Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/153

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HAWKSTOR— HELFORD Tregoning Hill. The truth is, this Theodore or Tewdrig was a pagan and a persecutor ; and to his mind the arrival of a number of Irish, even though it included many saints, would have seemed very like an invasion. But the Irish visitors had good staying power, and they prevailed in the end, as we know from finding their names still strewn thickly from Breage to Land's End. There was a good deal of fighting as well as of preaching. It was about the close of the fifth century that this Irish settlement took place. It is not clear on which side of the Hayle Tewdrig's Castle was ; some day perhaps the sand-towans will drift and reveal it. Hayle was formerly in the parishes of Phillack and St. Erth ; it now has its own church of St. Elwyn, consecrated in 1888. The busy little seaport also aims at becoming a prosperous watering-place, and there is no reason why it should not succeed. There is a good beach, and, what is more rare still in this part of Cornwall, a good harbour ; and children are not likely to complain of the abundance of sand, even if elder persons sometimes find it monotonous. The district is rich in traditional associations, and has its own special beauty — not increased perhaps by the foundries, coal- yards, smelting works, dynamite works, and breweries of Hayle Town. Still, to any true lover of Cornwall, it is pleasant to see thriving industries, though in themselves they may not be things of loveliness. Helford (about 7 m. E. of Helston) is a 127