NOTES ON THE EXCURSION. 377 



beheld, and perchance it has few parallels in England. The 

 thought of this charming little combination of art and nature 

 might be advantageously carried out in many other parts of 

 Cornwall, where rock scenery might be combined with landscape- 

 gardening into charming and striking effects. 



From Eagle's Nest (which I fear some of our party did not 

 examine) our next stage was to the far-famed Zennor Quoit, a 

 very fine dolmen, possibly a work of some Pre-Aryan race, the 

 ancient megalithic builders of pre-historic times. Who these 

 people were it is hard now to say, but I am inclined, for reasons 

 which I have recently given at our Penzance Natural History 

 and Antiquarian Society, to regard them as a people who lived 

 here before the arrival of the Celts and Cymri into Grreat 

 Britain. The tendency of recent researches is to throw back the 

 the date of our Cornish antiquities into a far remoter past than 

 was dreamt of by Cornish Antiquaries in the last or early part 

 of the present century. 



In Zennor Church we had an interesting old church, one of 

 the chief points of interest in which is the curious mermaid's 

 head and bust carved on a pew end. This is connected with the 

 mermaid legend of Zennor, i.e., of how the Zennor choir once 

 were so skilled in singing that they charmed the mermaids out of 

 the sea, and that one of these circe undines was seen by the 

 squire's son in Zennor church and was followed by him to Zennor 

 Cove, where she drowned him in the waters. As a matter of 

 fact the mermaid was held as a religious symbol by the ancient 

 Cornish people (as we learn in the dramas). 



In our return we passed very near the famous Mulfra Quoit, 

 and the still more famous Lanyon Quoit, Men-Scryfa, and Men- 

 an-Tol, each of which antiquities I could recommend to members 

 of our Institution as worthy of a visit. 



