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Maen Ceti

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

Folklore

King Arthur's Cromlech, or as it is usually called, King Arthur's stone, stands on a high and bleak hill..

..Some authors who have described this Cromlech, say it has but eight columns: but Pedestres examined the whole very minutely, and on getting under it, he discovered that on the east side, there are two blocks of stone placed close together, thereby making nine, out of what had been noticed as only eight....

...We are told that a spring of clear water rises from beneath it, known by the name of Our Lady's Well.. .. there was not one drop however there at six o'clock P.M. on the 11th of June, 1833.. [he thought] he might discover an indication by grubbing downwards a little among the bones of mother Earth. But no:- it was all dry. He then looked at the sea - he cast his eye towards the mouth of the river, and the line of coast: - the tide was out.*..

..It is called the Stone of Sketty:-- and "like the work of the Stone of Sketty," has passed into a Welsh proverb to express an undertaking of vast difficulty.
p349-351 of 'A Pedestrian Tour of Thirteen Hundred and Forty-seven Miles Through Wales and England', by (a bit of a card,) Pedestres (1836, v1). You can read his witticisms online at Google Books.

Chris Barber in his 1986 'More Mysterious Wales' has the Welsh version: "Mal gwaith Maen Cetti' - like the labour of the stone of Cetti.

*this refers to the folklore mentioned below, of the tide and spring being sychronised.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
23rd June 2007ce
Edited 24th June 2007ce

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