s quickly absorbed or evaporated. To the lover of history,
legend, and romance the Scillies are a rich mine of treasure, and
their inaccessibility keeps them immune from the spoiling tendencies
of fashion. At one time this inaccessibility was far greater, and only
those came to Scilly who had business there. It is claimed by
tradition that these islets are a portion of the lost land of
Lyonesse, the old-world haunt of Arthur and Tristram--a land of
villages, pastures, smiling vales, now buried beneath the waves.
Persons sometimes apply the name of Lyonesse to the whole of Cornwall,
but this is a mistake; the true Lyonesse of legend was a tract of
country lying to the south-west of Land's End, which we may connect,
racially or otherwise, with the Leon of Brittany. There are many
traces of submerged forest in Mount's Bay and elsewhere along the
southern coast; and the old Cornish name of St. Michael's Mount
represents that rock as having once stood in the centre of woodland.
It is impossible to say when or how the Scillies first became insular,
whether by sudden cataclysm or by gradual erosion; the latter seems
more likely, but tradition has preferred to speak of a sudden
catastrophe, such as that which is supposed to have overwhelmed
Cardigan Bay. There is a story which says that a member of the
Trevilian family was only saved from the inrush of waters by the speed
of his horse, which struggled inland from the pursuing waves, reaching
a rocky cleft on the shore at Perranuthnoe. It is possible that slow
erosion may have paved the way to some such immediate disaster, such
as that caused by a great storm in 1099, when, according to the Saxon
Chronicle, many villages and churches were swept away. It was this
storm, accompanied perhaps by a tidal wave, that converted the estates
of Earl Godwin into the dreaded Goodwin Sands; and it may have caused
tremendous damage, not definitely recorded, in the West. But another
tradition attributes the formation of the islands to magic. It was
said, by those who placed Arthur's last great battle in the West of
England, that, after the fight was over, the triumphant Mordred chased
the King's despairing followers to the extreme limits of Lyonesse,
where they lay "between the devil and the deep sea," like the
Israelites pursued by Pharaoh. The cruel Mordred was close at their
heels, rejoicing in the prospect of exterminating the last remnant of
Arthur's Round Table, when suddenly the wizard M