jQ (ci^Jw^ I .l^^f^ec^ Ncenia Cornubice, TRURO : PRINTED BY J. R. NETHERTON, LEMUN STREET. , ^J\cBnia CoruMbice, A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SEPULCHRES AND FUNEREAL CUSTOMS OF THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY OF CORNWALL. " Sunt * * quonim non est recordatio, qui periemnt quasi non extitissent, et fuerunt quasi non fuissent, liberique ipsorum post ipsos." Ecclus, cap. LI. BY WILLIAM COPELAND BORLASE, B.A., F.S.A. " LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER. TRURO : J. R. NETHERTON. 1872. GN sot C7-B7 JOHN JOPE ROGERS, Esq., OF PENROSE, IN THE COUNTY OF CORNWALL, PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF CORNWALL DURING THE YEARS 1868 AND 1869, THE AUTHOR DEDICATES THIS LITTLE WORK ; AN INADEQUATE, THOUGH A GRATEFUL, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE KIND INTEREST HE HAS ALWAYS TAKEN IN THE PURSUITS OF A YOUNG ANTIQUARY. Infroductoj^y Preface, #^#^##'^## T is not without great deference that the Author presents his readers with the following notices of the Primitive Sepul- chral Monuments of his native county. Living in the midst of these remains, and possessing, through the kind courtesy of the landed proprietors, every facility for extending his researches to those tumuli previously unexplored, he has amused himself by collecting together the mate- rials from which these pages are now compiled. But when comparing the small amount of inductive evi- VIU PREFACE. dence he has thus far been able to obtain, with the exhaustive compendium of facts brought by Mr. Bateman from the barrows of Derbyshire and York- shire, or with the extensive researches of Sir R. C. Hoare, and others who have devoted themselves to the task of solving the mystery of the burial mounds, each in his own district, he cannot but feel that his work, when he has done all, must be, at best, but brief and deficient. If, however, it will aid in the work of classifying the entire series of sepulchral remains, scattered throughout the British Isles, the first object will at least be gained ; and, much more will this be the case, should the perusal of it lead others to follow in the track, and pre- serve from oblivion those relics of a "speechless past," which are daily falling a prey to the pickaxe or the plough. In the minute and somewhat lengthy details w^hich accompany some of the descriptions, the ordinary reader will find a considerable trial of his patience. But the Critic and the Antiquary will know how to pardon this fault, when they reflect that it is only by the accumulation and juxtaposition of such apparently worthless minutiae, that any one single fact can possibly be obtained, illustrative of PREFACE. IX the rude funereal customs practised in what may fairly be called the darkest age. Many causes have been at work in Cornwall to make the task of gaining any detailed accounts of barrows previously searched one of peculiar diffi- culty; and the student must rely chiefly on such observations as he can himself personally make in the case of the few that still seem untouched. Until the last few years, very few persons, even of the better class, dreamed of preserving their discoveries at all : much less did they deem them worthy of a written account. Thus it has happened that out of the many thousand barrows strewn over the wilder portions of the Duchy, more than one half have been opened, as a mere matter of curiosity, by persons leaving no record whatever of the result. In other cases, where urns have actually been preserved and deposited in one of the two local Museums, the descriptions accompanying them are totally insuffi- cient, and in a few instances are even mislaid and lost. Added to all this, the recent reclamation of waste-lands, particularly in the Western district, and the ever-fluctuating mineral interests, which literally turn the surface of the country inside out for miles together, have combined to obliterate those traces of X PREFACE. the ancient inhabitants, which, when duly recorded and fitted together Hkc a Chinese puzzle, make up the sum total of all that can ever be known about them. Yet, heavy as the "hand of ruin" has been laid on them, many a relic still remains to attest the fact that in the days of old, men were dwelling where we dwell, driving their flocks to pasture in the morning and in the evening to their pens, warring with the enemy or weeping over the slain. And thus, on those same wild granite hills, where in the winter time the sportsman may delight himself in the de- struction of the living, the antiquary during many a long summer's day may engage himself, perhaps almost as pleasurably, in the resuscitation of the dead; clothing, where he can, in the mantle of his- tory, those memorials of the past, which accident or previous acquaintance wath them may have thrown in his path. In the course of the following essay, it must be understood that no monuments are mentioned, un- less incidentally, but those in which either interments have actually occurred, or where a sepulchral origin is placed beyond doubt by their form, or by a com- parison with similar remains in the same or a kindred district. The objects engraved are also, almost in- PREFACE. XI variably, those discovered in close proximity to the interments. Barrows and Cairns, however, are by no means the most fruitful field for Cornish Antiquities.^ Tin stream-works, and the sites of ancient mines and smelting-houses, have been always the most pro- ductive source of objects of interest to the Cornish Antiquary; and a paper of considerable length and no litde interest might be written on the subject of the implements, weapons, and ornaments of the ancient miners of the West.^ With these, however, the present treatise has nothing to do; and it will be sufficient at present for the reader to discover that the promise held out by the title of this little volume has been very incompletely fulfilled. Of this the author is well aware. Much remains to be done ; nooks and corners in the county there are, which still require investigation ; but, should these pages meet with the reader's approbation, the author of them can only add that he intends to continue his researches, and to embody in a second series, ' Two gold limiihr were, indeed, found in a mound of earth near Pad- stow, but not in connection with any sepulchral remains. The only instance where that precious metal has occurred actually tinth human bones will be duly described in the seqviel. ^ Carew mentions that in the stream-works are found "little tools heads of brass, which some term thunder axes." Besides these celts, bronze spear- heads, arrow-heads, ornaments of gold, and jet, &c., &c. are among the ob- jects not unfrequently dug up in the "old men's workings." Xll TREFACE. not only the unpublished accounts of several other barrows already explored by him, but also the details of any more, which he may be so fortunate as to obtain permission to investigate. And here he must record his best thanks to those who have already granted him leave to make re- searches on their lands. In every instance, to apply for has only been to obtain, in the kindest of terms, an unqualified permission. The deep obligations he is under to those who have preceded him in the work of publishing the accounts of investigations in the Cornish tumuli will be duly acknowledged in their proper place. From their works and papers much valuable matter has necessarily been borrowed, in order to make the essay at all complete. To John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., to Sir Edward Smirke, and to the Society of Antiquaries, the author is indebted for permission to reproduce drawings from their works ; while to the Rev. Canon Green- well, of Durham, F.S.A., and to Albert Way, Esq., F.S.A., he must express his especial thanks for their goodness in replying to several troublesome Anti- quarian queries. PREFACE. XIU To the labours of Mr. J. T. Blight, F.S.A., he owes a considerable debt of gratitude; nor must he forget to bear testimony to the excellent manner in which his brother, Mr. Joseph Blight, has carried out the important share of the work (viz., the wood engravings,) allotted to him. Some apology is due to the reader for the "errata." These have been caused by the fact, that the author was travelling about at the time when the proof was passing through his hands, and therefore could not always give it the undivided attention he should have wished. CONTENTS AND PLAN OF THE ESSAY. #^####^### Page. The Study of Archaeology— its aim and tendencies — remarks on the apphcabihty of the theory of the 'Ages' to Cornish sepulchral interments — the Druids i Primitive Sepulchres — The Dolmen or Cromlech — The Cromlech divided into three classes, viz: (a) The Cromlech proper — (b ) The larger Kist- Vaen — ( c) The open Kist- Vaen, or Cenotaph 13 (a) The Cromlech proper — Instance of at Lanyon — Earth- cut grave found under 16 Interments divided into three classes, viz : (i) Extetided Inhumation, (2) Contracted Inhumatio7i, a?id (3) Cre- mation 19 I. Extended Inhumation, instances of, extremely rare ... 20 Earth-cut graves — Trewren, Trigganeris 22 Caerwynen, the second example of a Cromlech proper 24 {b) The larger Kist- Vaen — origin of — contained inhumated interments ; and, where long and narrow, in all probability extended interments 27 CONTENTS. XV Page. Pawton Cromlech 32 Stone graves — at Samson — at the Land's End — at Botrea — ^ — at Bosavern — at the Cheesewring — and at Go- dolphin 34 Larger Kist- Vaens in which the mode of primary inter- ment is doubtful — Lower Lanyon — Trethevy — Zennor — Chywoone — Mulfra — Quoit, St. Columb — Bosporthennis 42 Chambered Tumuli — compared with the Swedish examples — Giants' graves at Scilly — at Treryn — at Chapel Euny 69 II. Contracted Inhumation, instances of also excessively rare — doubtful examples — Morvah Hill — Maen, in Sennen — Lesnewth 77 The Trevelgue Tumuli 80 ill. Cremation — Origin and relative age of the custom — the most usual mode of interment in Cornwall ... 90 The Menhir ion, examples of in Cornwall — sometimes -— tomb stones over burnt interments — e.g., Pridden Longstone — Trelew Longstone — Trenuggo Long- stone — Tresvenneck Longstone 94 Tregiffian Barrow and Longstone 107 Of the various kinds of Tumuli met loith in Cormuall — Cone- shaped Barrows — Bowl Barrows — Bell Barrows — Flat Barrows — Ring Barrows iii CJ'rles, divided into two classes, (aj of erect stones, e.g. Tregaseal, &c., &c., whose sepulchral origin is doubt- ful — (l>) of contiguous stones, which latter are the Ring Barrows — e.g., Goonorman — Botrea — Trescaw — and Wcndron 120 Remarks on the selection of a spot for the burial — the -- ceremony of the interment — and the subsequent forma- tion of the Barrow 137 XVI CONTENTS. Page. Barrow on Trewavas Head 140 Remarks on the deposition of articles with the dead, and the practice of slave-kilHng 141 The FiCTiLiA of the Tumuli — divided into three classes — Vase-shaped Urns — Cylindrical Urns — and Miniature Urns 144 Explorations AND Discoveries in the Tumuli — The'One- Barrow' — Barrows at Lanyon — Veryan Beacon — Sam- son, Scilly— Withiel— Trelowarren— Chikarn — Bosavern Ros — Gwythian — Durval — Trewinard — Kerris — (iold- vadnek — Karnmenelez — Perran Sands — St. Mary's, Scilly — Karn, Morvah — Miscellaneous — St. Austell Downs — Pelynt — Newquay — Glen Dorgal — Trevelgue Cliff-Castle — Place — Gerrans — Portscatha — Trevello Karn — Trannack — Conquer Downs — Brane Common — Boleit (with traditions of a battle field at) — Boscawen-un — Clahar Garden — Penquite — Sennen — Tredinney — Angrowse, ist barrow at — 2nd ditto — Pradanack — Denzell Downs — Morvah-Hill 152 The Age of the Monuments — late Roman coins found in Cornwall — state of the country during the Romano- British period — hut-circles referable to this period — the tumuli are the sepulchres of the dwellers in the huts — the Towednack Cromlech — Chywoone Cromlech — notes on Flint Chips — Conclusion 253 Addenda. — (a) Sepulchral Monuments in Meneage — (b) Boskednan Circle and Barrow — (c) Barrows near Bosporthennis, Zennor 275 ffl 1 3 1 HUH NcEitia Conuibice. " Grey stones on many a gloomy mountain mark Where sleep the giant warriors of the West." " Perchance we now on dust of heroes tread, Who, as in life, in death have made the heath their bed." The Vale of Lanherne. RC MYOLOGY, whatever may be its pretensions to be called a separate sci- ence, can never fail to be of the greatest value when it seeks to rest the vapoury superstructure of theory or tradition upon the firm basis of observed fact. The geologist may have puzzled himself into the conclusion that for his pur- poses time is no object ; but with the Antiquary the first care must always be to affix, where he sees a possibility of so doing, an approximate date, at A 2 N/ENIA CORNUBI/E. least, to each individual object that comes under his notice. It is in his ability to do this, that, in the popular point of view, the magic of his spell resides; and the first question of the labourer on discovering a relic is always the same: "When was it put here ?" The " by whom," and " for what purpose" being as invariably subsequent. But, the almost inevitable tendency of every writer, who has once possessed his mind of a sponta- neous or favoured theory, is to make every circum- stance which may subsequently occur to him, either fit in with his view, or if he cannot do this, to discard it as unworthy of his serious attention. The more firmly rooted the notion becomes, the more readily will doubtful points be explained away, and the less alive will he be to the possibility of their existence at all. I From any such tendency it is hoped that this essay will be found entirely free. It is true that in the few pages at the end, a conclusion has been arrived at, and consequently an opinion expressed as to the date of the monuments. This opinion, how- ever, has been formed simply on the evidence of the