according to Manx tradition, St. Maughold's horse, on which he had crossed over from Ireland, cleared at one bound, after a vigorous application of the saint's spurs, landing on his knee on the site of the well, and so making the cistern or hollow to which I have referred. From this hollow, water at once gushed forth, and, being drunk by the saint and his horse, has, since then, been efficacious for the cure of all diseases. This tradition, which was told to Sir George Head, who visited the island in 1832, by a peasant living in the parish of Maughold, is still remembered in the neighbourhood.[1]
Close by the well there is said to have been a chair[2] on which the saint was wont to sit, but it has long since disappeared. Barren women used to sit in it and drink a glass of the water from the well, which was supposed to have the power of rendering them prolific; but, as Sacheverell, writing in 1702, shrewdly remarked, it "probably has lost much of its ancient virtue since the priests, who had the custody of it, have been discontinued".[3] The well, however, continued to be largely visited, for as late as 1832 "a multitude of people from all parts"[4] flocked to it on the first Sunday in harvest. As regards the annual number of visitants since that time, but little is known. A local guide-book, written in i86c, speaks of the practice of visiting the well as "not obsolete";[5] but the
- ↑ Continuation of a Home Tour, p. 70 (1837). Sir G. Head's peasant added the remarkable information that all the particulars of the above-mentioned tradition were to be gathered from the cross at the entrance to the churchyard; but, as this cross, which dates from the 14th century, has no inscription, the only help it gives to such a supposition is the fact that the "three legs of Man" on it are furnished with spurs. It may be mentioned that the Book of Armagh gives St. Maughold a boat to cross the channel in (see Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man, p. 22), but Manx tradition scorns so prosaic a method of transit! It will be seen later that St. Patrick also came to Man on horseback.
- ↑ Sacheverell's Survey of the Isle of Man, Manx Society's Publications, vol. i, p. 18.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Continuation of a Home Tour, p. 70.
- ↑ Kneale's Guide, p. 151.
