eone
carried off a large amount of the priory's ancient stonework to
Somerset, where it was placed in private grounds, but the Crown made an
order for it to be returned and re-erected at Rialton.

St. Columb Major occupies the crown of an eminence, the conjectured site
of a Danish fortress. The church is large, mainly early Decorated, and
of much beauty. In the chancel is the pre-Reformation stone altar,
marked with the five crosses, and supported on slabs of granite. This
had been buried beneath the floor and was discovered during some
restorations in 1846. Other noteworthy features are the window of the
south transept and the grotesque carvings that adorn the font. There are
also three good brasses commemorating members of the Arundell family.

The whole of this neighbourhood is famous for its "hurlers" and
"wrestlers", a memento of which could be seen at the Red Lion a few
years ago, for here the landlord used to exhibit with pride the silver
punchbowl given to his grandfather (Polkinhorne) when that worthy
escaped defeat in a wrestling bout with Cann, the champion of the
adjoining county of Devon.

The art of wrestling appears to have died out, but the once popular game
of hurling is revived once a year, either in the village itself or along
the sands towards Newquay. The ball used is about the size of a cricket
ball, and after being coated with silver is inscribed:--

"St. Columb Major and Minor,
Do your best;
In one of your parishes
I must rest."

At one time the game was very common throughout Cornwall, and many
interesting records relating to it are in existence; but at the present
day only the two parishes of St. Columb keep up a survival of this
ancient game.

The whole of the St. Columb district is rich in large tracts of wild and
picturesque country, which include such heights as Denzell Downs, St.
Issey Beacon, and St. Breock Downs, near which last stand the "Naw
Mean", or, in modern English, the Nine Maidens. At the present time
there are but eight of these upright stones, which tradition asserts
were originally maidens who were turned into stone for dancing on Sunday
to the strains of a fiddler, who shared the same fate, as witness a tall
pillar of rock near by called the "Fiddler".

On the drive from Newquay to Bedruthan Steps no one should fail to make
a halt at Mawgan, or, to be strictly accurate, St. Mawgan in Pydar,
either on the outward or the return journey. Th