tumuli themselves; and as it is in direct opposition to the views expressed by several eminent modern writers on the subject, the author begs the favourable consideration of a proposition forced, as it were, upon him by his own discoveries; and therefore put forth N^NIA CORNUBL-E. 3 with the utmost deference to the judgment of those, whose experience has exceeded his own. Of all the various ranges of study pursued In the present day, that of Antiquities is the one of all others In which theory, or idle speculation, should be most carefully avoided ; yet, strange to say, it is the very one in which It has always been most freely in- dulged. Inductive evidence is all it has a right to ; the spade is the only true needle to guide its course. If sufficient evidence of this kind can be gained to establish a point, well and good ; but, as a recent writer very truly says, let the reasoning be " from the known to the unknown," never the reverse. Thus, the reader will observe that throughout this little volume no stress Is laid upon the hypothetical distinctions drawn between Stone, Bronze, and Iron Periods. This is simply because, as regards the Cornish sepulchral relics at least, no such line of de- marcation seems admissible. Not that the county Museums are by any means destitute of relics, which, taken Individually, without regard to where or in what company they were found, would at once be ascribed to one of the two first of these periods. For instance, two beautifully polished stone celts, one of jade, or chert, and the other of green marble, were found respectively on the North Coast of Devon, and in a quarry at Falmouth, and are deposited in the 4 N/ENIA COKNUBI.K. Truro Museum. Dr. Borlase, also, gives an engra- ving of a neatly formed flint axe-head, in his Anti- quities of Cornwall ; and a very similar one, found in a valley below St. Columb Minor, is in the possession of Mr. Hoblyn, of Fir Hill. These, and many others, would doubtless be set down, and perhaps righdy so, by modern Archaeologists to what is termed the Neo- lithic, or ground-stone age ; but, in the present in- stance, the reader is saved from speculating further on this subject, by the tact that no similar ones have as yet occurred in connection with those sepulchral interments, with which alone this volume is con- cerned. Flints of a much ruder class, as will appear in the sequel, have been taken from Cornish barrows, but these have occurred side by side with pottery, bearing comparison with fictilia of a later date than that as- signed to the most recent portion of the Age of Stone. Again, with regard to Bronze : Celts of this metal, of all shapes, even the rarest, have been found in almost every quarter of the county, not unfrequently in connection with leaf-shaped spear and arrow heads, and very often in ancient mine workings. Instances, there are, where these weapons have occurred in con- nection with sepulchral remains, and these will be mentioned in their right place. But here again the theory of the Ages receives a shock. For instance, N.'ENIA CORXUBL'E. the author, for some time, beheved that bronze dag- gers, similar to the one here engraved, belonged to a time considerably subsequent to that of the celts. Bronze Dagger found with a celt at Benalleck, near Par. Length i6 inches. From a draiuiiig by the late Canon Rogers. Some half-dozen instances of the appearance of these daggers side by side with urns of the chevron pattern, such as have been found with late Roman coins, led him at first to this conclusion. The above drawing, however, shows one of these daggers found in close proximity to a celt,^ similar to the one from Godol- phin figured at page 30. Added to this ; there are authentic examples of Roman coins actually having been found luiih celts, both in the case of the Karnbre specimens,- and also at Mopus. Here then is a diffi- culty for Mr. Worsaae. What if a few of his country- ' The "noscitur a socio" is a principle too lightly regarded by those on whom it forces a conclusion they do not like. In the case of Antiquities it is, if judiciously used, extremely valuable. ^ For the former instance see Borlase 281, and also Hitchins and Drew, i, 199. For the latter see the MS. of the late Canon Rogers. Dr. Borlase's testimony on this point seems really conclusive. "With these instruments," he says, meaning the Karnbre celts, "were found several Roman coins, six of which came into my hands." He mentions three of them as those of (i) Antoninus, (2) Constantius, and (3) Severus Alexander. 6 N^.NIA CORNUBI/E. men (antiquaries instead of pirates) would once more turn their prows to the now friendly shores of Dan- monia ? Would the solid entrenchments (of fact) be proof against them this time ? The truth is that the whole theory of these periods, applicable to certain localities perhaps, or useful for purposes of mild generalization, breaks down directly it is considered as universally inclu- sive, or is applied at random to individual instances. It is true that Archaeology is, in a measure, the Science of Transitions ; but then it must be remem- bered that it deals with centuries of unmarked in- vention, as well as with unrecorded migrations of the human race. Each new discovery must, therefore, stand on its own merits ; and the Antiquary, in the course of his researches, must ever be ready to be taken by sur- prise, and never be astonished to find a pet notion rudely dashed to the ground by a stroke of the pick- axe, or a turn of the shovel. Never should he be ready to sacrifice a fact, merely because it is hard to explain, upon the altar of a much more indefensible theory ; and should he. in exploring remains which he j considers pre-historic, chance to light upon any object which would bring them within the pale of history, he should, before discarding it, ask himself fairly the question : " Why should not this monument belong to the same period to which I know this relic must be N.'ENIA CORNUBI^. 7 assigned ?" " Time," as Sir Thomas Browne says, "antiquates antiquities;" but what right has the anti- quary to usurp that office ? Should he not rather strain a point to keep the object within range, than rush forward to pkmge it for ever in the chaos which is said to have existed " in the days when the earth was young ?" As, however, the object of this essay is not to advocate this or that theory, but simply to afford Archaeologists of every shade of opinion a complete and detailed account of each and every discovery, drawings have been made even of the most minute objects, such as chippings of flint, which, as they occurred near the. interments, may be thought by some to throw a light on the subject. For the same reason all further comment on the age of the monu- ments is reserved until the end of the work. Before proceeding to describe the Cornish tumuli, &c., it is necessary to say a word or two with regard to another theory, which still retains its hold on the popular mind, though scarcely on that of the savans of the nineteenth century. Recent investigations have served to convince archaeologists that, in order to form any adequate idea of the primitive sepulchral rites practised in these islands, they must not content themselves with ex- ploring those monuments alone, which, as Dr. Wilson 8 NiliNIA CORXUHI/K. remarks, owe ihcir origin to the small heap of earth thrown out of the grave, but must extend their in- vestigations also to the greater portion of that mega- lithic series, still so intimately associated in the minds of most people with boughs of misdetoe, golden knives, and white-robed Druids. It is hard to conceive how the quaint specula- tions of a few individuals, fresh from the classics of the eighteenth century, could ever have taken such deep root in the popular mind, as those have done which connect the Druids with monuments of this class. Grounded on no documentary evidence, and often teeming with the most absurd fancies, these theories had become a part of the national tradition of this country ; and had they not been subjected to the withering glance of a nineteenth century critic,' might absolutely have insinuated themselves into history itself. Cornwall possessed in Dr. Borlase almost the earliest, and perhaps the least fanciful, of the advo- cates of the Druid theory. A word or two therefore on the change which has taken place since his time, in the bearings of this subject, may not be inappro- priate, before the hoary phantom is banished for ever from the shade of his " accustomed oak." It must not be understood that there is any pre- ' Mr. Xa.>h ; author of the " Bards and Dniids. " N^NIA CORNUBIyE. 9 tence for dismissing the Druid from his proper place in the early pages of the British Annals. His strange creed, combining, as it did, a teaching similar to that of Pythagoras, with a ceremonial revolting even to Roman ideas of humanity, is equally a matter of history with the cruel massacre which stained the shores of his holy isle of Mona. Both facts are re- corded by historians, whose authenticity is in point of fact beyond dispute. But, thanks to the masterly scholarship and indefatigable zeal of those gentlemen who of late years have made the Celtic records of their country their special study, other sources than the classics may with safety be appealed to for evi- dence of the existence of Druids. Dr. Todd, in his " Life of St. Patrick," remarks that " there is evi- dence that Druidism and its attendant superstitions were in existence (in Ireland) in the times of the second order of saints, and that a belief in the effi- cacy of such pagan rites still lingered amongst the people." The Druidism of St. Columba's day was, however, a very different thing from the system of barbarity practised under the guise of philosophy or religion, mentioned by the classic authors. The term " Druidse " had now become synonymous with the Latin "Magi;" (as see Dr. Reeves' Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, p. 73, note); and Zeuss (Gram. Celt, i, 278,) quotes a gloss in the Irish MS. of St. Paul's epistles at Wurzburg, in which Jamnes and Mambres lO NiENIA CORNUBI^. arc styled "da druith segeptacdi." Thus die Archon Basileus of die first century had in fact degenerated into die Siinon Magus of the sixth, and St. Patrick himself maintained that his fate did not depend "on the voice of birds, nor on the roots of a knotted tree, nor on the noise of the clapping of hands, nor lots, nor sneezing, nor a boy, nor chance, nor women;" but, he adds, " Christ, the son of God, is my Druid." In the Irish additions to the Historia Britonum col- lated by Mr. Skene from the Books of Ballymote and Lecain (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 31), is the following : — " Drostan, the Druid of the Cruthneach, i.e. the Picts, ordered that the milk of seven score white cows should be spilled when the battle should be fought." Further on in the same translation the epithet " demnach," demonlike, is applied to the Druids; and " Druidheacht," literally " Druid's feat or work," is rendered (in accordance with O' Donovan's O'Reilly) "necromancy." In the same author's trans- lation of the Four Ancient Books of Wales the word occurs only four times, and then apparently in the sense of " soothsayer," as in the poem entitled the " Omen of Prydein the Great," (vol. i, p. 442), " Druids foretell what great things may happen." Taking these passages into consideration, a qualifi- cation must be added to the dictum of Mr. Nash, and it must be said " that the Druid exdnguished by Paulinus in A.D. 58, had not been resuscitated," in i N^NIA CORNUBI^. I I his ancient character at least, " in the tenth century," but that in the meantime the few good quaUties which he once possessed had been lost sight of in the miser- able arts of sorcery, divination, and magic. The existence and relative status in society of the Druid being thus ascertained at each end, as it were, of the historic chain, the question arises, whether or not he has any title to those mysterious monuments which the scholarship of the last century, and the Ordinance Surveyors of the present, have vied with one another in making over to him. Investigation, as was said before, taking the place of theory, has proved the greater part of these monu- ments sepulchral, and therefore presumably uncon- nected with any distinct religious observances ; but many still remain, like unclaimed dividends in the bank of our national history, awaiting a claimant to appropriate them to himself. If in the Druid there exists indeed such a claimant, it can only be said that his title still remains not proven. It is true that there are instances where his name, or one so similar as to be strikingly misleading, seems to have been connected in very remote times with localities where megalithic remains are found \^ and the " Glain nan Druidhe," or Druids' glass beads of Scotland, prove that such was also the case with respect to certain ' Caer Druidion, Stanton Drew, &c. 12 N^ENIA CORNUBI^. charms. The author, however, has not been able to discover any satisfactory instance in Cornwall where the application of the term to any place or object can reasonably be traced further back than to the appear- ance of Borlase's work in 1754, which, like many others about that period, became, in the absence of all real traditions, a convenient text book of local superstition,' But even such names, where they do exist, may be referred to the magician of the sixth century, with much more probability than to the genuine Druid of the first ; and those weird stones, which, by their gigantic proportions, as well as by the romantic situations in which they are generally placed, naturally excite the idolatrous veneration of a superstitious people, would be the very spots chosen by the soothsayer as the most fit and proper places for the practice of his imposture. However this may be, and to what people or purposes such ■ On this subject most kind communications have been received, both from Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., author of "The Romances and Drolls of the West of England;" and from Mr. Bottrell, author of the "Traditions and Hearth- side Stories of West Cornwall." Both these gentlemen, than whom none are more qualified to offer an opinion, agree in their verdict that the name "Druid" does not enter into any one single tradition, which can be ascribed to a date anterior to Borlase's Work. Mr. Bottrell's words are: "the Druids are not known to any west-country folk but those who have seen them in books or heard them from Antiquaries ; nor do they occur in our folk-lore, although un- usual names and expressions, of which the meaning is unknown, are found in several old stories. The word "Druid" is not found in any charms that I have heard, and I think I know all those in use, or that were used a century past by west-country charmers." N.