Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/267

FROM HAYLE TO PERRAN 261 died. The saint had deceived him; the small hole in the rock led down into a cavern, and the cavern led to the sea ; not even the ocean could have filled it." Chapel Forth is named as the scene of this incident. The village of St. Agnes lies at the eastward foot of the Beacon, and Trevaunance, on the coast, is its port. It is a neighbourhood where natural beauties contend with the ugliness of industrialism, and usually emerge triumphant. There is a story told of St. Agnes in connection with Wesley, which proves how rapidly folk-lore may spring up ; it is even more remarkable, because more modern, than the manner in which Devonians have associated mythology with the name of Francis Drake. It is said that "when Wesley visited this part of Cornwall preaching, he was refused shelter elsewhere than in an ancient mansion that was unoccupied because haunted by ghosts. Wesley went to the house, and sat up reading by candle-light. At midnight he heard a noise in the hall, and on issuing from his room, saw that a banquet was spread, and that richly apparelled ladies and gentlemen were about the board. Then one cavalier, with dark, piercing eyes and a pointed black beard, wearing a red feather in his cap, said, ' We invite you to eat and to drink with us,' and pointed to an empty chair. Wesley at once took the place indicated, but before he put in his mouth a bite of food or drank a drop, said, ' It is my custom to ask a blessing ; stand all.' Then the spectres rose. Wesley began his accustomed grace, ' The Name of God, high over all' — when suddenly the room darkened, and all the apparitions vanished." There is yet another memory at St. Agnes. The