DRUID'S WELL
Grid Reference: SX716861. Good public access; the well is lbythe roadside.
The name supports the appeal ance of this well as the massive moss-covered granite slabs too as if they have stood here for ever .
However this may not be for much longer as a recent collision with it a vehicle has shifted the stones to the extent that they now
The site is next to Middlecott which was a Domesday settlement and close by are two ancient stone crosses known as Middlecott Cross anti Week Down Cross.
These alt* early Christian monuments date from 7th-9th centuries and suggest that a route at xxxxx moor once ran through here
'Halge Wylle'.
The Parish of Halwill has a name that recalls the religious beliefs of Medieval and Dark Age Devonian Indeed, when first used, 'Halwill' would have been written 'Halig' or 'Halge Wylle' Reading it out loud, we might guess that 'wylle' is the ancient word for 'well';but 'halig'—the early version of our word 'holy'—needs a specialised dictionary. So what you might ask went on at a Holy Well in north-central Devon?
Here we have a spring which had sacred or miraculous associations for the people. As the name was coined in Old English rather than Celtic we must suppose it dates from the Christian centuries when the Anglo-Saxons, the early English, were settling in Devon.
suggesting that they had not only Pagan but even Stone Age origins.
So though given an English name in the Dark ages, the spring at Halwill might have already been revered for centuries by the time the first person was muttering their blessings over it.
Today the site of the original Holy Well has been lost, though it is believed by many to be sited close to the Holsworthy road near to Chapel Farm. If anyone knows more, or has evidence of a precise location, please let us know.
documented, as no contemporaneous material survives.
His Latin vita (life) maintains that as with St. Columba , Kevin's family were of the nobility — he was the son of Coemlog and Coemell of Leinster .
He was born in 498 at the Fort of the White Fountain.
He was given the Irish name Coemgen, which means "fair-begotten",and was baptized by Cronan of Roscrea.
The Acta Sanctorum, which is based on an ancient manuscript, contains a number of legends.
The author of a commentary on this manuscript, Father Francis Baert, explains "that although many of the legends given to this work are of doubtful veracity; it was decided to let them stand in favour of the antiquity of the document which is placed as having been written during or before the 12th century"
. St Kevin’s birth and early years figure prominently in traditional legends.
In his infancy a mysterious white cow is said to have come to his parents' house every morning and evening and supplied the milk for the baby.
From the age of seven, he was educated by Saint Petroc of Cornwall, who had come to Leinster about 492, and lived with the monks until he was 12 in Latin :-
Coemgenus ,
popularly Anglicized to Kevin is an Irish saint who was known as the founder and first abbot of
Glendalough in County Wicklow,
Ireland.
His feast day in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches is 3 June.
I do remember an apothecary . And hereabouts he dwells—whom late I noted In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows, Culling of simples ; meager were his looks , Sharp misery had worn him to the bones;
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung , An alligator stuff’d, and other skins, Of ill-shap’d fishes ; and about his shelves . A beggarly account of empty boxes , Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses , Were thinly scatter’d to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said—
An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.
O, this same thought did but fore-run my need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember this should be the house ;
Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut—
What ho ! Apothecary !
Ap. Who calls so loud 1
' Rom. Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor;
Hold, there is forty ducats ; let me have A dram of poison ; such soon speeding gear
