CORNWALL mining from before the memory of man, and St. Agnes was once a busy prosperous place. The painter Opie was born at Harmony Cot- tage, in this parish, in the year 1761. His name was really Hoppie. The church has been entirely rebuilt, but it contains a good old font. Trevaunance Forth, scarcely a mile distant, supplies the little town with a port for shipping the produce of its mines ; but har- bourage on this wild coast is very poor. It is stated that during one of Wesley's many visits to Cornwall, the only shelter he could obtain one night was at a haunted house in St. Agnes. Being disturbed at midnight, he found that the hall was laid for a banc]uet, and that a gaily- dressed company had assembled, including a gentleman with a red feather in his cap, who invited the preacher to join them. Accepting a vacant chair, Wesley, before he would take bite or sup, said, " It is my custom to ask a blessing on these occasions ; stand all ". The company rose, but no sooner had his lips pro- nounced the sacred invocation than the room grew dark and the spectral guests vanished. The house cannot be identified. Popular imagination is so powerful in the West Country, that even around the name of Wesley a kind of folklore has already sprung up. St. Agnes Beacon, about a mile from the village, is a hill of some 600 feet, and is well worth climbing for its view, which embraces Newquay on one side and St. Ives on the other. Geologically it is interesting for its deposits of clay and sand. 56
