What to See in England
By Gordon Home
Public Domain Books
St. Michael’s Mount and Marazion
=How to get there.=–Train from Paddington. Great Western Rly. =Nearest Station.=–Marazion. =Distance from London.=–324-3/4 miles. =Average Time.=–Varies between 8-1/2 to 11-1/2 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=–Single 50s. 2d. 31s. 6d. 25s. 1d. Return 87s. 10d. 55s. 0d. 50s. 2d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=–"Godolphin Hotel,” “Marazion Hotel," etc.
Marazion, the nearest town to St. Michael’s Mount, is situated on the eastern side of Mount’s Bay, and was in the Middle Ages a place of some importance, being the headquarters of the pilgrims to St. Michael’s Mount. Marazion is connected with St. Michael’s Mount by a causeway 120 feet in width, formed of rocks and pebbles, and passable only at low tide for three or four hours.
The mount itself is a remarkable granite rock, about a mile in circumference and 250 feet high. It was referred to by Ptolemy, and is supposed to have been the island Iclis of the Greeks, noticed by Diodorus Siculus as the place near the promontory of Belerium to which the tin, when refined, was brought by the Britons to be exchanged with the Phoenician merchants. Its British name was equivalent to “the grey rock in the woods,” a traditional name, apparently confirmed by the discovery of a submarine forest extending for some miles round the base of the mount. The beauty of the spot caused it to be selected by the ancient Britons as a favourite resort for worship, and shortly after the introduction of Christianity it became a place of pilgrimage, and was visited in the fifth century by St. Kelna, a British princess, who founded a hermitage there. Some sort of military defences protected the mount at a very early date, for Edward the Confessor’s charter in 1047 to the Benedictine monks, whom he settled here, especially mentions its castella and other buildings.
In Charles II.’s reign the estate was purchased from the Basset family by the St. Aubyns, who still remain its owners. In the castle itself, which crowns the mount, the chief feature is the old hall, now known as the “Chevy Chase” room, from its being adorned with carvings of various field sports. There is some fine old furniture and good pictures. Visitors are allowed to see the principal rooms of the castle when the family are from home, and at all times to see the quaint old Gothic chapel. There is a small fishing village with a pier and harbour at the foot of the rock.
[Illustration: Photochrom Co., Ltd. ST. MICHAEL’S MOUNT.
The rock is 250 feet in height, and has possessed a castle since 1047.]