e traditions that became most popular sprang up in an age
when the Cymry were forgetting the former wide extent of their tribal
sway, and were limiting their racial pride to a part of the country
that was still free from the Teuton. The fact that Arthur's last fight
was with the Picts, and against Mordred, is almost conclusive as to
its location. His sister, the mother of Mordred, had married Llew or
Lot, of the Lothians, and there is reason to believe that the king was
already familiar with this part of Scotland. The battle is always
given as fought at Camlan, and this name has diverted later writers to
the Camels of Cornwall and of Somerset. But the Celtic _cam_ in
place-names is quite common; it signifies crooked, and we find it in a
number of river-names. Mordred had become a chieftain of the Picts,
and he possibly resented any claims of suzerainty on the part of
Arthur. The fight, whose date is stated as 542, was almost certainly
waged at Camelon on the river Carron, near Falkirk. Arthur was
defeated--it is likely that his forces were greatly outnumbered; and
he died, either on the field or as an immediate result of a wound
then received. Not many miles distant is an earthwork still known as
Mordred's Castle; and at Carron, nearer still, there was formerly a
mound or cairn known as Arthur's Oon (oven). All the picturesque
detail in Tennyson's wonderful "Passing of Arthur" must be attributed
to Cymric bards, to the genius of Malory, and to the poet's
imagination; we must be content with the conclusion that Arthur was
born but did not die in Cornwall.

[Illustration: KING ARTHUR'S CASTLE.

_Photo by Alex. Old._]

In any case nothing of the present ruins at Tintagel existed in the
time of Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote about the year 1150,
says of the stronghold that "it is situated upon the sea, and on every
side surrounded by it; and there is but one entrance into it, and that
through a straight rock, which three men shall be able to defend
against the whole power of the kingdom." Even Gorlois, we remember,
only gained admittance by stratagem. Tintagel, Dundagel, or Dundiogl,
the _Dunecheniv_ of Domesday, seems certainly to have belonged to
Gorlois when Uther was Pendragon or Head-king of Britain; it would
have been a cliff-castle such as that on Pentire Head. As years passed
the rock probably became more insular, and when the Norman stronghold
was built it was connected with the mainland by a drawbridge