Legend Land, Vol. 1

Legend Land, Vol. 1, by Various

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Legend Land, Vol. 1, by Various This
eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Legend Land, Vol. 1 Being a collection of some of the Old Tales
told in those Western Parts of Britain served by The Great Western
Railway.
Author: Various
Release Date: December 23, 2006 [EBook #20170]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEGEND
LAND, VOL. 1 ***

Produced by Chris Curnow, David Garcia and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration:
G.W.R: The Line to Legend Land

THE HURLERS Page 8 PERRAN SANDS Page 12 ST ALLEN Page
16 ZENNOR Page 4 ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT Page 20 THE LOOE
BAR Page 24 "FURRY DAY SONG" Page 52
Vol. One Front End]
* * * * *

LEGEND LAND
Being a collection of some of the OLD TALES told in those Western
Parts of Britain served by the GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY, now
retold by LYONESSE
[Illustration]
VOLUME ONE
Published in 1922 by THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY [FELIX J.
C. POLE, GENERAL MANAGER] PADDINGTON STATION,
LONDON

CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
The Mermaid of Zennor Page 4 The Stone Men of St. Cleer 8 How St.
Piran Came to Cornwall 12 The Lost Child of St. Allen 16 The Giants
who Built the Mount 20 The Tasks of Tregeagle 24 The Lady of
Llyn-y-Fan Fach 28 St. David and His Mother 32 The Vengeance of
the Fairies 36 The Old Woman who Fooled the Devil 40 The Women
Soldiers of Fishguard 44 How Bala Lake Began 48 The Furry Day
Song (Supplement) 52
* * * * *
This is a reprint in book form of the first series of The Line to Legend
Land leaflets, together with a Supplement, "The Furry Day Song."

The Map at the beginning provides a guide to the localities of the six
Cornish legends and the "Furry Day Song"; that at the back to the six
stories of Wales.
* * * * *
Printed by SPOTTISWOODE, BALLANTYNE & COMPANY
LIMITED, One New Street Square, London, E.C.4

FOREWORD
In those older, simpler days, when reading was a rare accomplishment,
our many times great-grandparents would gather round the blazing fire
of kitchen or hall on the long, dark winter nights and pass away the
hours before bedtime in conversation and story-telling.
The old stories were told again and again. The children learned them in
their earliest years and passed them on to their children and
grandchildren in turn. And, as is natural, in all this telling the stories
changed little by little. New and more familiar characters were
introduced, or a story-teller with more vivid imagination than his
fellows would add a bit here and there to make a better tale of it.
But in origin most of these old legends date from the very dawn of our
history. In a primitive form they were probably told round the
camp-fires of that British army that went out to face invading Cæsar.
Then with the spread of education they began to die. When many folk
could read and books grew cheap there was no longer the need to call
upon memory for the old-fashioned romances.
Yet there have always been those who loved the old tales best, and they
wrote them down before it was too late, so that they might be preserved
for ever. A few of them are retold briefly here.
All people should like the old stories; all nice people do. To them I
commend these tales of Legend Land, in the hope that they may grow

to love them and the countries about which they are written.
LYONESSE

[Illustration]

THE MERMAID OF ZENNOR
Carved on one of the pews in the church of Zennor in West Cornwall is
a strange figure of a mermaid. Depicted with flowing hair, a mirror in
one hand and a comb in the other, the Zennor folk tell a strange story
about her.
Years and years ago, they say, a beautiful and richly dressed lady used
to attend the church sometimes. Nobody knew where she came from,
although her unusual beauty and her glorious voice caused her to be the
subject of discussion throughout the parish.
So attractive was she that half the young men of the village fell in love
with her, and one of them, Mathey Trewella, a handsome youth and one
of the best singers in the neighbourhood, determined that he would
discover who she was.
The beautiful stranger had smiled at him in