Five hundred years before the Norman Conquest, St. Keyne spent her life performing good deeds in the West Country, where she is remembered by the well bearing her name. She planted four trees around this well- an oak, an elm, a willow and an ash - and as she was dying, she imparted to its waters a strange power. Whichever of a married couple should drink of them first, he or she would have the mastery in their wedded life. This curious old legend has been charmingly related in a poem by Southey.
Five hundred years before the Norman Conquest, St. Keyne spent her life performing good deeds in the West Country, where she is remembered by the well bearing her name. She planted four trees around this well- an oak, an elm, a willow and an ash - and as she was dying, she imparted to its waters a strange power. Whichever of a married couple should drink of them first, he or she would have the mastery in their wedded life. This curious old legend has been charmingly related in a poem by Southey.