w ebbes,
rootes of mightie trees are discryed in the sands about it. The like
overflowing hath happened in Plymmouth Haven, and divers other places."
Now while in this place Carew gives the name _Cara-clowse in Cowse_, it is
very important to remark that on page 154, he speaks of it again as "_Cara
Cowz in Clowze_, that is, the hoare rock in the wood."

The original Cornish name, whether it was _Cara clowse in Cowse_, or _Cara
Cowz in Clowze_, cannot be traced back beyond the end of the sixteenth
century, for the Cornish Pilchard song in which the name likewise occurs
is much more recent, at least in that form in which we possess it. The
tradition, however, that St. Michael's Mount stood in a forest, and even
the Saxon designation, "the Hoar rock in the wood," can be followed up to
an earlier date.

At least one hundred and twenty-five years before Carew's time, William of
Worcester, though not mentioning the Cornish name, not only gives the
Mount the name of "hoar rock of the wood," but states distinctly that St.
Michael's Mount was formerly six miles distant from the sea, and
surrounded by a dense forest: "PREDICTUS LOCUS OPACISSIMA PRIMO
CLAUDEBATUR SYLVA, AB OCEANO MILIARIBUS DISTANS SEX." As William of
Worcester never mentions the Cornish name, it is not likely that his
statement should merely be derived from the supposed meaning of _Cara Cowz
in Clowze_, and it is but fair to admit that he may have drawn from a
safer source of information. We must therefore inquire more closely into
the credibility of this important witness. He is an important witness,
for, if it were not for him, I believe we should never have heard of the
insulation of St. Michael's Mount at all. The passage in question occurs
in William of Worcester's Itinerary, the original MS. of which is
preserved in Corpus Christi College at Cambridge. It was printed at
Cambridge by James Nasmith, in the year 1778, from the original MS., but,
as it would seem, without much care. William Botoner, or, as he is
commonly called, William of Worcester, was born at Bristol in 1415, and
educated at Oxford about 1434. He was a member of the _Aula Cervina_,
which at that time belonged to Balliol College. His "Itinerarium" is dated
1478. It hardly deserves the grand title which it bears, "Itinerarium,
sive liber memorabilium Will. W. in viagio de Bristol usque ad montem St.
Michaelis." It is not a book of travels in our sense of the word, and it
was hardly destined f