A seven-year-old school girl had a legendary holiday after pulling a giant four-foot sword from the Cornish Lake where Arthur threw Excalibur.

Matilda Jones was wading through water waist-deep at Dozmary Pool when she stumbled across the blade underwater.

According to local folklore, Dozmary Pool is the spot where King Arthur returned Excalibur after being fatally wounded in the Battle of Camlann.

Matilda Jones was wading through water at Dozmary Pool in Cornwall when she stumbled across a four-foot sword

It is said to have been accepted by the Lady of the Lake, whose arm mysteriously rose from the water to received the fabled blade.

Ironically, her father Paul Jones, 51, had recounted the story of King Arthur to Matilda and her sister Lois, four, moments before the discovery.

Mr Jones, from Doncaster in south Yorkshire, said: 'It was a blistering hot day and Matilda asked if we could go for a paddle.

'She was only waist deep when she said she could see a sword.

'I told her not to be silly and it was probably a bit of fencing, but when I looked down I realised it was a sword. It was just there laying flat on the bottom of the lake.

'The sword is 4ft long - exactly Matilda's height.'

The giant blade is exactly Matilda's height and her father's believes it may have been left in the lake while a film was being shot there

Legend has it that King Arthur first received Excalibur from the Lady of Lake in Dozmary Pool after rowing out to receive it.

After being mortally wounded he asked to be taken there so he could return the sword to her.

After three attempts, his loyal follower Bedivere cast it into the water and the Lady of the Lake's arm rose to receive it.

The pool, in the civil parish of Altarnun on Bodmin Moor, was said to be bottomless until droughts in 1859 and 1976 dried it out completely and revealed it is, in fact, and shallow pond.

Matilda shares her name with Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I and heir to the English throne in the 12th century.

While it may be exciting to believe a young with such a regal name has written her own chapter in the Arthurian legend - her father thinks the sword's origins are more recent.

Mr Jones said: 'I don't think it's particularly old. It's probably an old film prop.'