^NIA CORNUBI^. 1 3 Structures as Stonehenge, Abury, and Carnac, with their attendant holed stones, rocking stones, &c., will finally be assigned, are subjects which will be only incidentally adverted to here when the question of the origin of the circles comes under discussion. For the present, something more tangible may be ob- tained by the consideration of those monuments whose sepulchral character has been placed beyond a doubt. Sir John Lubbock has summed up the charac- teristic features of the primitive sepulchre in the remark: " A complete burial place may be described as a dolmen, covered by a tumulus, and surrounded by a stone circle. Often, however, we have only the tumulus, sometimes only the dolmen, and sometimes / only th2 circle." To this list if there be added "some- times only two adjacent menhirs, and sometimes only the simple standing stone," under the one or the other head may be classed every mode of interment hitherto discovered in Cornwall. Firstly, the Dolmen, or Cromlech. So much has been surmised and written on the probable derivation of this word, that the subject is only here introduced for the sake of recording the fact that, whatever it may signify,'' it was in use as a ' After all, the most appropriate and satisfactory derivation of 'Cromlech' 14 N^.NIA CORNUBI/E. local name in Cornwall, as well as in Wales or Ire- land. " Rescal Cromlegh" represents, in an ancient deed, one of the boundaries of the property belonging to the Deanery of St. Buryan ; a tract of country, even at the present day, more full of megalithic remains than perhaps any other of like extent in the Duchy. Unfortunately, the spot cannot be now identified, where this Cromlech, if indeed it was one in the usual sense of the term, stood. European Cromlechs are capable of division into three classes, i. The dolmen, or "table-stone" proper, where, as Colonel Forbes Leslie remarks, " the vertical supporters of the tabular stone are columnar," and cannot be said to enclose a space. 2. The Larger Kist Vaen, or stone chest, where, as the name implies, " the vertical supports are slabs ;" and, together with the covering stone, form a struc- ture not unlike what children build with five cards. These were designed to hold the interment within the chamber, and were covered, sometimes very slightly, seems to be found in the Irish Vw;«,' Welsh V;-«w,'="bent," hence "inclined over," (whence the Gaelic cromadh— a roof or vault, and M. Bullet's "ce qui enferme, ce qui couvre;") and lech, "a stone." In slight confirmation of this idea, (which seems much more probable than that it means a "circle,") take a line from the Cornish "Origo Mundi," (2443,) where this same word ' crom^ appears as an epithet for rafters, the wood being ' ' bras ha crom y ben goles" — "large and rounded (or vaulted) its lower side." The word would thus apply, like that of "Quoit," to the "covering stone" only, and not to the whole monument. N/ENIA CORNUBLE. 1 5 with conical, or other mounds. 3. Monuments, similar in structure to the last, but raised over the interment. These were merely cenotaphs, such as are frequently found in modern churchyards, not intended to contain the body, but to mark the spot, where the less pre- tencious grave was concealed below. Craig-Madden^ in Stirlingshire, and many of the rude Irish crom- lechs, are instances of this latter class ; as well as the more prominent examples in Denmark and Norway,- and at Saulcieres^ in France, where the kists actually occur on the summits of the tumuli. No instances of this latter class are extant in Cornwall. Of these three classes, (and many subdivisions of them might be made, for each individual monument has some distinguishing characteristic of its own), the first, or " Dolmen proper," is comparatively of rare occurrence. In height it much exceeds the others, and the difficulty of its construction must have been proportionately greater. Three of the finest speci- mens of this class of cromlech are to be found re- spectively at Pentre Ifan,^ in Pembrokeshire, Castle Wellan, in Ireland,^ and Lanyon, in Cornwall. Caer- wynen, in the latter county, is another instance of the ' Wilson's Prehist. Annals of Scotland. Edit. 1863, Vol. i, p. 93. ^ Wormius. Mon. Dan. Liber primus. Hafniae. 1643, p. 8. 3 Waring's Monuments of Remote Ages, p. 26, pi. xxxi. * Archoeologia Cambrensis, 1865. 5 Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments, p. 45. 1 6 N^.NIA CORNUBI^. same mode of construction, and the ruder trilithons of the continent seem to belong to a hke category. The form of these monuments in itself precludes the idea of the interment having taken place immediately beneath the covering stone, or of a tumulus having been raised over them ; for, had such been the case, the debris of the mound must inevitably have forced its way at once into the chamber, the very result which, it is known, the builders of the kists were always so careful to guard against. Dr. Wilson, therefore, regards monuments of this kind as " the true cromlechs," not in themselves subterranean chambers, but memorial structures raised over the grave. Such was the design in the case of one at least of these, — that at Lanyon, in the parish of Madron, the finest and in all probability the most primitive^ of our Cornish pre-hlstoric remains. LANYON CROMLECH. This monument, as will be seen from the accom- panying engraving taken from Borlase's Cornwall, ^ ' Since the above was written, Dr. Fergusson's work on Rude Stone Monuments, has made its appearance. With regard to the antiquity of these "tripod dolmens" he expresses the contrary opinion, and believes them to be the more modem of the two classes. Though bowing to so high an authority, the author must quote Dr. Fergusson's words (p. 46) that " with our limited knowledge it is hardly safe to insist on this." * The accuracy of the dimensions given in Borlase is fully borne out by a drawing of the same monument made by the late Canon Rogers, in 1797, eighteen years before its fall. N/ENIA CORNUBI.^. 17 consisted, until its fall in the year 18 15, of three slim pillars of unhewn granite, supporting on their summits a horizontal stone, at a sufficient height from '"^^S^-'g;. ^ ^,*vv>vH«^''fV'*1^LC.llf^^'''''^ Lanyon Cromlech, previous to its fall. Elevation. Fro VI Dr. Borlases Antiqititu'S of Cornwall. the ground to permit a man mounted on horseback to sit under it. The cap stone, or " quoit," as it is The same. Ground Plan. termed in Cornwall, measured, (before a piece was broken off it), 47 feet in circumference, and averaged 1 8 N^NIA CORNUBI^. 20 inches thick. Viewed from the opposite hill, for it stands on high ground, the whole structure may not, even in its present stunted form,' be inaptly compared to a three-legged milking-stool. About the middle of the last century, a dream induced the owner of the property to dig beneath it, and di- rectly under the "quoit" a simple grave was dis- covered, cut in the natural soil, without side stones or covering. At the depth of six feet the explorers reached the bottom ; but unfortunately the other di- mensions are not recorded. Although this pit was carefully searched on that occasion, and subsequently rifled more than once, Dr. Borlase assures us that nothing was found "more than ordinary." From this discovery, it seems quite clear that inhumation was the mode of burial practised in this case ; for had cremation taken place, ashes, or at all events strata of burnt earth, would have been found ; and it is only on the supposition that the corpse was laid unprotected in the porous ground, without any im- perishable articles accompanying it, that the total absence of relics in the grave can be at all accounted for. Had the length of the cavity been recorded, some inference might have been formed as to the position in which the body was placed ; that is, ' It was set up again in 1824, but several of the stones had been broken, and one of the supporters bears marks of recent cleavage. At present a person must stoop to pass under it. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 1 9 whether it was extended at full length, or contracted, with the knees bent up towards the chin. Trivial as such a distinction may at first sight appear, it is just one of those points which, if carefully followed up, may one day become valuable to the ethnologist in distineuishingf the lines of demarcation to be drawn between the various races or tribes inhabiting this country in the primitive era. The different modes of disposing of the body, which meet the explorers of the early sarcophagi of Great Britain, are three in number. Interments have either been placed in the ground whole, or they have been reduced to ashes by (i) crematioti. Those bodies which have been buried in their entirety are either (2) extended or (3) contracted. Leaving the subject of cremation for a future page, it may be re- marked with reference to the practice of inhumation, that throughout the North of England it is by far the most common mode of burial ; and that in Eng- land generally the contracted form of it has been found to have prevailed very largely over the ex- tended. Thus the Rev. Canon Greenwell, in a letter dated the 12th of December, 187 1, informs the author that " out of above 200 interments of what may be considered pre- Roman times," he has only found " a single instance where the body had been buried in an extended position." So much for the North. 20 N^NIA CORNUBI.-E. Coming further South the combined researches of Sir R. C. Hoare and Thomas Bateman, Esq., tabu- lated by Sir John Lubbock, show that out of some 500 interments explored with care, only thirty-seven were extended, while 1 1 2 were contracted, the rest being burnt In Cornwall a marked difference is observable. Well authenticated instances of inhumation at all are extremely rare. Among these, only two or three ex- amples of the extended position actually occur ; but the not-uncommon occurrence of empty long graves, whether cut in the hard soil or walled with stones, affords a strong presumption that, had they not been rifled, a similar mode of interment mio-ht have been discovered in them. Of the contracted position, as will be seen hereafter, only one really authentic in- stance can be cited. As to the relative ages of these two modes of sepulture, it would be hard to make even an approxi- mate guess. Dr. Fergusson, speaks of Canon Green- well's contracted discoveries as " really pre-historic," and he is probably right. But a pre-disposition. in favor of the simplicity and appropriateness of our present custom, has led many to the conclusion that the extended mode would more naturally have sug- gested itself to man in the earliest stages of civi- lized life. Should this latter notion be adopted, it must not be overlooked that the return to the primi- N.^NIA CORNUBI^. 2 I tive custom, in Christian times, must always induce the doubt whether graves of this description may not belong to a much more recent period. As in the case of Lanyon, an empty earth-cut grave has been mentioned in connection with mega- lithic remains, it may not be amiss, before passing on to describe a second "tripod" Cromlech, to notice two other instances where a similar grave has been found. In each of these cases, the monument has consisted of two pillars of unhewn granite placed at no great distance apart. Graves adorned in this manner are the common property of all ages and all religions. Their history was just as much out of remembrance in the days of Homer, as it is now: — H T£u aY]fA,a ^^OTOio 'TKx.'hai KoiToiTsdvyiciroi-^ A sketch in the " Univers Pittoresque" of two rude stones in Corsica, might serve as an adequate representation of the Cornish specimens ; and the Giant's Grave at Penrith Churchyard, in Cumber- land,2 is doubtless one of the earliest instances oT^ the gradual introduction of the head-stone and foot- ^ ' Homer's Iliad, lib. xxiii, 329. Mr. Wright translates the pasage : — " On either side" "rise two white stones set there" " To mark the tomb of some one long since dead." ' Higgins' Celtic Druids, p. 148. 