fect on the miners. But it earns dividends. Pages might be
written about the old miners' superstitions, but even underground
these things have died out; even the perils are now lessened by modern
science. Yet at Wheal Owles, in 1892, eighteen men lost their lives
through the flooding of the workings.

Just beyond Levant is Pendeen Village, with a new lighthouse on the
coast. At Pendeen manor-house, now a farm, was born the eminent
Cornish antiquary, Dr. Borlase, in 1695. For his age he was a
tolerably enlightened archaeologist, and his works on local antiquities
have supplied the basis of much subsequent writing; but of course they
present pitfalls for the unwary. He was Vicar of Ludgvan for fifty
years. The curious _fogou_ of Pendeen Vau was actually in the garden
of his birthplace, so that he had an early stimulus to research.
Pendeen has now its own church, which is of remarkable interest
although quite recent. In plan and exterior it is modelled on Iona
Cathedral, and was built by the Cornish missioner, Robert Aitken, who
influenced his people so powerfully that the granite was both given
and wrought free of cost. A castellated wall with a fine arched
gateway surrounds the building, which proves that under the right
impulse the people may still become church-builders--and will still
attend church. Eastward of Pendeen is the church town of Morvah. This
tract of coast from Land's End to St. Ives has perhaps been neglected
by visitors and writers, only one spot, and that not the finest,
Gurnard's Head, being really familiar. The stony barrenness of the
inland country is compensated by a real grandeur of coast-line,
invisible from the road and therefore often left unexplored. Morvah
has traditions of mermaids, with some idea that its name may be a
corruption of the Breton _morverch_; but we must probably seek some
other derivation. Tonkin says the name simply means _locus maritimus_.
Stories of mermaids are common enough, or rather were so, along this
north shore, doubtless explained by the seals that were once
frequent, and would be still if not shot off by the usual insensate
"man with a gun." The small church is Perpendicular, with a pinnacled
tower. In this parish is the magnificent Chun or Chywoon castle, on a
hill about 700 feet high. This western extremity of Cornwall was
guarded by a line of hill forts, of which this Chun, if not the most
powerful, remains in best preservation. We cannot speak with decision
as