d of Madron. The tract of sheltered land in which Gulval lies,
reaching from Mount's Bay to Ludgvan, is one of the most productive in
Cornwall, being chiefly devoted to market-gardens and flowers; its
rare mildness and productiveness is proved by the wealth of exotic
vegetation around Gulval Church and Vicarage. In this respect the
place actually rivals Tresco, and the fields of narcissi are as
luxuriant as those of the Scillies. Much of this soil is worked by
hand, in the good old-fashioned style, whose results always seem
better than those of machinery. It is quite an idyllic corner of land,
with a tangible outcome that goes to the markets in the shape of early
vegetables and spring flowers. Below stretches the wide Bay, with its
gem, the Mount, of which it is so glorious a setting. There is another
gem close at hand, and that is Gulval Church itself, dedicated to a
St. Gudval or Wolvele. The general character of the church is Early
English, but there were two restorations in the past century, the last
being in 1892, and a great deal of modern decoration has been added,
largely in Derbyshire felspar, with excellent result. The church has
been under the special care of the Bolitho family, whose monuments
abound here, and it is a proof that old ecclesiastic buildings may be
beautified by modern adornment, without the disastrous result that
sometimes attends such attempts. Gulval holy well was one of the most
famous in Cornwall, and there can be little doubt that the saint's
early oratory was on the site of the church--a few traces, indeed, may
remain in the walling, a successful blending of the very ancient and
the recent. Even more famous was the well of St. Madron or Maddern,
which was quite a Lourdes in its way. The church here, probably on an
older site, dates from the time of Richard I., being built by one of
the Pomeroys; but little remains of this earlier building except its
very curious and apparently mutilated font. The present church is
chiefly Perpendicular.

In the graveyard is the epitaph of George Daniell, the founder of
Madron schools in days when men built schools instead of quarrelling
about them:--

"Belgia me birth, Britaine me breeding gave;
Cornwall a wife, ten children, and a grave."

Madron Feast (Advent Sunday) was always an occasion of prolonged
merrymakings and dissipation. It seems to have been in this district
that the last bull-baiting took place in Cornwall. A witness states
tha