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Treryn Dinas

Cliff Fort

Folklore

Yet another story associated with the promontory! How much folklore can one tiny place contain? This is from 'The Small People's Gardens' in Hunt's 'Popular Romances of the West of England' (online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/index.htm).
If the adventurous traveller who visits the Land's End district will go down as far as he can on the south-west side of the Logan Rock Cairn, and look over, he will see, in little sheltered places between the cairns, close down to the water's edge, beautifully green spots, with here and there some ferns and cliff-pinks. These are the gardens of the Small People, or, as they are called by the natives, Small Folk. [...] To prove that those lovely little creatures are no dream, I may quote the words of a native of St Levan:

"As I was saying, when I have been to sea close under the cliffs, of a fine summer's night, I have heard the sweetest of music, and seen hundreds of little lights moving about amongst what looked like flowers. Ay! and they are flowers too, for you may smell the sweet scent far out at sea. Indeed, I have heard many of the old men say, that they have smelt the sweet perfume, and heard the music from the fairy gardens of the Castle, when more than a mile from the shore."

Strangely enough, you can find no flowers but the sea-pinks in these lovely green places by day, yet they have been described by those who have seen them in the midsummer moonlight as being covered with flowers of every colour, all of them far more brilliant than any blossoms seen in any mortal garden.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
24th February 2005ce
Edited 24th February 2005ce

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