240 THE AUTUMN EXCURSIOlSr. 



St. Austell Railway Station was the rendezvous, and thence a 

 little after ten the party started in a series of wagonettes. The 

 route lay through St. Austell, and by the Bodmin road, along 

 the pleasantly wooded valley up which that road is carried for a 

 considerable distance. The first halt was called at what was 

 once known as Higher Blowing House, now Trethowel, where is 

 the entrance to the charming grounds of Mr. E. Martin. These 

 occupy the whole of the bottom and western side of the valley. 

 Here Mr. and Miss Martin were in waiting to receive their 

 guests, who, after an inspection of some magnificent specimens 

 of tin stone from the clay works below G-reat Beam Mine, 

 strolled through the grounds to visit the ancient holy well of 

 Menacuddle. Pleasant, indeed, the stroll was. Rhododendrons 

 and ferns flourish on every hand in the richest luxuriance, 

 the turf is like a perfect velvet, and the trees verdant exceed- 

 ingly. Menacuddle Well, or Baptistry, as it is sometimes 

 called, is a low rude granite structure, with ribbed roof, built 

 over a natural spring of pure water. It appears to date from 

 somewhere about the Late Decorated period. To the well many 

 traditions belong, and it is supposed to have been one of those 

 holy wells, like the present Holiwell in Wales, to which cripples 

 and other afflicted persons resorted for the cure of their ailment. 

 However, if crutches were formerly hung up to testify to the 

 healing powers of the waters they have now disappeared, and 

 Menacuddle is no more a place of pilgrimage. Mr. Martin 

 takes the greatest care of these interesting remains ; and this 

 fact, with his kindness in receiving the excursionists, was duly 

 acknowledged by the President before leaving. 



Up and up then wound the road; the wooded valley was 

 quickly exchanged for the rugged moor; and we entered the 

 region of china clay, where gaping pits yawn on every hand, 

 where the streams all run with milk instead of water, and where 

 large burrows of sand and rubble meet the eye in every direction. 

 But even in this wild spot the law of compensation holds good. 

 The heights once gained, let the eye range away from that which 

 lies nearest, and it takes in a glorious view — stretching, mile 

 after mile, away to the northward and eastward, over the Tregoss 

 Moors, until it is bounded by Castle-an-Dinas and Belovely 

 Beacon in one direction, and by the twin chief heights of Corn- 

 wall, Rough Tor and Brown Willy, clearly cut against the blue 



