nd
this is surely not the place in which to discourse learnedly of them
all; besides which, the utmost learning does little but reveal our
dense ignorance of their real significance. Troove belonged to the Le
Veales, or Levelis, family, who came over with the Conqueror, and
flourished in this spot for six centuries, dying at last in the person
of Arthur Levelis, who was buried at St. Buryan in 1671. The modern
house retains only a few fragments of the mansion; but the doorway
remains, its jambs sculptured with queer figures, and three calves'
heads carved above it as the family arms. About half a mile westward
is Boleigh, or Boleit, with the Pipers--two rough granite figures.
When Athelstan traversed Cornwall from end to end, about the year 936,
he is said to have fought his last battle against the defeated British
at Boleit; not content with the whole of Cornwall, he crossed to the
Scillies and took these also. It is quite possible that there was
fighting here at that time, but very certainly the Pipers were not
then raised as burial monoliths; they are clearly of far earlier date.
In an open field near is the stone circle of _Dawns men_, the
dancing-stones, known as the Merry Maidens; there are nineteen rough
boulders of granite, and there was probably a twentieth. Naturally,
there is the usual story that they were maidens who danced on the
Sabbath and were thus punished, the Pipers being similarly doomed for
playing the dances.

Though St. Buryan lies about three miles from the coast, it must be
visited for the beauty of its church and the interest of its
traditions. The church is so named after Buriena, a beautiful Irish
girl who came to Cornwall to become a saint, but it is very difficult
to decide definitely as to her personality. We may conjecture that she
came to Cornwall about the same time as St. Piran, perhaps in his
company, and that she set up her cell in a field formerly called the
Sanctuary, and later the Sentry. The present church is always
understood to have been founded by Athelstan, when he sighted the
Scilly Isles from this high ground, and vowed that if he returned
safely from their conquest he would endow a collegiate establishment
here. The expedition to Scilly accomplished, he observed his vow, and
founded an establishment consisting of a dean and three prebendaries,
with jurisdiction over the parishes of Buryan, Levan, and Sennen.
There was trouble later, because the Buryan priests claimed free