To find the Holy Well, on entering the lower enclosure, pass down
across the moor at a right angle to the hedge, and a minute’s walk will
bring us to the noted spring, which is not seen until very near, as it
has no wall above the surface, nor any mark by which it can be
distinguished at a distance. Much has been written of the remarkable
cures effected by these holy waters, and the intercession of good St.
Madron. This was when Madron Well was so famous that the maimed, halt,
and lame made pilgrimages from distant parts of the country to the
heathy moor.
The water is still resorted to on the first three Wednesdays in May by
some few women of the neighbourhood, who bring children to be cured of
skin diseases by being bathed in the Well water. And its old repute as
a divining fount has not yet quite died out, though young folks come
here now to drop pins or pebbles into the spring, more for fun and the
pleasure of each other’s company, than through any belief that the
falling together, or separation of pins or pebbles, will tell how the
course of love will run between the parties indicated by the objects
dropped into the spring; or that the number of bubbles which rise in
the water, on stamping near the well, mark the number of years, in
answer to any question of time; but there was not such want of faith in
the virtues of this water half a century ago.
A few weeks before the Excursion, we took a ramble through Boswarva,
Bosullow, and some other ancient hamlets on the higher side of Madron,
to see if we could glean anything from the old inhabitants about the
rites formerly practised at the Crick-stone, Madron Well, and
elsewhere.
An elderly dame, who had lived the best part of her time near Lanyon,
gave us the following account of the doings at the Well about fifty
years ago. “At that time, when she lived in Lenine, scores of women
from Morvah, Zennor, Towednack, and other places, brought their
children to Madron Well to be cured of the shingles, wildfires,
tetters, and various skin diseases, as well as to fortify them against
witchcraft and other mysterious ailments.
“An old dame, called An (aunt) Katty, who then mostly lived about in
the Bosullows, or some place near, and who did little but
knitting-work, picked up a good living in the spring of the year, by
attending at the Well, to direct the high country folks how they were
to proceed in using the waters.
“First she had the child stripped as naked as it was born; then the
creature was plunged or popped three times through the water against
the sun; next, the child was passed quickly nine times round the
spring, going from east to west, or with the sun; then the babe was
dressed, rolled up in something warm, and laid to sleep near the water;
if the child slept and plenty of bubbles rose in the water, it was a
good sign.”
We enquired if a prayer, charm, or anything was spoken during the
operations? “Why, no, to be sure,” the dame replied, “there mustn’t be
a word spoken all the time they are near the water, or it will spoil
the spell; and a piece rented off from some part of the clothes worn by
the child or any other person using the Well, must be left near the
water for good luck, ever so small a bit will do; this is mostly placed
out of sight, alongside of the stream, which runs from the Well.
“Whilst one party went through the rites at the spring, all the others
remained over the stile, in the higher enclosure, or by the hedge, till
they came up from the water, because if a word were spoken by anyone
near the well, during the dipping, they had to come again. The old
woman, An Katty, was never paid in money, but balls of yarn, or
anything else she wanted, were dropped on the road, outside the
Well-moors, for her. This old dame also got good pickings by
instructing the young girls how to try for sweethearts at the Well.
“Scores of maidens” (the dame’s words) “used, in the summer evenings,
to come down to the Well, from ever so far, to drop into it pins,
gravel, or any small thing that would sink. The names of the persons
were not spoken when the objects, which represented them, were dropped
into the water; they were only thought of, and as they remained
together or separated, such would be the fate of the couple. It was
only when the spring was working (rising strongly) that it was of any
use to try the spells; it was always unlucky to speak when near the
Well at such times.”
Such is the substance of what the dame told us. She never heard that
any saint had anything to do with the water, except from somebody who
told her there was something in a book about it; nor had she or anybody
else heard the water called St. Madron’s Well, except by the new
gentry, who go about giving new names to the places, and think they
know more about them than the people who have lived here ever since the
world was created.
We enquired if the people ever went to the old chapel to perform any
ceremony? Not that she ever heard of; Morvah folks, and others of the
Northern parishes who mostly resort to the spring pay no regard to any
saint or to any body else, except some old woman who may come down with
them to show how everything used to be done. We were also informed that
there is a spring in some moor in Zennor, not far from Bosporthenes,
which is said to be as good as Madron Well, and that children are often
taken thither and treated in the same way.
The silent proceedings were altogether new to us, because we had often
gone to other Wishing Wells with parties of young folks who always kept
noise and fun enough; yet the old dame regarded the proceedings as a
very solemn matter.
In answer to the questions of “What was the reason for going round the
Well nine times? leaving the bits of rags? following the sun?” &c.; it
was always the same reply, “Such were the old customs, and everybody
knew it was unlucky to go, or to do anything, against the course of the
sun; no woman, who knew anything, would place pans of milk in the
dairy, so as to have to unream them against the sun.”