22 N^NIA CORNUBI/t. Stone SO commonly set up by Christian' mourners of the present day. Two monuments of this kind are extant in Corn- wall. I'hcy are situated within a mile or two of each other, and of the Lanyon Cromlech, and both have been explored, the first by Dr. Borlase in the year 1752, and the second by the author in 1871. The former^ is situated in a field sloping towards the west, on the estate of Trewren, in the parish of Madron. The respective heights of the two rough pillars in this case are five and six feet above ground, and the distance between them ten feet. They point in a direction E. by N., and W. by S. " Upon searching, the ground between these two stones the diggers presently found a pit six feet six long, two feet nine wide, and four feet six deep ; near the bottom it was full of black greasy earth, but no bone to be seen. This grave came close to the Western- most and largest stone, next to which, I imagine, the head of the interred lay. The Christians in some parts buried in this manner, but in compliance, as it is to be imagined, with a more ancient Pagan custom. "3 The author of these pages was fortunate enough to be present some few years since, when this ' "The Monk, O'Gorgon, is buried near to the Chapel, and there is a Stone five Foot high at each End of this Grave." Martin, Isles of Skie, p. 167. = See elevation antl ground plan in Borlase's AntiquUies, p. 146, pi. x. 3 Borlase, Ant. of Corn., p. 187. N^NIA CORNUBI^. ^l grave was re-opened by the late William Coulson, Esq., the owner of the land, when the above account was fully confirmed. The black soil in the grave is the peat natural to the country. At Trigganeris, or Higher Drift, in the adjoining parish of Sancreed, there stands, on the top of the hill, another monument, evidently of the same description as the last. It consists, as in the former case, of a taller and a shorter pillar, the former nine feet in height, the latter seven feet four inches. The direc- tion in which they lie is NNW. and SSE. During the excavation of a trench between these stones the author came upon the end of a cavity cut with much SCALE OF FEET \/^^Mi Ground Plan of Trigganeris Stones and Grave. precision in the hard natural clay, or, as the Cornish term it, " rabman." This proved to be a grave six feet long, three feet three broad, and about five deep, 24 N^ENIA CORNUBI^. corresponding remarkably with the dimensions o[ that at T re wren. It lay, however, not lengthways between the pillars, but nearly at right angles to them, and completely out of the line, so that a tape stretched from the centre of the one to the centre of the other scarcely, if at all, passed through a corner of it. No flat stones were found in the grave, nor indeed anything but the fine disturbed sub-soil of the neighbourhood. ' Remarkable as is the attempt at orientation in both these cases, and in the latter especially, (for the Trigganeris grave lies nearly due East and West) it must still be noticed that in no respect do these pillars differ in character from the rudest of the men- hirs, and the other members of the megalithic family; nor do they show any traces of the patterns and letters which distinguished the tombs of the primi- tive Christians. No remains or traditions of chapel- ries or oratories are extant in their vicinity, and if they are indeed to be ascribed to Christians at all, they form a striking link in the sepulchral history of that dark uncertain period. CAERWYNEN CROMLECH. After this digression it remains to glance at the one other instance of a " Cromlech proper " which ' Canon Greenwell remarks that "empty graves are not uncommon, and that it depends upon surrounding circumstances, whether the bones have de- cayed or not," he having "found them in all stages of decay." N.^NIA CORNUBI^. 25 Cornwall affords ; before passing- on to the more ex- tensive subject of the Kist Vaens. This monument is situated in the centre of a sloping meadow on a tenement called Caerwynen, immediately opposite the front windows of the old family mansion of Pen- darves. Similar to Lanyon Cromlech in its con- struction, it has also shared its fate, for it fell many years since; but was, as a labourer asserted who had assisted in the work, soon after replaced by the patriotic lady of the manor, in much the same posi- tion as before. Fortunately a drawing of it, by Borlase, (larger than that in his published work), is extant in his MS. collections, from which the accom- panying engravings are taken. Caerwynen Cromlech, From a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. The two supporters at the south-eastern end seem to have retained their original positions. They were, formerly, respectively 5 feet i inch, and 5 feet 2 inches above ground, and are still nearly the same height. The single pillar at the other side has been 26 N^NIA COKNUBI^, moved nearer the edge of the covering stone than in the above sketch ; it measured 4 feet 1 1 inches high, hut is now shorter. The covering slab, which, hke the other stones, is granite, measures twelve feet by nine ; one side, however, seems to have been broken in its fall. Some stones now standing on the north side, were placed there subsequently to the restora- tion. No pit was sunk beneath it, nor has it ever been explored, and there are no remains of a tumulus under or around it. If explored, (which would be in its present state a dangerous operation), it is highly probable that a grave similar to that at Lanyon would be found, the area between the supporters being for- merly seven feet long, by about five broad, though now something more. Wv c:^- Ground Plan of Caerwynen Cromlech. From a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. A fallen Cromlech which may have possibly be- longed to the "tripod" class, is to be found near N.-ENIA CORNUBIvE. 27 Helmen Tor, in the parish of LanHvery. A drawing of this will be found in Blight's " Crosses of East Cornwall," p. 131. The distinction between " the Cromlech proper," such as that just described, and the " Larger Kist Vaen" has been already noticed. In proceeding to consider this latter class it will be found that it com- prises every other monument of the kind still extant in Cornwall. The idea of building a habitation for the dead owes its origin to the most primitive times; and may be regarded as one of the earliest conceptions of the mind of man. It belongs to a state of society when death, considered as a total extinction or annihilation, was by no means fully realized ;' nor, on the other hand, had the future life yet been defined as a matter of certitude or religious contemplation. Thus, the four walls and roof rose around and covered the corpse, the five plain slabs presenting the most ready, as well as the most substantial model of the dwelling house, and affording the first requisite in domestic architecture, namely: — protection from external ad- verse circumstances. Thus was formed the true "Beth" or " Bedd," the "Bod" or "Bos" of the ' In some of the Indian, and the Circassian dolmens, a hole is bored in one of the side-stones, supposed to be indented for the reception of food for the occupant of the tomb. 28 N/KMA CORNU15I.K. C()riui-I^)ritons ; firstly, the home of the living, and secondly, the oi^o^ tuv vsKpuv — the chamber of the dead. Not that any of our British Cromlechs have actually served the former purpose, like the Gangrabben of Scandinavia, or the hovels of those modern savages, who, on the death of the tenant, immediately con- vert his temporary holding into a fee-simple for ever by blocking up the entrance : but still, it is more than probable that the idea was the same throuirhout, and that the Kist Vaen was in its origin simply a contracted or miniature representa- tion of the class of residence occupied by the deceased during life. This idea is supported in great measure by a comparison of the rude masonry displayed in these structures, (the extended or pas- sage ones particularly), with that of the huts and underground chambers w^hich so frequently occur in their immediate vicinity. It must, however, be ob- served that this style of architecture, if indeed it can be called such, belongs to nearly every inhabited dis- trict in the world ; everywhere in fact, where slabs of granite or flag stones afford materials ready at hand for the execution of so simple a design. That edifices so constructed are of a most primitive type must at once be clear to all who are willing to admit that, in the absence of reliable evidence, sim- plicity of design only signifies priority of construc- tion. The comparison between man in his primitive N.ENIA CORNUBL^. 29 State and children who act by the Hght of nature alone, has been often made : and the author will only add, that on a Cornish goose green, in the midst of the hamlet or "town place," he has more than once watched the formation of a group of dolmens, which, if only magnified, would rival those of the Khasias, or any other tribe of dolmen-builders in ancient or modern times. Indeed, the masonry displayed in the Larger Kist Vaen is peculiarly characteristic of man in his primeval or infantine state ; and thus it seems that, by using a term such as " dolmen-builders," we cannot draw a line round any particular century, nation, or locality. It was the sepulchre alike of the early inhabitants of Malabar and of India, of Nor- thern Africa, as well as of Western Europe, Den- mark, Norway, and Sweden. Drawings and descrip- tions are continually brought home, of Cromlechs, which, with a very few characteristic differences, re- semble so strangely those of Europe, that one might fancy they belonged not to any foreign clime, but to our own native hills. But while European writers are wondering at the universality of this mode of burial throughout so many widely distant countries of the globe, and are being startled by the fact that there are actually tribes in India who are erecting these very identical structures while they are writing and speculating, let them ask themselves the ques- tion, ' Are they so perfectly certain that they are not 30 N/liNIA CORNUHI/E. " doliiK'n-huiklcrs" themselves?' May there not be those who can sec, not only in the Altar- tomb of the Romans, or the sarcophagus of the Middle Ages, but in the square cenotaph of our modern church- yard, the lineal descendant of the Pagan Kist Vaen ? To make the chain complete, examples are not want- ing of a transition period, which it would be most interesting to follow up. Many instances might be quoted of tombs of this class found in close proxi- mity to early Christian edifices ; and Dr. Petrie in especial has left us the record of one, at least, still standing near a ruined church in the island of Ar- doilen. But to come to more recent times : Suppose for an instant that a native Khasian antiquary, (if such a fellow could be found), interested in the com- parative ethnology of his race, were to visit Great Britain : Suppose him taken to a grave yard, say, in a slate district, where the square five-slab tombs abound, and would he not return to his native countrymen with the news that he had found a "group" of as genuine "dolmen-builders" as they themselves ? It seems, therefore, only fair to con- clude, that this primitive dwelling of the dead, deri- ving its origin to all appearance from the latent super- stition of the earliest ages, subsequently received, with the spread of civilization, the sanction of custom and the protection of religion ; and that even in its pristine form it has not yet disappeared from among N/ENIA CORNUBI/E. 3 I the number of those monuments which adorn, or too often disfigure, our modern EngHsh churchyards. It may be laid down as a general rule, which re- cent investigation has made almost universal,^ that all the larger Kist Vaens, or Cromlechs of the second class were designed to contain the remains of the deceased unburut. Professor Nillson,^ remarking on the dos, or Scandinavian Cromlech, says, that it was " erected in order to contain one body only, which was always placed in a sitting posture." This, however, is not so invariably the case in other coun- tries. At De Tus, in Guernsey, for example, Mr, Lukis^ found two skeletons in the same kist, and a like number were taken from the Phoenix Park''- Cromlech, at Dublin. In both these cases the bodies were contracted ; but that the extended mode of in- humation was never practised in the larger Kist Vaens is by no means certain ; and, with regard to those which are now empty, it seems only reasonable to suppose, that where the chamber is sufficiently long to contain an extended interment, the body was placed in that position ; while, in the cases where it is too small to admit of such being the case, a sitting, ' An exception to this rale, in the case of a Cornish Cromlech, will be found at page , but this may be a secondary interment. ^ "Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia," translated by Sir John Lubbock, p. 159. 3 Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. i, p. 27. " See Mr. Wakeman's admirable little " Handbook of Irish Antiquities," p. 9. 32 N^NIA CORNUBI^. kneeling", or otlicr contracted posture was resorted to. In Cornwall, the length of the Larger Kists averages from lo feet to 6 feet ; so that in each case a body might have been interred at full length. The one which will be first noticed, viz., that at Pawton, in the parish of St. Breock, seems more especially to point to this mode of sepulture. Pawton Cromlech, from a Sketch by the Author. This monument is situated on high ground in the centre of a field immediately above the picturesque valley and ancient ecclesiastical establishment of Pawton. The accompanying sketch, taken by the author a few months since, will, perhaps, convey some slight idea of the structure. The stones which form the grave are eight in number, but the covering stone itself rests on only three of them. They are still more than half buried in the tumulus which for- N^NIA CORNUBI^. 33 merly, no doubt, covered the whole. This was of an oval shape, and upwards of sixty feet in length. The grave itself is seven feet long ; and, but for a stone which has been inserted at one end, would be a foot and a half longer. This stone is probably a prop to support the one on which that end of the cap- stone rests. The width of the grave is two feet at one end, and three and a half at the other : it is at present five feet deep, though it may in all proba- bihty be several feet deeper. The sparry stone which forms the covering is thirteen feet in length, by seven in breadth ; and, as a labourer informed me that a piece (marked A, in the accompanying plan,) had been broken off from it, the length may be in- creased by several feet. In thickness the covering stone is uniformly two feet six. Ground Plan of Pawton Cromlech !'