Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/127

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Legends of Parishes, etc. 1 15 pool of fresh water). This is said to be the entrance of a sub- terranean passage leading to the island of Tresco, where another Piper's Hole is shown as the exit. Old people told marvellows tales of rash people venturing in so far that they never returned, but died in it overcome by fatigue — the passage being too narrow for them to turn. Also of dogs who disappeared in the hole^at St. Mary's, and after many days crept out from the one in Tresco, very emaciated, and almost hairless. The Rev. J. W. North, in his Week in the Isles of Scilly, has an interesting account of Piper's Hole at Tresco. Half-way down Giant's Castle, the steep earn before mentioned on St. Mary's, lies a very inaccessible cave known as Tom Butt's Bed, from the fact that a boy of that name hid himself there in Queen Anne's time three days and three nights out of sight of the press-gang. The wreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovel in 1707, upon Gilston Rock, in Porth Hellick Bay, near Old Town, is of course a matter of history. Very many traditions have, however, gathered around this sad event, related by many authors. I must briefly retell them, as no book of this kind would be complete without them. The admiral, accompanied by the whole of his fleet, was return- ing home from Toulon, after the capture of Gibraltar, in his ship the Association. When they were oif Scilly, on October 22nd, 1707, the weather became thick and dirt}', and orders were given "to lie-to." This was in the afternoon. Later on, about six. Sir Cloudesley again made sail, but two hours after his ship showed signals of distress, which were answered from several of the others. In two minutes she struck on the Gilston Rock, sank immediately, and all on board perished. The Eagle and the Romney with their crews shared the same fate ; the Firebrand also was lost, but her captain with most of her men were saved. "The other men-of-war with difficulty escaped by having timely notice." In this storm between fifteen hundred and two thousand people were drowned in one night. A day or two before this took place, one man, a native of