TABLE-MEN.
THE SAXON KINGS' VISIT TO THE LAND'S END.
AT a short distance from Sennen church, and near the end of a cottage, is a
block of granite, nearly eight feet long, and about three feet high. This rock
is known as the Table-men, or Table-main, which appears to signify the
stone-table. At Bosavern, in St Just, is a somewhat similar fiat stone; and
the same story attaches to each. --
It is to the effect that some Saxon kings used the stone as a dining-table. The number has been variously stated; some traditions fixing on three kings, others on seven. Hals is far more explicit; for, as he says, on the authority of the chronicle of Samuel Daniell, they were --
Ethelbert, 5th king of Kent;
Cissa, 2d king of the South Saxons;
Kingills, 6th king of the West Saxons;
Sebert, 3d king of the East Saxons;
Ethelfred, 7th king of the Northumbers;
Penda, 5th king of the Mercians;
Sigebert, 5th king of the East Angles,--who all flourished about the year
600.
At a point where the four parishes of Zennor. Morvah, Gulval, and Mathon meet, is a flat stone with a cross cut on it. The Saxon kings are also said to have dined on this.
The only tradition which is known amongst the peasantry of Sennen is, that Prince Arthur and the kings who aided him against the Danes, in the great battle fought near Vellan-Drucher, dined on the Table-men, after which they defeated the Danes.