Land's End, and the sands are
driven backward again and again. But he is safe from the immediate
attack of the fiends, and he is out of the way of the countryfolk. His
cries are lost in the crash of the seas that dominate that desolate
shore, and the fishermen have given up thinking about Tregeagle.
The legends vary in telling his doom; some make the draining of
Dosmare his last penance and some this task at the Land's End. But if
an imaginative reason is desired to account for the formation of the
Padstow Doom Bar, surely this tale will do as well as any other.

[Illustration: CLIFFS NEAR PADSTOW.

_Photo by Alex. Old._]

It will be seen that this chronicle of Tregeagle carries him back to
the time of Petrock, the patron saint of Padstow, whose name is a
corruption of Petrock's-stow. Little Petherick, sometimes called St.
Petrock Minor, is thought to be a corruption of the same name. Petrock
was a Celtic saint, probably a Welshman, who went to Ireland for his
religious education; he crossed to Cornwall in a coracle, and landed
in this estuary of the Camel. He founded an oratory here, and probably
another at Little Petherick. It is also suggested that he established
another cell at Place, the seat of the Prideaux, but it seems more
likely that the chapel at Place was founded by St. Samson. After
spending many years at Padstow the saint is said to have voyaged to
the East, visiting India, and also going on a visionary journey to
some Island of the Blest, after the manner of St. Brendan. After
returning to Cornwall he removed to Bodmin and established the most
important of his religious foundations. Like Padstow, Bodmin was
formerly named Petrockstow, and this has caused endless confusion to
the chroniclers as well as some quarrels between the two towns.
Further, the saint evidently went into Devon; we trace his footsteps
at Dartmouth, Exeter, Hollacombe, Anstey, and elsewhere. Bodmin can
boast precedence of Padstow in certain respects, for it attained
episcopal consequence, besides being the county town of Cornwall; but
with regard to priority in connection with Petrock, it is clear
Padstow has the first claim. At one time Padstow appears to have been
called Lodenek or Lodernek, but in the thirteenth century it was
certainly known as Aldestowe; in fact, the town has been troubled with
a multiplicity of names, which is always a regrettable thing, for a
person or a place. The town is about two miles within the estuary,