Castallack Round

Unfortunately, not a few of the hoary remains of an unlettered age have been wilfully or ignorantly destroyed, although some owe their preservation as much to the lasting superstitions of the people as to their remote positions, apart from the haunts of man. The following story will shew that some ojections still remain in the popular mind against interfering with these ancient stones. Farmers find the rude crosses, which are still very numerous in Cornwall, extremely convenient as gate-posts, and to that use many of them have been brought. Such an one set his labourer to sink a pit for a post, but when the pit was finished and the labourer weas told that the cross standing in the field, a little distance off, was to be placed in it, the man absolutely refused to have any hand in the matter; not, be it said, on account of the beautiful or the antique, but for fear of "the old people."

Another farmer related that he had a neighbour who "haeled down a lot of stwuns called the Roundago, and sold 'em for building the docks at Penzance. But ne'er a penny of the money he got for 'em ever prospered, and there wasn't wan of the hosses that haeled 'em that lived out the twelve-month; and they do say that some of the stwuns do weep blood, but" --reluctantly-- "I don't believe that."