. ' The dark spots in the plan represent the pomts of contact between the sides, and roofing stone. C 34 N^NIA CORNUHL-E, From the shape and size of the kist in this case, ■ there can be no doubt that it was constructed to contain a body at full length ; and although, as was before noticed, interments in that position are so very rare in other parts of England, there are other instances (though few and far between) of similar graves in Cornwall, to prove that this mode of burial was not by any means unknown in that district. In several cases the author has particularly noticed that the grave is too narrow to admit of the body being contracted at all, and in more than one case a skeleton I extended has actually been found. Two or three of these long walled graves may here be described. STONE GRAVES. I On the very top of the southernmost of the two hills which form the island of Sampson, Scilly, lie four or five narrow trenches, formed by long side- stones of granite, and in one or two cases still partly covered in by flat ones on the top. They at first appear like large drains or bolts, but on a closer in- spection it may be observed that circular cairns of * Carew, (Edit, i, 1602, p. 159,) gives the following account of a skel- eton, the position of which is unfortunately omitted. "Not farre from the lands ende, there is a little village called Trebegean, in English, the towne of the Giants grave : neere whereunto and within memory (as I have been in- formed) certayne workemen searching for Tynne, discovered a long square vault, which contayned the bones of an excessive bigge carkas, and verified this Etimology of the name." N.tXIA CORNUBI/E, 35 Stone have been raised round them, and that stones on edge have been placed at the end of each. In length these graves average seven feet, and in breadth two feet, or something less. A Kist-Vaen which was opened on the Northern side of the same island was found to contain calcined bones and a flint flake ; this grave, however, was nearly square, and will be more fully described when the subject of cre- mation is under discussion. In the MSS. of Dr. Borlase^ is the following: " As you ride down to see the farthest projection of this (the Land's End) promontory, lye a few stones set in order, enclosing an oblong square about six foot long and three foot wide." On searching this spot a few months since, the author discovered this, or more probably another similar grave, not quite three feet wide by eight feet in length. Over this a labourer remembers seeing part of a covering stone, recently carried away. Mr. Cotton- found in the most northern barrow on Botrea Hill, in the parish of Sancreed, on the 26th of September, 1826, "the remains of a Kist Vaen or stone grave, consisting of two large stones, set up edgeways, in a line with each other, about fifteen inches in height, and 6 feet 6 inches in length : ' Parochial Memoranda, p. 3. - " Illustrations of Stone Circles," &c., " in the West of Cornwall," p. 39. 36 N.ENIA CORNUBL^. another stone (2 feet 8 inches long and overlapping the former,) was placed at right angles with these, and formed one end of the grave." In turning over the black earth with which this grave was filled, two flint arrow heads were found, " barbed and sharp pointed ;" they were one inch and a half in length, by J^ths of an inch in breadth. ''Arrow Heads from Botrea. From Drawings by Mr. Cotton. About the year 1748, the easternmost of three barrows at Bosavern Ros, in the parish of St. Just, was opened, and in it, as Dr. Borlase has recorded, " was found the carcase of a man laid at full length ; a loncf stone on each side, and one at each end on the edge, the cavity like a grave ; the bones large sized ; no stone covering the body.".^ But stone graves, such as these, have not been always so unproductive. The most curious and valu- ' "Ant. of Cornwall," 2 edit. p. 235. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 37 able find hitherto made in any Cornish barrow, was brought to hght in the year 1818, in a long grave under a stone cairn near the Cheesewring, in the parish of Linkinhorne. A pile of stones, about thirty yards in diameter, covered an oblong cavity, eight feet long, three-and- a-half feet broad, and three feet high. Each of the sides of this grave was formed of three stones set on edge ; one stone placed in the same manner closed each end ; a long flat stone lay at the bottom of the cell, and a tenth stone formed the cover of the whole. Along the floor lay " the remains of a skeleton ex- tended!'' Near the breast stood an earthen pot, and within^ it a golden cup. A flat stone, sixteen inches square, leaning diagonally against the western side of the Kist, covei^cd 2svA protected these vessels. 2 The earthenware vessel was broken in removing it, but " the frag-ments exhibited the usual incised ornamentation of the early British pottery." Other relics were found in the same tomb, but are unfortunately mislaid — they comprised a small piece of ornamental earthenware ; a bronze spear- head, ten inches long; something like a metallic rivet ;^ pieces of ivory, and a few glass beads. ' Such was the opinion of the workmen who found it. » The vault lay N.N.E. and S.S.W. 3 This dagger and rivet are probably of the same kind as that figured at page 4, found at Benallack, near Par. Several others will be mentioned in 38 N^NIA CORNUBIyE. It is to Sir Edward Smirkc that the Antiquarian world is indebted for the re-discovery of the gold cup, and for the publication, in the Archaeological Journal, of a most interesting account of it. Further particulars respecting it may be gained from a MS. letter by W. T. P. Shortt, Esq., of Exeter, to Dr. Wilson, extracts from which are to be found in the ' Pre-historic Annals of Scotland.' Gold Cup, fuuisu iNeak the Cheesewring. From a Drawing by Sir Edward Smirke. these pages. One is engraved by Borlase in the Ant. of Cornwall. It may be here noticed that : — (1) The gold lunulK, from Harlyn, were found w//// a celt. (2) The gold cup, here mentioned, was found with a rivettcd bronze dagger. (3) A rivetted bronze dagger was found at Benallack wilh a celt. Although these premises are not very satisfactory, still they may afford some slight evidence that these objects belonged to one and the same people, and perhaps to one and the same period. N.flNIA CORNUBL^. 39 ' The gold cup, of which a woodcut is here given, is three-and-a-quarter inches high ; diree-and-three- eights inches in diameter at the mouth ; the handle measures one-and-a-half inches long, by seven-eighths of an inch in width. The weio-ht is 2 oz. 10 dwts., and the bullion value, ^10. The handle is slightly crushed, but is attached to the cup by six little rivets, secured by small lozenge-shaped nuts or collars. The cup is terminated at the bottom by a round knob; and, as the handle is "only fit for means of suspension," Sir Edward judges that it was never in- tended to stand upright at all. The corrugated pattern, or horizontal undulations on the surface of the cup, although extremely curious, are by no means unique. Concentric rings ranged round a boss formed, as is well known, the ordinary design for shields of beaten bronze. Doubtless these undulations added considerably to the defensible qualities and durability of the weapon in sustaining or warding off a blow. When applied to such an article as a cup, they may have afforded, as Sir Edward Smirke sueOfests, "some constructive advantaee,"! Little vessels of clay, and even of amber,^ with ' Messrs. Garrard, who examined and weighed the cup, considered that one "of the same material, might be produced, without difficulty, out of a single flat lamina of thin gold, hammered or beaten into a similar form. " ^ An amber vessel from Hove, near Brighton, much resembled this cup. With it was found " a bronze blade." 40 NMNIA CORNUBI^. diminutive handles attached, are among the curiosi- ties which have rewarded and puzzled the British barrow-digger ; gold cups, however, though found in Denmark, are extremely rare, and Mr. Way gives it, as his opinion, that "none of a like description to this one have occurred among the numerous objects of gold found in Great Britain." Instances there are of personal ornaments formed of the same precious metal, and surrounded by the same corrugated pat- tern. One found in Lincolnshire, were it not that it is an armlet, would be a counterpart of the cup. Another, a bracelet from Camuston, Angus, was taken from a kist containing a skeleton, immediately beneath the shadow of an erect sculptured cross. With this latter was an urn, ornamented with the usual zigzag ; and tradition marked the spot as the grave of a Dane, slain by Malcolm II. at the close of the Vllth century. I It is a remarkable fact, that before this cup was found, there was a tradition in the neighbourhood of a "golden boat"^ having been dug up in a stone cairn near the Cheesewring. When, a few months since, the author visited the ground, he found that all the cairns for miles round had been rifled by ' For these interesting comparisons the author is indebted to Mr. Way's supplementary notes to Sir E. Smirke's paper. * Compare the tradition of a "golden boat" buried at Veryan beacon. Infra page. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 4 1 treasure-seekers, who had doubtless heard of one of these two finds. On the brow of the downs rising to Sharp Tor are three large cairns, seemingly built round with some care, and immediately below them a large quantity of ruined British huts. Caradon Hill is covered with barrows and cairns, the largest of which is on the southern brow. All, however, have been searched. Celt from Godolphin Mine. The celt here figured is copied from the unpub- lished sketches of Cornish Antiquities made by the late Canon Rogers. The note accompanying it states that it was found, " with many others, in a coffin at Godolphin Mine, probably between 1740 and 1750." There seems little doubt but that this coffin was a stone kist, of the elongated shape, such as have just been described. Another celt, found in close proximity to a human skeleton, and described as of yellow metal, was dug up in the year i 790, twenty- six feet under the surface, in Carnon Stream-works. No kist is mentioned in this case. Having digressed from the subject of the Crom- 42 N.T'.XIA CORNUBLIi;. Icchs, in order to notice those smaller quadrated graves which, from their size and shape, seem, like that at Pawton, to have been intended for a body at full length, it is now time to return to the subject of the Kist-Vaen proper. Althou<:^h, in every instance, the chamber of the Cornish Cromlech is sufficiently long- to allow of an extended interment, yet those now to be noticed do not seem to suggest so pointedly as the long graves, that such was the case. The Kist Vaen proper is much wider and more lofty in pro- portion to its length, and would, indeed, easily con- tain any number of bodies placed in almost any posture whatever. In the only instance, however, where one of these kists has been disinterred from its surrounding tumulus in modern times, a single skeleton has been found, as the primary interment, showing that, in this case at least, the opinion of Professor Nillson, that such structures contained only one body, holds good in reference to the Cornish Cromlech, as well as to the Scandinavian doss. LOWER LANYON CROMLECH. The monument referred to is, curiously enough, situated on the same estate as the one lately de- scribed, namely, at Lanyon, in the parish of Madron; and is quite as good a specimen of the "Kist" type, as the former one was of the " Cromlech proper." N.^NIA CORNUBL^. 43 Two stones are all that now remain, viz., the coverinof stone, and one of the supporters; the others having been split up and carried away for building. A very rough sketch of this Cromlech, when perfect, will be found in Mr. Cotton's Illustrations of Antiquities in Cornwall, page 37; and the following notice of its discovery is preserved in the Archaeologia, Vol. xiv, page 228. " The gentleman who owns the estate of Lanyon, happening to be overtaken by a shower of rain in walking through his fields, took shelter behind a bank of earth and stones, and remarking that the earth was rich, he thought it might be useful for a compost. Accordingly, he sent his servants soon after to carry it off, when, having removed near a hundred cart loads, they observed the supporters of a Cromleh, from which the coverstone was slipped off on the south side, but still leaning against them. These supporters include a rectangular space open only at the north end, their dimensions being of a very ex- traordinary size, viz., that forming the eastern side ten feet and a half long, that on the west nine feet, with a small one added to complete the length of the other side, and the stone shutting up the south end about five feet wide. The cover-stone is about thirteen feet and a half, by ten feet and a half." " As soon as the gentleman observed it to be a Cromleh, he ordered his men to dig under it, where they soon 44 NiENIA CORNUBIyf;. found a broken urn with many ashes, and going deeper they took up about half of a skull, the thigh bones, and most of the other bones of a human body, lying in a promiscuous state, and in such a disordered manner as fully proved that the grave had been opened before ; and this is the more certain, because the flat stones which formed the grave, or what Dr. Borlase calls the Kist Vaen, and a flat stone, about six feet long, which probably lay at the bottom, had all been removed out of their places." The measure- ments of the covering stone given in this account quite accord with those taken by the author a short time since. In thickness it averages from one foot six, to one foot nine inches. It may be reasonably doubted if, from its present position, this stone was ever raised to the place for which it had been in- tended. Had such been the case, the mound would no doubt have served to consolidate the whole fabric, and to keep it in its place; and its present appearance leads to the conclusion that the builders, in this case, w^ere never able to complete the stupendous work which they had begun. One of the displaced stones mentioned above may, perhaps, have served as the covering stone of the interment, in the absence of the one designed for that purpose. The accompanying plan is an attempted restora- tion of this Cromlech — (ist) from the stones as they N.ENIA CORNUBI^. 