on another, forming a stalwart bulwark against the onrushing waves
of the Atlantic. In the crevices of these miniature precipices purple
heather and golden gorse have set them here and there, while the silver
lichens have clothed the scarred surfaces of rock with a tender grace.
The wind-swept downs that cap the lonely headland are also not without a
certain beauty, from the very nature of the surrounding waste of wild
grey sea.

As we gaze over the waters from the top of this lonely rock, we think
instinctively of the lost land of Lyonesse, that antiquaries and
geologists tell us once stretched from our feet to the Scillies.

[Illustration: ON THE LERRYN RIVER]

That such a denudation actually occurred is of course within the bounds
of geological possibility, if we take the precaution to date the
incident far enough back, to remote and prehistoric days. There is
little credence to be attached to the local traditions, which affirm
that fishermen on a calm, clear day, have seen the ruins of house and
castle, cottage and farm, covered with dulse instead of stonecrop; or
the shattered spires of one or two of the reputed "hundred and twenty
churches". If such a kingdom ever existed it was long before the
mediaeval era, and a spired church belongs to the Gothic period.

Sir Richard Carew, the friend and contemporary of Raleigh and of
Campden, assures us not only that proofs of the lost kingdom remained in
his day, but that the fishermen's nets frequently brought up portions of
"doors and windows" from the submerged houses.

At the same time there is probably a certain rough truth in the old
legends, the details having been added from time to time. As Mr. Arthur
Salmon says: "When we speak of a lost Lyonesse we are not dealing with
absurdities. We must only be careful to date it far enough backward, or
rather to leave it without date. It is an alluring vision on which we
can linger without the sense of being actually unhistoric."

Certain is it that if we examine _The Life and Death of Prince Arthur_,
the _History of Merlin_, or the _Mort d'Arthur_, we shall find
"Cornewaile" and "The Lyonesse" spoken of with an airy indifference as
to their geographical limits. Thus it may possibly be that, by the title
of Lyonesse, Leonois, or any other of the various renderings of the
name, it was intended to cover such portion of the west country as lay
beyond that part of Devonshire, which, down to so late as the year 410
of the An