11
ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT.
"The romantic Castle of St Michael's, situated upon a lofty insulated hill, in Mount's Bay, is the theme of many a Cornish legend; the most prevalent supposes that their 'long-lost Arthur' resides there, under the immediate guardianship of the archangel, until the time appointed for his return to earth; and it is to this Milton alludes, when he says—
Where the great vision of the guarded Mount
Looks to Namancos and Bayona's hold."
[Note to Verses privately printed by the late Sir Harelinge
Giffard, at the Wesleyan Mission Press, Colombo.]
Giffard, at the Wesleyan Mission Press, Colombo.]
O FOR the glorious days of old,
When Arthur and his champions bold.
With iron hand, from cup of gold.
Drank to the table round!
Entranced beneath St. Michael's keep,
Now Arthur and his warriors sleep
Their charmed slumber, long and deep
In magic thraldom bound.
When Arthur and his champions bold.
With iron hand, from cup of gold.
Drank to the table round!
Entranced beneath St. Michael's keep,
Now Arthur and his warriors sleep
Their charmed slumber, long and deep
In magic thraldom bound.
Say, when shall come the fated morn.
To rouse them from the rest they scorn?
Say, when shall sound the wizard horn,
To wake them to the strife?[1]
"When on her base of noble rock,
Britain shall yield to ocean's shock.
Fate will their prison-door unlock.
And call them into life:"
To rouse them from the rest they scorn?
Say, when shall sound the wizard horn,
To wake them to the strife?[1]
"When on her base of noble rock,
Britain shall yield to ocean's shock.
Fate will their prison-door unlock.
And call them into life:"
- ↑ According to the legend concerning the sleep of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, they are to be awakened by the sound of a magic horn, when England is on the point of being conquered; and they will then rush to the fight, and overcome the invaders. A similar legend is related in Wales, of Owen Lawgoch, or Owen of the Bloody Hand, who, like Arthur in St. Michael's Mount, is supposed to sleep in the Mountain of Mynnydd Mawr near Llandilo in Carmarthenshire. "Almost in our days," says a writer in the Quarterly Review, No. xliv. "it was thought that Sebastian of Portugal would one day return, and claim his usurped realms. Thus also the three founders of the Helvetic Confederacy are thought to sleep in a cavern near the Lake of Lucerne. The herdsmen call them the Three Tells, and say that they lie there in their antique garb in quiet slumber, and, when Switzerland is in her utmost need, they will awaken, and regain the liberties of the land." In the same work, we are told that "The Emperor (Frederick Barbarosa, or Red-beard) is secluded