45 now stand, (2nd) from the drawing by Mr. Colton, and (3rd) from the above account. Ground Plan of Lower Lanyon Cromlech. In leaving the subject of this interesting dis- covery, and in passing on to other monuments of a like nature, two things must be kept in mind ; first, that here the reader has had an instance of a Crom- lech actually covered by a mound ; and secondly, that the primary interment within the kist consisted of a single body unbiLrnt. These two facts are particu- larly worth remembering ; since in the case of so few other monuments of the kind is anything left but the bare stones themselves to guide the work of eluci- dating their origin or purpose. TRETHEVY CROMLECH. The largest, though perhaps the least known of 46 N^NIA CORNUBI^. I the Cornish Cromlechs, is that of Trethevy, Tre- vethy, or, as the common people call it, Tredavy, in the parish of St. Clere. The earliest account of it is given by Norden, who, writing about the year 1610, says, "Tretheuie, called in Latine Casagigantis, a litle howse raysed of mightie stones, standing on a litle hill within a feilde, the forme hereunder ex- pressed ;" and accordingly there follows an original, but highly characteristic engraving of the monument. | Two more recent notices of it appear respectively in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, and the Report of the Penzance Natural History Society for the year 1850; in the former, the author being S. R. Pattison, Esq., F.G.S., and in the latter, E. H. Pedler, Esq. Of the two drawings here inserted, the first is from a photograph by Mr. Lobb, of Wade- Dkawi.ng of Tkethevy. N^NIA CORNUBIyE. 47 bridge, and the second from the accompHshed pencil of J. T. Bhght, Esq., F.S.A. From these two the reader may easily gather the chief peculiarities of the structure. Drawing of Trethevy. The monument consists of six upright stones, upon the upper edges of three of which, an oblong covering stone is at present diagonally resting. An eighth stone, probably at one time the supporter at the western extremity, has fallen lengthways along the kist, leaving that end open, and throwing the whole burden of supporting the horizontal stone upon two side-stones. These latter have conse- quently been forced out of the line at their base, and bowed inwards at their top, giving a circular or triagonal form to that end of the kist, seemingly by no means a part of the original plan. According to Mr. Pattison, "the fall of this western pillar caused the 48 N^NIA CORNUBI^. superincumbent stone in its descent to break off the upper portions of the side stones nearest to the fallen one, and thus it settled down in its present sloping condition." At its most elevated point the covering stone is thirteen feet from the ground, while at the other end, where it is most depressed, it is only seven- and-a-half. The longest diagonal is from S.W. to N.E., where it measures thirteen feet six ; it is nine feet broad, and averages one foot in thickness. But the most remarkable feature in this Crom- lech, as it now stands, is the fine menhir which forms the principal and eastern supporter. In the choice of this stone, as well as in its erection, the greatest care and labour were evidently displayed. On the outer face it presents a smooth surface of finely- grained granite, while the squareness of the upper end, and the well coyned angles, give it almost the appearance of a wrought stone, and make it a most solid and substantial prop. It stands nearly ten feet in height above the small mound in which it is set up ; and, to render it the more secure, another and ruder pillar, of nearly an equal height, is projected like a buttress against one side of it. The other four stones, which (two on each side) form the kist, are shorter than the eastern pillar by several feet. The fallen stone, once closing up the western end, seems, however, to have been considerably longer than these side ones; so that it is not improbable that this monu- N.^NIA CORNUBL^. 49 ment was originally a trilithon,^ that is, that the covering stone was supported by two pillars only, one at each end of the grave. The interior of the kist was between nine and ten feet long, and from five feet six to six feet six broad. A pit in the centre shows that the stones rest, not on the mound, but on the natural surface of the ground beneath ; so that the pile of earth and stones now lying round them must have been subsequently heaped there, but to what height it is impossible to say. Ground Plan of Trethevy. There still remain two other features to be noticed in this Cromlech, since they have given rise to a considerable amount of speculation. The first is an aperture in the lower end of the eastern stone, so ' Dr. Fnrgasson (J?ude Stone Afomtmi'n^s, p. lOO,) considers a trilithon, as an "improved dolmen." D 50 N^NIA CORNUBI>t. much resembling an artificially constructed means of access to the chamber, that Norden does not hesitate to call it " the dore or Entrance."^ The height of this " dore" is 2 feet, and its breadth i foot 9 inches. Mr. Pattison considers that it "exhibits marks of art;" but, on an examination of the stone in December, 187 1, the author came to the conclusion that the fracture, if not the natural configuration of the stone, might have been accidentally caused either at the time of its transportation from the quarry, or during its erection. The second feature to be noticed is a hole, from six to eight inches in diameter, in the north-east corner of the covering stone. It is more oblong than round, and is placed immediately above the " entrance" just described. The circum- stance of a hole being so frequently found in the dolmens of Eastern Europe and India, has induced some antiquaries to form a comparison between them and the Trethevy Stone; but in the former cases the hole is always "in one of the side stones, and commu- ' A characteristic example of a dolmen with a rude door, formed by a piece having been cleft out of the lower part of one of the side stones, occurs at Grandmont, Bas-Languedoc, France. A drawing of this will be found in Dr. Furgusson's work, p. 344. Holed dolmens also are found in France, so that the idea in each case may be same. A dolmen at Arroyolos, in Portugal, is also provided with a door ; and instances might be quoted from Palestine and India. In many cases, it must be remembered, dolmens have sensed as sheep-pens, and doors may have been cut to afford means of ingress or egress ; though some of the foreign ones certainly do not admit of this solution of the diffi- culty. N.-ENIA CORNUBI.-E. 5 I nicates with the interior of the chamber, while in the latter it is pierced through an overlapping portion of the roof. Norden speaks of it as " an arteficiall holl, which served as it seemeth to putt out a staffe, whereof the house it selfe was not capable." Mr. Pattison confirms this opinion, by mentioning that " the sides are smooth as if worn by a staff;" and such is, without doubt, the true account of it. Another quotation from that gentleman's excellent paper, which, coming from a Fellow of the Geological So- ciety, is of additional interest and value, may be added in conclusion. " The stones," he says, "com- posing this monument are all of granite, which occurs in boulders about half-a-mile distant. There is a broad upland valley intervening between Trethevy and the granite. The builders must therefore have credit for the exertion of combined strength and skill, in transporting these enormous masses of rock across the hollow, and up the hill on which they now stand." ZENNOR CROMLECH. Zennor Quoit, as the Cromlech in the parish of that name is usually called, was, when Borlase wrote his History, the most interesting and perfect speci- men of a Kist-Vaen in Western Cornwall. In all probability it had been freshly disinterred from its cairn, or rather the gigantic structure had just sue- 52 N^NIA CORNUBL*:. ceeded in shaking off, or piercing up through, the crust of loose debris which had been piled over it; for in the middle of the last century, "a stone barrow, fourteen yards in diameter, was heaped round it, and almost reached to the edge of the Quoit." ^ Care had been taken, however, in its erection, that no stone should get into the chamber, and it was with great difficulty that a man could squeeze himself into it. Since then, progress and destruction, working together as usual, have much impaired the monu- ment ; the cap-stone has been rolled off, and the other stones otherwise damaged by being made to serve as the supports of a cart-shed. Fortunately an original drawing and a plan were made for Dr. Borlase's work, and these the author has been able to reproduce in woodcut from copies of the identical copper-plates then used. They will be found much more accurate and valuable than any sketch of the ruin, as it is at present, could possibly be. The account which accompanies these engravings is as follows: — "On the top of a high hill about half- a-mile to the east of Senar Church-town stands a very large handsome Cromleh ; the area inclosed by the supporters is six feet eight inches by four feet, and points east and west. The Kist-Vaen is neatly formed, and fenced every way, and the (Eastern) ' The word " Quoit" is here used for the cap-stone only. N.^NIA CORNUBLE. 53 supporter is 8 feet lo inches high, from the surface of the earth in the Kist-Vaen, to the under face of -Jl^., .^;,yj^-~>.,xvx-^~x ^ ^""Cs>,.V^ %>^J Ze.nnor Cromlech. Ground Plan and Elevation. From Borlasc's Antiquities. the Quoit. The side stones of the Kist-Vaen, run- ning on beyond the end stone, form a Httle cell to the east, by means of two stones terminating them at right angles. The great depth of this Kist-Vaen, which is about eight feet, at a medium under the plane of the Quoit, is remarkable The Quoit was brought from a karn about a furlong off. 54 NiENIA CORNUBIiE. which stands a Httlc hi<^dier than the spot on which this Cromleh is erected."^ The following measurements of the stones which compose this Cromlech were taken on the 17th of February, 1872, and very closely accord with those obtained by the scale which accompanies the plan at page 53- feet ft. 2>t. A m. Covering Stone Length.. i8, breadth . ■ 9 6, thickness . I Stone on South side . . height . . • 9 0, breadth . . . II ,, ,, West side • . 4 0, 3 ,, ,, East side . . . 8 0, 3 II Two stones on North side (larger) 7 0, 7 (smaller) 3 0, 4 Two stones forming 2nd kist (N). 6 10, 10 6 (S). 4 0, 7 The apparent attempt made in this case to form a second Kist-Vaen is very remarkable. If it really be such, it is a unique instance in Cornwall of what is very commonly found in other Cromlech-bearing countries. It reminds us of those of Northern and Western Wales, and of Anglesea especially, where a small Kist-Vaen, side by side with the larger one, seems to be the rule and not the exception. In all instances, however, that the author has observed, that in the latter district, the smaller Cromlech has its own appropriate covering stone, ^ while at Zennor ' Auf. of Cornwall, p. 232, 2nd Edit. "Near this kam is another crom- leh" ('about 200 paces to the N.E. of the first' adds the MS.) "not so large as that here described ; in other respects not materially different." — Ibid. ^ Compare the ground plan of Zennor with that of Knockeen, county of Waterford. See Kudc Stoiit- JMoiiuiiwiils, p. 230. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 55 both were under one and the same roof. At Loch Maria Ker, in Brittany, and elsewhere in the same country, there seem to be examples much more in point. M. Fremenville observes in reference to one of them — "On s'apercoit que I'interieur etait partage en deux chambres par une cloison composee de deux pierres plantees sur champ. Ces separations se re- marquent dans beaucoup d'autres dolmens; plusieurs meme sout divises en trois chambres."^ A drawing of the Cromlech at Loch Maria Ker will be found in Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, Vol. ii., page 281. It may be noticed that there are remains of an- cient hut dwellings at Carne, about a furlong east of the Zennor Cromlech. CHYWOONE CROMLECH. The most perfect and compact Cromlech in Corn- wall is now to be described. It is situated on the high ground that extends in a northerly and westerly direction from the remarkable megalithic fortification of Chywoone or Chuun, in the parish of Morvah. The "Quoit" itself, which, seen from a distance, looks much like a mushroom, is distant just 260 paces from the gateway of the castle; and about the same distance on the other side of it, in the tene- ' Fremenville's Antiquiih de la Bretagne, Morbihan, p. 23. 56 N/ENIA CORNUBIiE. merit of Keigwin, is a barrow containing a deep oblong Kist-Vaen, long since rifled, and now buried in furze. Thinking this monument the most worthy of a careful investigation of all the Cromlechs in the neighbourhood, the author proceeded to explore it in the summer of 187 1, with a view to determine, if possible, the method and means of erection in the case of such structures in general. Chywoone Cromlech. From a Sketch by the Author.^ Sinking a pit by the side of the western stone, it was first of all discovered that the buildinof rested on the solid ground, and not on the surrounding tumulus in which it had been subsequently buried. The Kist, ' There is a dolmen at Moytura, in Ireland, and another at Halskov, in Scandinavia, the drawings of which would both pass for Chywoone Cromlech. NiENIA CORNUBI^. 