt\u2019s volume ought not\nto be lost sight of:--\u201cI shall offer a conjecture, touching the name of\nTintagel, which I will not say is right but only probable. _Tin_ is the\nsame as _Din_, _Dinas_, and _Dixeth_, deceit; so that Tindixel, turned\nfor easier pronunciation to Tintagel, Dundagel, etc., signifies Castle\nof Deceit, which name might be aptly given to it from the famous deceit\npractised here by Uther Pendragon by the help of Merlin\u2019s enchantment.\u201d\nGeorge Borrow says: \u201cTintagel does not mean the Castle of Guile, but\nthe house in the gill of the hill, a term admirably descriptive\u201d (_Wild\nWales_, cap. cvii.).\n\n[17] It is difficult to understand how a writer like the late Mrs.\nCraik could ever have fallen into this error. In her _Unsentimental\nJourney through Cornwall_ she makes every effort to prove that the\nbuilding on the mainland was the castle of Terabyl, and she insists\nthat there were (and are) two castles at Tintagel. \u201cOne sits in the\nsea, and the other is upon the opposite heights of the mainland, with\ncommunication by a narrow causeway. This seems to confirm the legend,\nhow Igraine\u2019s husband shut himself and his wife in two castles, he\nbeing slain in the one, and she married to the victorious king Uther\nin the other.\u201d It is obvious that the writer of these lines was\nunacquainted with Malory.\n\n[18] Silchester, originally a Celtic fortress, and a city of the\nsize of London, is also reported to have been the scene of Arthur\u2019s\ncoronation at the age of fifteen by Dubritius. Modern excavations\nhave proved the importance of the city as a great centre of life and\nindustry, in Roman and British times, with its Forum, Basilica, and\nrows of shops and houses; and if the _Calleva Attrebatum_ were really\nArthur\u2019s crowning place, its fitness and worth for so imposing an event\ncannot be disputed. Although Silchester is not directly referred to in\nthe Romances, Arthur\u2019s Hampshire connections are numerous. They centre\nin Winchester, where his predecessor and foster-father, Ambrosius\nAurelianus, died in the year 508. It was at Silchester also that the\nchief men of the provinces met after Uther Pendragon\u2019s death and\npetitioned Dubritius, Archbishop of Caerleon, to consecrate Arthur the\nsuccessor to the dead king.\n\n[19] Of this wooden bridge G. W. Manby in his _Guide_ (published 1802)\ngives an illustration, and says: \u201cAs numerous coins have been found\nwhere the piles of the bridge are now placed, there is no doubt of its\nbeing the original pass. To a person unaccustomed to such a bridge, the\nrattling noise whenever any weight is going over naturally occasions\nsome apprehensions.... The accounts of the tide rising so high as to\ncover the bridge are erroneous; it never has been known yet; but that\nassertion has given rise to the idea of the bridge being purposely\nloose to prevent its being carried away in such cases. The amazing\nfloods to which the river is subject would render it not surprising if\naccidents did happen.\u201d Tennyson, who obtained from the _genius loci_\nboth inspiration and enlightment, refers in _Geraint and Enid_ to the\nrapidity of the turn of the tidal waters of the Usk:--\n\n            \u201cScarce longer time\n  Than at Caerleon the full-tided Usk,\n  Before the time to fall seaward again,\n  Pauses.\u201d\n\nModern Caerleon, however, with its commonplace railway station, its\nporters shouting \u201cCar--lion,\u201d its new bridge, its spoilt Norman\nchurch, and its street of small dwelling-houses, is likely at first to\ndisappoint the pilgrim, who only by searching and waiting can hope to\nfind the links with the city\u2019s historic past.\n\n[20] Frere\u2019s poem was caustic, but it had a certain value in showing\nthe unromantic side of Arthurian times. The following verses, than\nwhich far less delicate ones could be found in the poem, may be taken\nas a specimen:--\n\n  \u201cAnd certainly they say, for fine behaving\n    King Arthur\u2019s Court has never had its match;\n  True point of honour, without pride or braving,\n    Strict etiquette for ever on the watch;\n  There manners were refined and perfect--saving\n    Some modern graces which they could not catch,\n  As spitting through the teeth, and driving stages,\n  Accomplishments reserved for distant ages.\n\n  They looked a manly, generous generation;\n    Beards, shoulders, eyebrows, broad, and square, and thick;\n  Their accents firm and loud in conversation,\n    Their eyes and gestures eager, sharp, and quick,\n  Showed them prepared on proper provocation,\n    To give the lie, pull noses, stab, and kick;\n  And for that very reason it is said,\n  They were so very courteous and well bred.\u201d\n\nWhen we come to consider probabilities, aided by such unsparing lines\nas these, we may even accept as truth the old folk-song which tells\nthat when King Arthur ruled the land he \u201cruled it like a swine.\u201d The\nAmerican poet, the late Mr. Eugene Field, in his \u201cLay of Camelot,\u201d has\nalso shown the humorous aspect of the Arthurian Court. While all this\nmay be legitimate enough, and provide opportunities for the wit of the\nauthors, it is not the aspect which we prefer to contemplate for any\nlength of time, or one which has any continuous pleasure for the mind.\n\n[21] The names of, and the leading incidents in, the twelve \u201cglorious\nwars,\u201d are enumerated with accuracy by Tennyson in _Lancelot and\nElaine_, the recital coming from Lancelot\u2019s lips, and having for its\npurpose the proof that at the time \u201cthere lived no greater leader.