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Holy well

St Keyne's Well

St Keyne, near Liskeard, Cornwall

Whoever drinks first after the wedding will rule the marriage.

Legend says that whichever of a newly married couple drinks from St Keyne's Well first will be master of the house. The poet Robert Southey wrote a famous comic ballad about a husband who ran to the well straight after his wedding, only to find his wife had taken a bottle of the water to church with her.

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When
Legend
Where
50.4100, -4.4600
Group
Holy wells & springs

Visiting

Beside a lane south of St Keyne village.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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