57 as it seems, was formed in the following manner: — The two upright stones forming the east and west ends of the chamber were the first to be set up, at a distance of about six feet apart ; the breadth of the latter is four feet, and of the former 3 feet 10 inches, while the height of both is as nearly as possible the same, 6 feet 4 inches. Another flat block of granite, 8 feet 4 inches long, was then set up in a slanting position against their northern edges, pre- cisely as one places the third card in building a card box, serving at the same time as a part of the fabric, and as a stay or hold-fast to the sides against which it rests. It was from this side, no doubt, and probably over this slanting stone, that, with the assistance of an embankment and rollers, the cap-stone was raised into its present situation, from which, unlike Humpty Dumpty, in the Nursery Rhyme, not all the adverse combinations of subsequent ages have as yet been able to displace it. This covering stone is a rough slab of hard-grained granite, of a convex shape, and, if the meaning of " vaulted " really enters into the word Cromlech, it would be particularly applicable in this instance. The length across the centre is twelve feet, and the breadth the same, while in thick- ness it averages from fourteen inches to two feet. The height of the interior of the Kist is seven feet ; and a small pit seems to have been sunk in the centre, below the level of the natural soil. It is here that I 58 N^NIA CORNUBI/E. the interment in all probability originally rested, and the chamber was then completed by a fifth stone (7 feet 8 inches long) thrown against the south side, but not reaching sufficiently high to come in contact with the covering stone. The barrow or cairn, which in some places nearly reaches the top of the side stones on the exterior, is thirty-two feet in diameter, and was hedged round by a ring of upright stones. In digging down some of this pile from the sides of the monument, it was discovered that the interstices between the side stones had been care- fully protected by smaller ones, placed in such a manner as to make it impossible for any of the rub- bish of the mound to find its way into the kist. This arrangement will be better understood by referring to the letters A A in the accompanying plan, and is Grounp Plan of Chywuone. N^NIA CORNUBI/E. 59 very suggestive of the whole being once totally buried in the tumulus. Among the heap of stones a small fractured piece of flint was discovered. Its shape, however, does not lead to the supposition that it was ever used as an instrument of any kind. A round cavity on the capstone seems to have been a work of modern times, and was probably the socket of a pole during the survey. There are ruins of ancient hut-circles within the enclosure at Chuun Castle, as also at Bossullo Crellas immediately below. Of the Cornish Cromlechs which remain to be noticed, those at Mulfra and Bosporthennis, in the West, are dismantled ; while that at Goss Moor, near St. Columb, is totally destroyed. The largest and more noteworthy of these is the Mulfra Quoit, situ- ated on the summit of the hill of that name, some four miles north-west of Penzance. MULFRA CROMLECH. This monument consists at present of three granite slabs five feet in height, forming the west, north, and east sides of a kist 6 feet 8 inches long, i.e., from east to west, and four feet wide from north to south. On the southern side, instead of the fourth slab, a stone, which is supposed to have been once 6o N^NIA CORNUBI.E. the covering-stone, rests lengthways and obliquely against the edges of the side stones. This stone, the lower end of which is now fixed in the ground, measured, with " a piece evidently clove or broke off from it," in Borlase's time, 14 feet 3 inches long, by 9 feet 8 inches broad. At that time a stone- barrow, now entirely removed, measuring two feet high, and thirty-seven in diameter, surrounded the monument. There is little doubt that the removal of the southern supporter caused the overthrow of Mulfra Quoit. It might indeed be possible that the cap-stone was never actually raised to the position for which it was intended ; but the fact of a fracture having taken place in it, as well as the angle at which it now stands, which is precisely that it would have assumed had it been overbalanced and slipped from its place, presents no analogy to the case of Lower Lanyon, and confirms the supposition that it is simply a fallen Cromlech. The author of the Land's End District states that, he was informed that the date of its collapse was 1752, during a thunderstorm. He was, however, probably misled by an account pub- lished in the Philosophical Transactions of the year following, in which it is recorded that a " quoit" on Molfra Hill, (meaning the highest stone on a natural pile of rocks, and often so called by the Cornish), had been struck by lightning in that year. Dr. Borlase visited the spot on the 23 rd of October, N.^NIA CORNUBI.E. 6 1 1 749, and at that time the Cromlech was In precisely the same state as at present. He says, " As this Quoit is off from its ancient situation with one edge resting on the ground, I thought it might permit us safely to search the enclosed area." Nothing of im- portance was discovered, and the Doctor only found that a pit had been sunk twenty inches deep in the area of the Kist-Vaen, and " that something which either was originally, or has since turned black, was placed in the bottom of it." In the winter of 187 1, the author caused a low cairn of stones, about thirty feet in diameter, and two feet hiofh, on the northern brow of the hill on which this Cromlech stands, to be dug through. Pieces of charred wood, and a long smooth pebble, the size of a man's finger, was the only product of the ex- ploration. Another barrow lay to the west of this one, but that also appeared to have been previously overhauled. The ruins of hut circles are to be found on the southern slope of the hill. QUOIT NEAR ST. COLUMB. The hamlet of Quoit, in the parish of St. Columb Major, is situated at the foot of the gradual acclivity crowned by the circumvallations of Castle-an-dinas, and derives its name from a Cromlech, which, until a year or two since, occupied the corner of a yard 62 N^NIA CORNUBI^. adjoining the high road. On the side opposite to Castle-an-dinas stretches away the Goss Moor, "a morisch ground," as Leland well called it, " al baren of woodde." The monument was extant in a dis- mantled condition until very lately ; but a few rough spar stones, split up and ready to carry away, was all that remained of it when the author saw the place in July, 1 87 1. Previous to its fall, it had been used as a goat's house ; and, oddly enough, although penned up within it at the time of the collapse, Billy escaped perfectly unharmed. Old Hals mentions this Cromlech in his usual brief and inaccurate manner ; but fortunately, Mr. Whitaker^ has left a much more full and detailed account. From him we learn that it was " formed of five stones, one covering, three supporting, and one buttressinof." The area of the chamber "allowed three or four men to stand upright within it." The side stone on the north was "a spar exactly perpen- dicular, seven feet in height, and 4 feet 6 inches in width at the middle." That opposite to it, on the south side, was " an iron-stone 6 feet 1 1 inches high, and 3 feet 7 inches wide in the middle." The eastern slab w^as also an iron-stone, " 7 feet 6 inches in tall- ness, and 3 feet 3 inches wide at the middle." The coverinof-stone was of the same nature as the two ^ Cathedral of Cornwall^ vol. ii. » p. yd. N/ENIA CORNUBL^. 63 last, and " lies reclining" from the eastern one along the two others, the declivity being " 19 degrees 40 minutes from east to west." " I mention these little circumstances," continues Mr. Whitaker, "to ex- plain clearly a peculiar incident in the construction of the whole ; the northern corner of the back-stone appears to have broken off under the weight of the top-stone, as the latter was laid or was settling upon the former ; and the top stone now touches not the back-stone in that corner at all, resting only on the other, the southern corner. In consequence of the accident, the whole weight nearly of the top-stone was canted off upon the adjoining side-stone on the right or south ; tJiis finding that to press with a force which it was not calculated to bear, began to shrink from its original uprightness, and to lean considerably towards the north; it would have leaned very con- siderably if the eastern edge of it had not lapped over the southern of the back stone, there impinged strongly upon this in its inclination, and been stopped by the resistance which it thus encountered : even with that resistance, it has come to lean no less than 16 degrees 30 minutes to the north, or two feet out of the true perpendicular. The whole building, therefore, was in the most imminent hazard of being soon off its poise, and the supporting stones were likely to be crushed to the ground by the covering stone. To prevent this, with the same skill and 64 N^NIA CORNUBI/E. boldness which could raise such masses upon such supporters ; which could also calculate the duration of a structure so warping ; and even rest secure enough in their calculations to work under the warping struc- ture, a fifth stone was introduced into it, being thrust in behind the side-stone on the north, as a buttress to the northern edge of the back-stone.^ A stone was hastily chosen, tapering upwards in form, but about six feet in tallness, a kind of bastard spar, having two legs, a long and a short one, to it ; the long leg was pitched in the ground, while the short remains above ground useless ; and the body of the stone was then fixed reclining in a sharp angle against the edge of the back-stone, so as to compose a rude kind of powerful arc-boutant to it. Thus buttressed, the back-stone has remained between the supporting and the pressing stones, without any inclination at all to the north ; yet, with a projection to the west, the quarter on which it felt no resistance, of 7 degrees 30 minutes, or one foot from the perpendicular. Thus has the structure stood as firm as if no misfortune had befallen it." At the risk of some tediousness to the reader, this dry, though graphic description of the minutiae of this monument, has been placed before him. In the absence of any drawing or ground plan, it affords ' Compare Trethevy. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 65 all the details they could have furnished, and affords many points of comparison between this and other Cromlechs, both in Cornwall and elsewhere. In its original plan it seems not unlike the Kist-Vaen at Chywoone : the buttress is not an uncommon feature in Cromlechs generally, and has a counterpart in that of Trethevy, described at a previous page. The several kinds of stone, used in the for- mation of this " Quoit," are common to the neigh- bourhood. The Pawton Cromlech, not many miles distant, is composed of a similar sparry stone. In all the other instances, however, ofranite has been the stone of the district, and therefore has been made use of ; while the fact that at Trethevy it was brought from some little distance, seems to afford proof that it was the preferable material, where it was at all within reach. Whether it be owing to a very extensive popula- tion in early times, or to the slow progress of the plough through its rocky and desolate crofts, the parish of Zennor on the northern coast of West Cornwall is a district still particularly fruitful in objects of interest to the Antiquary. One very large Cromlech in this parish has been already noticed, and the author of the " Land's End District" has recorded the existence of another, also " of consider- able size," once standing on the estate of Trewey 66 N^NIA CORNUBI^. on the opposite hill. Mr. Edmonds also mentions a Kist-Vaen, "six or eight feet square," which, as a farmer informed him, occupied the bottom of a hollow in the centre of a barrow called Gundry Cave, one hundred feet in circumference, raised on the top of a natural "Karn" near the same place. This, like the former one, had been de- molished BOSPORTHENNIS CROMLECH. There still remains, however, a fourth Cromlech in Zennor parish, the ruins of which are to be found in a small enclosure near the hamlet of Bospor- thennis. It is situated in a marshy valley, running- down to the sea at Polmear Cove, skirted on the western side by the picturesque granite peaks of Carn Galva. On the slope of this hill, and some four or five hundred yards from the Cromlech, are the ruins of hut circles, strewn in such numbers over the moor, that it is clear they represent the ground plan of a town of considerable size. One of these huts is, perhaps, the best specimen of the beehive type to be found anywhere in England, and in the style of its masonry presents the same megalithic construction which distinguishes the works of the Cromlech-builders. On the cliffs at Bosigran, about half-a-mile distant, are the remains of one of those N.^XIA CORXUBT.^. 