ST. AGNES— ALTERNON The memory of the old giant Bolster clings to this hill ; he used to stand with one foot on the Beacon and the other on Cam Brea, in which attitude the artist Cruickshank has drawn him. He was a married man, hut he used his wives very ill ; it is said that he ob- tained a new one every year, killing the old one by throwing stones at her. Legend says that he pestered St. Agnes herself with his attentions. At last she conceived a device, not very saint-like but perhaps necessary. Would he fill a little hole in the cliff with his blood, as a proof of his aftection ? Of course he would. He cut his arm, and let the blood run ; hut the life-stream flowed and flowed, and his strength ebbed away, and the hole did not fill. At last, w hen the sea had become red with his blood, he died. The saint had deceived him ; the small hole in the rock led down into a cavern, and the cavern led to the sea ; not even the ocean could have filled it. Alaii River rises at Worthy vale (i m. W. of Camelford Station) and joins the Camel near Wadebridge, where it loses its identity. Alternon (7^ m. S.W. of Launceston) is the largest parish in Cornwall, comprising 15,014 acres ; its church-town is the village of Pen- pont ("head of the bridge"). The dedication is to St. Non or Nun, the Mother of the Welsh St. David. The well was one of the most famous of Cornwall's many holy wells ; its waters were deemed specific for madness. The patient was placed with his back to the water, 57
