.222 ST. Michael's motjnt. 



local histories tell us pilgrims were wont to halt before making 

 the ascent. But the Chapel Eock has other interests than that 

 derived from the building that once stood on it. Having already- 

 carried off; the top of the neighbouring hill of Trencrom, to make 

 the Mount itseK, Cormoran was in want of further stones 

 wherewith to build his castle, and sent his wife to fetch them 

 from the same place. She, thinking (womanlike) that any other 

 stone would do as well, fetched this one fi'om the nearer hill of 

 Ludgvan-lees. Angry at her conduct, the monster slew her with 

 his mighty foot, and the great rock rolled from her apron and fell 

 where we now see it ; a silent witness to the lady's strength and 

 to the truth of the narrative. 



Though I am unaware of the authority for the statement so 

 often made that, under the name of Dinsul, this hill was held 

 sacred by the heathen Britons, yet it was certainly from very 

 early times the resort of pilgrims, of whom the earliest is the 

 legendary St. Keyne, who is stated to have come here about the 

 year 490, and to have conferred on St. Michael's Chair the power 

 of giving to that one of a married couple who first sits therein 

 domestic mastery, a privilege which, as all know, she also 

 conferred on the well that bears her name in East Cornwall. By 

 one of those freaks of popular fancy which are at once so common 

 and yet so mysterious, the legend and the name have been both 

 transferred from the real chair of St. Michael, on the western 

 side of the hill, to the ruined lantern of moorstone on the chapel 

 tower, whither many a bride hurries on her wedding day to 

 secure the happiness that she fondly supposes to be born of 

 mastery. Indeed there is no place so popular for the honey-day 

 (if I may coin a word) of the wedded couples of the neighbouring 

 parishes, especially of St. Just, and I am assured that, as a rule, 

 the groom bows gracefully to the inevitable, and allows the lady 

 to mount fijst. 



Many are the churches on hills dedicated to St. Michael. To 

 name only a few in Cornwall, there are St. Michael Caerhayes, 

 Michaelstow, St. Michael at Eowtor (licensed lOth November, 

 1535, but now in ruin); and in the neighbouring county of 

 Devon is a striking church of that dedication on Brentor. I do 

 not know if St. Michael is sq,id to have personally appeared at 



