lies beneath the sand-towans. "This town is
said to have had many fine churches and buildings, vying with the best
cities in the Britain of that day, which seems to have been the tenth
century."

[Illustration: THE CLIFFS, NEWQUAY]

Be this as it may, and there is no doubt a good deal of truth in the
tradition, we do know that until comparatively recent years the now
sand-choked estuary of the Gannel had a sufficient depth of water for
fishing craft and coasting schooners; while old historians assure us
that the channel could at one time be navigated by ships of large
tonnage. It is quite possible that the "new quay" of the now fashionable
watering-place owes its existence to the silting-up of the estuary that
gave access to the old quay at Crantock. In Carew's _Survey of Cornwall_
reference is made to "newe Kaye, a place in the north coast of this
Hundred (Pider), so called, because in former times, the neighbours
attempted, to supplie the defect of nature, by art, in making there a
Kay, for the Rode of shipping".

An old well in the centre of the village is said to be a "holy" one, but
this has been disputed by antiquaries.

The weird and uncanny cry of the "Gannel Crake" is heard by everyone who
woos the charms of a romantic coast after the sun has set beyond the
western sea. It is said to be the cry of some species of night gull, but
is traditionally referred to by the superstitious natives as the cry of
a troubled spirit that ever haunts the scene.

A short distance inland from the porth is St. Columb Minor, the church
of which, together with that of St. Columb Major some six miles farther
inland is said to be dedicated to Columba, a maiden saint who is not to
be confounded with the great Irish saint of the same name. St. Columb
Minor is the mother parish of Newquay and possesses a fine late
Decorated church with a remarkably good western tower, said to be the
second highest tower in the county. The village is quite a large one
from which some fine views of the coast may be obtained. Close at hand
is Rialton, from which the statesman Sidney Godolphin took his title,
and where, in the surrounding park and dells, many sketches were made by
Stansfield, when he visited the district with his friend Charles
Dickens.

Rialton Priory is a much desecrated building that once belonged to the
priory of Bodmin, it having been erected towards the end of the
fifteenth century by Thomas Vivian, prior of Bodmin. In 1840 som