THE "TOE" OF CORNWALL 43 the lie of the low hills, and by old, long-neglected trees. In some places the trees were of a great height and girth, making a gloom over the huge moss-grown granite rocks strewing the earth and edging the little stream. ... A small swamp full of peppermint scented the air." That is the work of a close observer. In this neighbourhood there are many of those curious relics of bygone times, which are bestrewn about Cornwall more thickly than any other part of England. The Fougou Hole in one of the gardens is a weird place, and its meaning and use is even yet little understood. It is a tiny, damp vault, made of great, unhewn stones, and reached by a hole in the ground. Here it is said harried cavaliers took shelter in the Civil Wars, but the Hole is much older than that ; it dates back to those strange times beyond the dawn of history of which we only get vague glimpses. In the fields above, gaunt stones rise like pointing fingers to the sky. These are called " The Pipers," and mark the scene of Athelstan's defeat of the British in 936 ; it is the " place of blood." But if they were really erected by Athelstan in the tenth century, and are not, as is possible, relics of Druid worship, they are modern compared with the
