f the accidents of the doomed
Tregeagle, whose story will be told later. The Pool is about seven
miles in circumference, and affords some excellent fishing; it is the
one great attraction that Helston can boast. When Tennyson wrote his
"Morte d'Arthur," the germ from which all his Arthurian Idylls
sprang, and in some respects the finest portion of them, he described
how the knight Bedivere carried the wounded Arthur after his last
battle--

"And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full."

It has been sometimes imagined that this "great water" was none other
than Loe Pool, and certainly the spot has a better claim than Dozmare
on the Bodmin Moors; but the placing this last battle in the West at
all is merely a concession to fancy, and to the desires of West
Countrymen. History tells us that Arthur's last fight must almost
certainly have taken place in Scotland. But Tennyson's localities are
a land of dream and myth; we do better not to try to identify
them--their beauty may go with us from place to place, their
atmosphere bring peace and soothing to us wherever our steps may be.

It is probable that the origin of the name of Helston is the Cornish
_hel_, "water," as at Helford and Hayle; but some Saxon derivations
have been suggested, and certainly the name was once Henlistone. It is
a clean, bright little town of about five thousand inhabitants, with a
broad main street. Relatively, the town was once of greater
consequence than now; its earliest known charter was granted by King
John, with many later charters from other monarchs. It was an active
centre of mining, and became a stannary or coinage town. The Grammar
School (now extinct) was notable in the days of Derwent Coleridge,
son of the poet, who was headmaster here at a time when Charles
Kingsley was pupil; the second master was Johns, known to all
botanists by his _Flowers of the Field_, and to all lovers of Cornwall
by his _Week at the Lizard_. Kingsley utilised his knowledge of this
corner of Cornwall when he wrote his _Hereward_, and there is no doubt
that he derived much good from his schooling under such excellent
masters as Coleridge and Johns. When writing of Helston it is
customary to say a great deal about its Flora, or Furry Day, the 8th
of May--a relic of old Maytide saturna