I have been meaning to write about an article from 1980 about Paul. It was written about him and I have always felt it to be my duty to somehow put it on my blog. Maybe, now we have a computer expert in the family he will advise the best way.
So today I take out a memory of St.Keynes Well by Duloe village in Cornwall. A photo of some eggs hidden by the well nudged me into acknowledging that Easter is almost upon us and there have been rather interesting spoken word articles on Radio 4.
The well was up a little lane, fed by a stream, and was an oasis of green. Moss, one of my favourite plants, ferns growing between the cracks of the stones and a general jungle feeling to what is a sacred place, if not to any saint or gods but to the wonderful verdant colour of nature. All due no doubt to the clean air of Cornwall.
St.Keynes Well; We only saw two wells. How many 'saint' wells does Cornwall have? too many to number, and most of these saints have perambulated down from Wales, I expect by sea in little boats. St.Keyne is also to be found in Keynsham in Somerset, here she banishes serpents, having arrived in this town from Wales. She was a 'pious' virgin, and the daughter of King Brychan, a king who had many children. To find this well which is not far from the stone circle of Duloe, we travelled down a little lane out of the village of St.Keyne, into one of those beautiful wooded valleys. The well is situated by the side of the road, the water trickling down the bank across the lane into the hollow created. The entrance stones are green mossed and there were painted eggs hidden in the undergrowth for the celebration of Easter. St.Keyne in Cornwall has another legend to her name, and a wise girl should takes a bottle of the well water to drink at the church before her marriage!
The plaque next to the well describes the spell which Saint Keyne cast upon the water of the well. The plaque reads: "The legend of Saint Keyne Well. Saint Keyne was a princess who lived about 600 AD. She laid on the waters of this well a spell thus described by Carew in 1602 AD—'The quality that man or wife whom chance or choice attains first of this sacred spring to drink thereby the mastery gains.'"
Magical place.
ReplyDeleteYes Tom, it has been allowed to grow on its own.
DeleteThank you for this post. I am very familiar with St. Keyne's Well having lived within a few miles of it for many years. It's a lovely, secluded and peaceful place to spend time - and my companion, a Border Collie named Zac, always appreciated a drink of that crystal clear water. I must drive out to it again soon and take photos.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the small quartz stone circle in the village of Duloe as well Rambler. Lucky you to live in Cornwall and I hope Zac enjoys his drink of special water.
DeleteWhat a beautiful green and secret place.
ReplyDeleteYet again somewhere so different to Suffolk
It had a special feel to it Sue, I think the overgrown nature of it helped.
DeleteMost modern Britons have no knowledge of the historical and spiritual significance of wells but near here out in Derbyshire there are annual well dressings. I suspect modern people think of a well as a hole in the ground down which you lower buckets, not the sites of springs from which water magically "wells" up.
ReplyDeleteI have found some stories about the sacredness of wells, there are a few in Cornwall. Neopagans round Avebury exploit the poor old willow where the river meets with a stream. But I think well dressing is more common 'Up North'.
DeleteSt Keynes led me off to read about the hermitess. It made me laugh out loud to read that an Edwardian scholar determined that she must have been a man because she accomplished so much in her lifetime.
ReplyDeleteMy first curiosity is whether Milton Keynes had a connection with St Keyne, but I find no link based on my admitted cursory readings.
Hi Debby, not sure I can help with Milton Keynes, especially as it is a new town. But the interesting thing about these saints that 'perform miracles', not forgetting that these early female saints are descended from pagan forefathers. Is that like their male counterparts, can replace a cut off head, and the 'killing of serpents' attributed to St.Keyne of Keynsham (just outside Bath) is the serpents were the coiled ammonites you find in both Keynsham and Whitby - Saint Hilda flung them over the cliffs at Whitby - slightly different geological explanation of course!
DeleteMilton Keynes used to be called Middleton Cahaines around the 13th century and the name gradually got corrupted to Milton Keynes. The Cahaines were the Feudal lords of the district. When Milton Keynes became a new town and swallowed up the old village in the 1960s the name Milton Keynes was adopted for the new town.
DeleteThank you for that Rachel, have a good birthday today and enjoy the meal with your friend.
DeleteSuch exquisite 'greenness'
ReplyDeleteWhat a special spot that is. I have always been interested in Holy Wells and have a good book about the Welsh ones. Fancy one of King Brychan's daughters ending up in Cornwall. He did well as all his children became Saints . . .
ReplyDeleteWell if Brychan did have all those children, and I think there is some poetic licence in the claim, it is marvellous they all became saints. My book was Breverton's The Book of Welsh Saints.
DeleteHow green, beautiful, damp. It must smell heavenly.
ReplyDeleteIt has what is called 'spirit of place' or the Genius Loci Joanne.
DeleteA magical place. One can understand early peoples regarding such wells as having special significance and I suspect that the connection to Christian saints came later as the religion spread across these islands. Even now, when we understand how it comes about, it still seems very special to take a drink from such a spring.
ReplyDeleteYes the 'magic' of a natural source of water. Storytelling has gone down through ages to make sense of where there is no sense. But place can often be imbued with its own spirit and given a good pagan or Christian leader can be used to further their ends.
ReplyDelete