86 The Ancient Stone Crosses bell-ropes of Walkhampton Church were once tied together, and let down into the pool, without finding any bottom. According to Rowe, however, the pool was drained nearly dry, in the year 1844, in order to supply the deficiencies of the leat near by, and its depth was then ascertained. There is a ballad, by the Rev. John Johns, son of Mr. A. B. Johns, a Plymouth artist, founded on a tradition that Piers Gaveston was concealed on the moor during one of his banishments, and the scene of it is laid at Crazy Well Pool. Here, at early dawn, clothed in a peasant's dress, Gaveston awaits the coming of the Witch of Sheepstor : " 'Where lags the witch ? she willed me wait Beside this mere at daybreak hour, When mingling in the distance safe The forms of cloud and tor. 'She comes not yet; *tis a wild place— The turf is dank, the air is cold ; Sweeter, I ween, on kingly dais, To kiss the circling gold ; Sweeter in courtly dance to tell LoTe tales in lovely ears ; Or hear, high placed in knightly selle, The crash of knightly spears. 'What would they say, who knew me then, Teacher of that gay school, To see me guest of savage men Beside this Dartmoor pool ? ' *' The witch comes not, but Gaveston sees her £ace grow out of his own, as he peers into the pool ; and letters formed by a rush moving over the surface of the water, enable him to read his fate, " Fear not^ thou favourite of a king, That humbled head shall soon be high*' Alas ! A double meaning was contained in those words, as Gaveston learned too late. He returned to court, and once more basked in the sunshine of the royal favour, but a cruel fate at last overtook him : " Beside the block his thoughts recall That scene of mountain sorcery — Too late! for high on Warwick wall In one brief hour his head must be."
- Johns, Gaveston on Dartmoor.
