CALSTOCK— CAMELFORD that Camelford is the Camelot of Arthurian romance ; but Camelot is more generally identified with South Cadbury in Somerset, which also has its river Camel, and which might strengthen its claim by its nearness to Glastonbury, the traditional burial - place of Arthur. But this tradition of Glastonbury is now discredited. Discredited also is the belief that Arthur fought his last battle at Slaughter Bridge, a bridge still spanning the Camel about a mile N. of Camelford. It is not pleasant to have to cast off so picturesque a tradition ; but Scottish authorities now claim that the king's last battle took place at Camelon, on the Scottish river Carron, and though Cornwall will not surrender Slaughter Bridge without a struggle, it is probable that the Scotch are right. The whole question of Arthurian locality is a very complicated one, and has been further confused by this similarity of name between the Camels of Cornwall and Somerset, and the Camelon of Scotland. As head-king of the British, Arthur's sway extended from Land's End to Strathclyde, whose limits we may take to have been near the Forth. The whole subject of Arthur is so difficult that even Professor Rhys, patriotic Celt as he is, treats it with grave caution, while some scholars have impatiently got rid of the diffi- culty by comfortably asserting that no such person ever existed. (For other Arthurian localities, see Tintagel, Damelior, etc.) Slaughter Bridge can, however, claim one great battle, 79
