KING ARTHUR'S LAND 83 then allowed to cut through the bar, but that has long been discontinued. The bar is now a mighty thing where great stones are hurled by powerful waves and even on a calm day the thunder of the surf breaking on it is heard for miles. The water of the lake is otherwise drained. Its banks are well wooded. In Tennyson's Mort d' Arthur when Sir Bedi- vere, last survivor of the Knights of the Round Table, carried his mortally wounded ruler from the stricken field " On one side lay the ocean, and on one Lay a great water, and the moon was full." And when Sir Bedivere, charged with the mission of throwing the magic sword Excalibur into the water, left the dying King : " From the ruin'd shrine he stept And in the moon athwart the place of tombs, Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men, Old Knights, and over them the sea- wind sang Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He stepping down By zigzag paths and juts of pointed rock, Came on the shining levels of the lake." Thence twice he returned faithless, his mission unperformed, to report : " I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, And the wild water lapping on the crag."
