CORNWALL back of Penryn's main street. This college is said to have been the chief centre of Cornwall's vernacular literature, and the principal source of its old mysteries and interludes. The Penryn granite, familiar to every Londoner who crosses Waterloo Bridge, is worked in the immediate neighbourhood, and shipped from Penryn Creek. An event known as the Penryn Tragedy, which forms the plot of one of Lillo's plays, took place in this district ; the same tale has been con- veyed to Wales, and credited to a Montgomery- shire parish, but a Welsh poem that tells the story correctly attributes it to Cornwall. A wanderer, returning home wealthy after long years of absence, puts up at his father's house for the night without making himself known to his parents. The mother, having caught sight of his gold, persuades his father to kill him in his sleep ; next morning the sister, who is in the secret, comes to congratulate them on the return of their son. Agonised with re- morse, the parents kill themselves. Another tale told of Penryn is that some Spanish once landed here intent on mischief, but were alarmed by a sound of marching and of martial music, and fled. What they heard was merely the performance of a party of strolling actors. Pcntar;run (i m. E. of Boscastle), interpreted to mean " Arthur's head," has a wild cove at the foot of its dark, bare cliffs. The caves are often haunted by seals. Pcntewaii (4 m. S. of St. Austell) is famous for its elvan building-stone, shipped, together 208
