Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/339

THE PADSTOW DISTRICT 333 probably for the spiritual repose that we crave in this age of hurry. Even sterner necessities governed their existence. Cliff-camps of this nature cannot have been designed against any foe from the sea — even to-day it would be a perilous thing indeed to attempt a forcible land- ing at such places — they were more likely a last refuge from invading tribes that came overland from the south-east. The struggles witnessed here must almost certainly have been far earlier than the coming of Roman or Teuton ; it was probably successive waves, or antagonist tribes, of Stone Age men that here contended and opposed each other. But the ditches and embankments have little to tell us ; tradition is silent, the lonely barrows are dumb. Yet the blood of the peoples still flows within Cornish veins ; and those characteristics that we vaguely speak of as Celtic often derive from a far earlier source. The little island to the east of Pentire is the Mouls, and to the right is Portquin Bay. Port Isaac Bay, beyond Kelland Head and Varley Point, takes its name from the delightful little fishing village of Port Isaac, of which Port Gaverne may almost be considered as a suburb. Both are in the parish of St. Endellion, but Port Isaac has its own church, erected in Early English style in 1882. Its small pier is said to date from the time of Henry VIII., and before the railway a good deal of Delabole slate was shipped here. The fishing for pilchards is here done by trawlers, not by seines, as round Land's End. The name may probably be interpreted as porth izic, the " corn port," though certainly this is not a grain country. Very appropriately, it is said that fish are exhibited among the fruits and