\u201d\nJoseph Ritson\u2019s curious little volume on King Arthur likewise treats\nthis subject fully.\n\n[22] Gildas Badonicus, as we have seen in the first chapter, is also a\nreputed native of Bath.\n\n[23] Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, in the _Academy_ (1896), advanced a number\nof very strong and learned arguments in favour of the original idea\nthat Mons Badonicus was Bath.\n\n[24] Sandwich is mentioned several times in the romance, but the\nreferences are unimportant. Ancient as the place is, there is no reason\nto connect it with British occupation. At the time the chronicles were\nwritten, however, it was too important a seaport to escape mention.\n\n[25] Lytton, agreeing with Southey that Gawaine\u2019s character suffered\nat the caprice of the poets and that he was \u201cshamefully calumniated,\u201d\nspeaks of\n\n                    \u201cFrank Gawaine,\n  Whom mirth for ever, like a fairy child,\n  Lock\u2019d from the cares of life.\u201d\n\nWilliam Morris, in _The Defence of Guenevere_, makes Gawaine the\naccuser of the queen, and he is denounced for treachery.\n\n[26] As a matter of history it is worth noting that Winchester, in\nHampshire, passed to the Saxons in the year 515, after which time\nCardic held it. King Arthur was then only twenty-three years old, and\ncould not have extended his territory as far as Hampshire.\n\n[27] \u201cCompare Guinevere or Iseult with those Scandinavian furies Gudrun\nand Chrimhilde, and you will avow that woman such as chivalry conceived\nher, an ideal of sweetness and loveliness set up as the supreme end of\nlife, is a creation in reality Celtic.\u201d--_Renan._\n\n[28] The ancient ballad, discovered, annotated, and to a slight extent\nsupplemented, by Dr. Percy, follows very exactly the story of Arthur\u2019s\nlast days as given in the romances except that it ascribes to Sir Lucan\nthe acts usually credited to Sir Bedivere. Not a detail is omitted,\nnot a point is missed. On the morning of Trinity Monday the ghost of\nSir Gawaine is said to have appeared to the king and warned him not to\nfight if he prized his life, but to wait until Sir Lancelot returned\nfrom France. The parley which followed between Arthur and Mordred is\nnext described, but just as a month\u2019s league had been decided upon\nthe adder\u2019s sting brought about the \u201cwoeful chance As ever was in\nChristentie.\u201d When the wounded knight drew his sword the two hosts\nimmediately \u201cjoined battayle,\u201d and fought until only three men were\nleft alive.\n\n[29] It is interesting to compare Tennyson\u2019s lines with Longfellow\u2019s\nin _The Spanish Student_, the similarity of phrasing being so marked.\nVictorian, the student, observes that it is in vain he throws unto\noblivion\u2019s sea the sword [of love] that pierces him--\n\n                      \u201cFor like Excalibur,\n  With gemmed and flashing hilt it will not sink.\n  There rises from below a hand that grasps it,\n  And waves it in the air: and wailing voices\n  Are heard along the shore.\u201d\n\n[30] Glastonbury occupies a former site of Druidical worship, and\nProfessor Rhys believes the name to be a corruption of the British\nword _glasten_, an oak, the Druids cultivating both the oak and the\napple as foster parents of their sacred mistletoe. Glestenaburh, says\nCanon Taylor, was assimilated by the Saxons to their gentile form\nGlestinga-burh or Gl\u00e6sting-burh, which being supposed by a false\netymology to mean the \u201cshining\u201d or \u201cglassy\u201d town was mistranslated by\nthe Welsh as Ynys-Widrin, the Island of Glass.\n\n[31] William Morris slightly varied the story in his _King Arthur\u2019s\nTomb_, when he represents Lancelot journeying to \u201cwhere the Glastonbury\nglided towers shine\u201d and relates that\n\n                                \u201cPresently\n    He rode on giddy still, until he reach\u2019d\n  A place of apple-trees, by the Thorn-Tree\n    Wherefrom St. Joseph in the past days preach\u2019d.\u201d\n\n[32] The Holy Grail is pointed out in particular at Genoa Cathedral.\n\u201cIt was brought from C\u00e6sarea in 1101, is a hexagonal dish of two palms\u2019\nwidth, and was long supposed to be of real emerald, which it resembles\nin colour and brilliancy.\u201d\n\n[33] Some historians, perhaps with better reason, declare that he was\nborn in 405 at Kilpatrick, Dumbarton, a little town at the junction of\nthe Levin and Clyde. He is variously reported to have died in 493 and\n507, some placing his age at 88, and others at 120.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes:\n\nItalic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=.\n\nVariations in spelling and hyphenation remain as in the original unless\nnoted below.\n\n  Page 134, single quotation mark changed to double after \u201cthe flower of\n    all the world.\u201d\n  Page 159, double quotation mark changed to single before \u201cLargesse!\n    Largesse!\u201d\n  Page 159, single quotation mark added after \u201cChevaliers tr\u00e8s-hardies!\u201d\n  Page 249, period added after \u201cHenry VIII.\u201d\n  Ads section, period added after \u201caccount of the Cathedral\u2019s history.\u201d\n  Footnote 28, \u201cand to, a slight extent\u201d changed to \u201cand to a slight\n    extent.\u201d\n\nOriginal images of this book can be found here:\nhttps://archive.org/details/lostlandofkingar00waltuoft.","title":"The Lost Land of King Arthur","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":57838}