[Illustration: ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT.]
The western peninsula of Cornwall juts far out beyond Mount's Bay, which
acquires its name from what is probably the most remarkable crag in all
this wonderful region. This was the Iktis of the ancient geographers, an
object so conspicuous as to attract attention in all ages. It is a mass
of granite rising from the sands, covering about twenty-five acres, and
the top of the church which crowns it is elevated two hundred and
thirty-eight feet. It is impossible by either pen or pencil to give an
adequate idea of St. Michael's Mount--of the shattered masses of the
rock itself, its watch-turrets and batteries, the turf and sea-plants
niched in its recesses, and the gray, lichen-covered towers that rise
from the summit. Cornish tradition says that the giant Cormoran built
the first fortress here; and he is one of those unfortunate giants whose
fate is told under the name of Corincus in the veritable history of Jack
the Giant-killer. The archangel St. Michael afterwards appeared to some
hermits on its rocks, and this gave the mount its religious character
and name. Milton has written of it in _Lycidas_:
"Or whether thou to our moist views denied,
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,
Where the great vision of the guarded mount
Looks towards Namancos and Bayona's hold."
It was always a strongly-defended place, and became a Benedictine
monastery--at first as an offshoot of the greater abbey of St. Michael
in Normandy, which in situation it resembles, and afterwards as an
independent establishment. It was a stronghold as well as a religious
house, however, and was notorious as the "back-door of rebellion,"
frequently besieged. The crowning square tower is that of the monastic
church, and St. Michael's Chair is on the battlements--a stone beacon
which is of great importance to all newly-married couples in that
region, for it bestows the ascendency on the husband or wife who first
sits in it. It is of this chair Southey's ballad about the adventurous
Rebecca was written; and he tells that just as she was installed.
"Merrily, merrily rang the bells,
And out Rebecca was thrown."
The family of St. Aubyn hold the mount, and they have recently
thoroughly restored the buildings, adding some fine apartments. It is
accessible only when the receding tide leaves bare the natural causeway
that connects the island with the shore.