ST. MABYN— MAKER But the great feature at Madron is, or used to be, the holy well, at about a mile's distance from the church. The real well or spring feeds a basin above which an oratory was erected ; within which oratory was an altar and chancel, the basin serving as font or baptistery at the W, end. Part of the walls and stone seats remain, in a neglected condition. This was probably the most famous holy well in Cornwall ; many are the stories told of its miraculous powers. It was quite a small Lourdes ; cripples and diseased persons are reported to have been healed ; Bishop Hall mentions one case. It was resorted to from far and near ; and even within the present generation mothers have brought their sickly children to be strengthened by the water. It was a strange thing, in the civilised nineteenth century, to find people hanging votive rags around the well, and dropping crooked pins into its waters, sometimes as a means of divina- tion, sometimes with a dim recollected notion of paying reverence to the water-spirit. A people's mythology dies hard. Maker (about 2 m. S.W. of Devonport) has a church in a noble situation, commanding most extensive and beautiful views. During the French wars the tower was employed as a signal station, in connection with another at Mount Wise. There is a lych-gate, and an old font, which is said to have been brought here from Padstow ; but the church is chiefly interesting for its memorials of the Edgcumbe family. There is a tradition here of a former 173
