mermaids

The fishermen of Cornwall once believed in mermaids, those strange elemental spirits of the sea, consequently, mermaid legends still form a substantial part of Cornish mythology. Around 1825, R. S. Hawker, the eccentric vicar of Morwenstowe, attempted to extinguish the mermaid myths once and for all by sitting on an offshore rock wearing an oilskin fish tail and wig of plaited seaweed, whilst holding a mirror in one hand and serenading the moon.      The entertainment continued for several evenings, attracting vast crowds from every part of Cornwall, most of whom became convinced that mermaids really existed. After several such displays, Hawker brought the show to an end by singing the national anthem and taking a high dive off the rock into the sea.      The Reverend Hawker's self-imposed ordeal was infinitely less onerous than the punishment imposed upon Tregele, the unquiet spirit of the West, who was condemned by fate to empty the bottomless Dosmory Pool with no other receptacle than a limpet shell. Another of Tregele's hopeless tasks is the sweeping of sand from the beach of Porthcurno Cove. His deep sighs as he strives to complete this impossible chore have sometimes been mistaken for the moaning of the wind.      Among Cornwall's best known occult traditions are the legends of lost lands, which were long ago overwhelmed by the sea. One of these, Lyonesse, lies beneath the waves between Land's End and the Scillies. From its 'buried churches' the bells have been heard solemnly ringing in times of storm.      It has long been customary to invest national heroes like Arthur with the qualities of demi-gods and bestial human beings with the attributes of devils. Into the second category comes Cruel Coppinger, a Dane who settled in 17th-century Cornwall to become one of the most terrible wreckers of the coast. Among Coppinger's more horrible exploits was the beating to death of a number of half-drowned seamen from a ship he had lured onto the rocks. Both Coppinger's arrival and extremely dramatic departure from the county are commemorated in the curious verse: Will you hear the tale of cruel Coppinger? He came from a foreign land. He was brought to us by the salt water. He was carried away by the wind. According to legend, Coppinger was whirled into a storm cloud by the devil and borne screaming to the infernal regions. Source: Supernatural England by Eric Maple.