67 " cliff castles" so common on the Cornish coasts, and which, doubtless, served in dangerous times as refuges for the persons and effects of the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. Bosporthennis Cromlech stands at present in the centre of a small mound of stones and earth, which once, no doubt, covered the whole structure. Many smaller mounds occur in the same enclosure, but in one of them, lately explored, nothing remarkable was found ; though a farmer asserted that many "cloam"^ pots, and ashes had been taken from barrows on an adjacent hill. The Kist-Vaen in this case is smaller than any of those already noticed, being only five feet in length by three in breadth ; and therefore could scarcely have received a body at full length. The height of the side stones is be- tween four and five feet ; two of them stand in their original position; one is thrown down, and the fourth has been removed. But the principal feature in this Cromlech, when it was discovered a few years since, was, that it had a circular coverinp;- stone, six inches thick, and five feet in diameter, lying in the area described by the supporters. This was at once pro- nounced to be unique. ' "Cloam," a word used by the common people for earthenware. A "cloam buzza," is "an earthenware milk pan" in Cornwall. An eminent phi- lologist, when asked the derivation of the word, at once replied "clay loam." 68 N^NIA CORNUBI^. The fame of the discovery quickly spread. The Local Antiquarianism of the whole neighbourhood was awakened immediately, and savans of all shapes, sexes, and ages, " visited and inspected " the stone. The sphere for conjecture was of course unlimited, and ranged from Arthur's round table, to the circular tombs of modern Bengfal. Two thino-s were clear at all events : there were stone-cutters among the Crom- lech-builders ; and the excellent idea of a circle proved the knowledge of the compass ! But, alas ! the mantle of Edie Ochiltree had fallen this time on a Celt of another family, on a genuine Cornu- Briton ! Edging his way through the crowd which surrounded the monument, until he had reached the front rank, an old man was heard dispelling the fond illusion in the following cruel words : " Now what are 'e all tellin' of? I do mind when uncle Jan, he that was miller down to Polmeor, cum' up 'long to the croft a speer- ing round for a fitty stoan of es mill. And when he had worked 'pon that theere stoan ; says he : I'll be jist gone to knack una bit round like ; so he pitched to work ; but e would'nt sarve es purpose, so theere 'e es still. And, lor bless yer all, a fine passel o' pepple has been heere for to look 'pon un, but what they sees en un es more than I can tell 'e." This was "minding the bigging o't" with a ven- geance, and the antiquaries could only console them- selves in the reflection that the stone must have been N^NIA CORNUBI^. 69 of a rudely circular form to have induced the miller to try his tool upon it at all. When the author saw it in December, 1871, some of the splintered pieces were lying round, and he is led to imagine that the original shape was oblong. Since the above description of Bosporthennis Cromlech was written, the author accompanied the Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S., to the spot, and caused the floor of the structure to be carefully cleared out. Resting on the natural soil, was found a deposit of burnt bones, sortie of them adhering to the frag- ments of a globular vessel. The pottery was of a greenish black colour, not unlike the Upchurch ware, and was half the thickness of the average sepul- chral pottery found in Cornwall. A fractured flint, and two stones of the nature of Jasper were found with the bones. These are now in the Museum of Sir W. Jardine, Bart. CHAMBERED TUMULI. Professor Nillson has divided the sepulchres of Sweden into the dosar or Cromlechs, and the gang- grifter, passage or gallery graves. As the list of the former is now, as far as Cornwall is concerned, com- pleted, the question arises, "are there any of the latter class" ? In the precise sense which the term " passage grave " conveys to a Swedish antiquary, there certainly are not ; that is, there is not one single instance of the long side gallery. But, in the general sense of the word, there are several instances of pas- sage tombs, that is, long chambers buried in tumuli, and roofed in with large flat stones, and in two cases at least provided with a short and narrow means of egress to the side of the mound. Chambered tumuli are common to all parts of the world, from the famous 70 Ni^NIA CORNUBIi^. New Grange, in Ireland, or Maeshow, in Orkney, to the almost similar structures of Asia Minor, and the East. Sometimes they take the form of a contiguous line of Cromlechs like the Grotto d' Else in France ; sometimes their sides are constructed of layers of stone fitted together with more or less pretension to masonic skill. The examples from Scilly and the mainland of Cornwall, which are now to be noticed, may be most fitly compared with others in the British Isles, (espe- cially with one specimen from Dunmore, in Ireland, figured in the Kilkenny Archaeological Society's publication for 1868) ; but it is a fact worthy of re- mark, that in Cornwall as in Denmark, these cham- bers are known by the name of " Giants' Graves." Only two groups of them occur ; one being on the Island of St. Mary's, Scilly, and the other equally near the sea in the parish of Zennor on the main- land. Indeed, their proximity to the sea may render it not improbable, that wherever they are found, both here and elsewhere in the British Isles, they are the work of foreign mariners, perhaps of the marauding Danes themselves ; or, if this may be con- sidered as too modern an origin for them, of a no less piratical race coming, it may be, from the same country and infesting the same coasts as their his- torical successors. Of the Scillonian examples Borlase gives the N^NIA CORNUBI^. *ji following account:^ "The ancient Sepulchres of " this Island (St. Mary's) are either Caves, or, as "they are called by some authors. Barrows. Of "Caves, the Giant's Cave, near Tol's Hill, is the " most remarkable ; the description of this may give " you a just notion of the rest, but that they are " neither so large nor so entire. The mouth of it is " four feet six inches wide, it is thirteen feet eight " inches long, and three feet eight high; we that were " living were forced to creep into it, but it may admit ** Giants when they are dead. It is covered from *' end to end with large flat stones, which shelter the " sheep, and has a tumulus of rubbish on the top " of all. " The Barrows here and in the adjacent Island " are very numerous, and constructed in one manner. " The outer ring is composed of large stones pitch'd "on end, and the heap within consists of smaller " stones, clay, and earth mix'd together ; they have " generally a cavity of stone work in the middle "covered with flat stones, but the Barrows are of " various dimensions, and the cavities, which, being " low and covered with rubble, are scarce apparent " in some, consist of such large materials in others, ' Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, in a letter to Charles Lyttelton, LL. D., by William Borlase. Oxford, 1756, p. 28. 72 N^.NIA CORNUBI^. " that they make the principal figure in the whole " monument. " We pitched upon a hill where there are many " of these Barrows, and, as the common story goes, " Giants were buried, with a design to search them, "and on Wednesday, June the third, having hired " some soldiers, proceeded to open them. ■•V7.-/ )^-^v^-> vVxV-v ^-^^\vJ^ j^/r^v / Fig. 2. Fig. I. Giants' Graves at Scilly. From Draiuiiigs by Dr. Bo7-lase. "In the first (fig. i) we found no bones, nor urns, " but some strong unctuous earth, which smelt cada- " verous. In the middle of this Barrow was a large "cavity full of earth -.^ there was a passage- into it " at the eastern end one foot eight inches wide betwixt " two stones set on end ; the cavity was four feet eight ' The Giants' Chambers of Denmark (Jcettestuer) were filled with earth. See Worsaae, translated by Thorns, p. 87. " In imitation perhaps of the side passages in the graves of Sweden. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 73 " inches wide in the middle, the length of it twenty- " two feet ; it was walled on each side with masonry " and mortar, the walls or sides four feet ten inches " high ; at the western end it had a large flat stone " on its edge which terminated the cavity ; it's length " bore east by north, and it was covered from end to " end with large flat stones, several of which we re- " moved, and others had been carried off before for " building the new Pier. " Forty-two feet distant to the north, we opened " another Barrow (fig. 2.) of the same kind ; the cave " was less in all respects, the length fourteen feet, " bearing north-east by east, the walled sides two feet " high ; where narrowest, one foot eight inches ; in the " middle, four feet wide ; in the floor was a small " round cell dug deeper than the rest. In this we " found some earths of different colours from the " natural one, but nothing decisive. It was covered " with flat stones like the former." The second group of chambered tumuli is situ- ated near the village of Treen or Treryn, in the parish of Zennor. These are three in number, the third lying about half-a-mile to the east of the other two, close to the hamlet of Pennance. Of these barrows, the latter is the largest, and also the most perfect ; one of the others nearly equals it in size, but the third is much smaller. An excellent de- scription of the Pennance chamber, accompanied by 74 N^NIA CORNUBI^. woodcuts from the pencil of Mr. J. T. Blight, will be found in the Gentleman s Magazine for July, 1865. Plan of Pennance Barrow. From a Drmving in the Gentleman^ s Magazine. That gentleman very justly describes the struc- ture as " an intermediate step between the simple rectangular Kist-Vaen of a Cromlech, and the sub- terranean galleries," or underground habitations com- mon to Cornwall, as well as other Celtic countries. The chamber at Pennance measures 9 feet 6 long, by four feet wide, and is 4 feet 4 high. As in the Scilly Barrows, the roof is formed of large slabs of granite, and Mr. Blight has noticed that the "first slab of the roof is lower than the others, the height from the floor to its under surface being 3 feet 6 inches only," and that " it has the appearance of being designed as a lintel" for the entrance, which was therefore probably at that end. The walls of the chamber are formed of neat J N^NIA CORNUBL^. 75 masonry, similar to the hedging work still in use in the neighbourhood. It is covered by a tumulus seventy feet in circumference, built round at its base with large stones, and measuring eight feet in height. The chamber lies N.W. by S.E. One solitary example of a chambered tumulus has still to be noticed. It is situated in a field near the village of Chapel Euny, in the parish of Sancreed, and was fi^t discovered by the author in the month of April, 1863, at the time when he was exploring a subterranean structure about a quarter of a mile dis- tant. I ■^•jZ^^/'i W*^^ Barrow near Chapel Euny. Front View. From a Sketch by the Author. The peculiarity of this tumulus is, that it combines within itself the features of the stone grave, the ring- barrow, the cromlech, and the passage chamber, and ^ See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Nov., 1S68. 76 Ny^NIA CORNUBI^. it seems indeed to supply a connecting link between them all in the chain of the megalithic series. The valley in which it stands is surrounded on all sides by ancient remains, Tredinney, where part of a gold bracelet of the ring-money type was found, and also where a barrow containing an urn has been explored,' lies to the west. More to the north are the circles of Bartinney, mentioned in Borlase's Cornwall ; be- tween these and Brane Castle lie the Chapel Euny huts and cave; while to the east the "Castellum Brenni," or Caer Bran, crowns the summit of a rising ground. It will be observed by referring to the plan p. "]"], that the sepulchral chamber is concealed like that at Pennance in a tumulus of a conical form, the base being encircled and supported by large granite stones set on edge, the highest of which is four feet above the ground. The height of the tumulus is eight feet, and the circumference fifty. The internal dimensions of the chamber are as follows :— Length, six feet. Breadth, from three feet at the entrance, which is fronting the south, to 3 feet 9 inches at the northern and opposite end. Height, 3 feet 6 inches. The sides and end of the chamber are formed of single blocks of granite, resting, not on the natural soil, but on a small artificial elevation of about two ' See the account of this at a subsequent page. N.>ENIA CORNUBI^, n feet in height. They are covered in by two roofing stones, respectively measuring 5 feet 6, by 3 feet 6, and 2 feet 5. A stone at the end of the eastern slab, which is not so high as the others, seems to point to a similar construction in this case to that at Pennance, namely, a depressed entrance to the central chamber. \^.' 10 FEET Ground Plan of Chapel Euny Barrow. Fro7)i a Drawing by Mrs. IV. C. Borlase. When this barrow was opened no one knows, and the farmer assured the author that the only reason he had not carried it away was, that it afforded a con- venient shelter for sheep or pigs. It may fairly be considered as the most perfect of its kind in the West of England. The extreme rarity of authentic instances of extended inhumation in Cornwall will have been fully realised during the perusal of the preceding pages. ^ 78 N^NIA CORNUBI^. The evidence of contracted interments, thoug^h more authentic is equally meager. In many of the Kist- Vaen Cromlechs, indeed, it is more probable that the latter practice was adopted than the former ; but where there is positively nothing to show for either opinion, speculation is worse than useless. Evidence has just been adduced which shows that one at least of the larger Kists contained a burnt interment, (see p. note) and whether there was any reason to suppose that the contracted method, so common, and proved to be so primitive, in the North of England, ever found its way to Cornwall at all, might, until a recent discovery presently to be narrated, have been a point very fairly disputed. Stone graves have, indeed, been found, sometimes occupying the centre of a stone cairn, sometimes stumbled into by the tourist in his rambles over the heath, which are cer- tainly much too contracted ever to have received a body at full length. True it is that, as will be seen at a future page, urns and ashes have been found in some of these, but there are also instances where the author has searched in vain, both in and around them, for any trace of incineration, or even burnt earth or stones. On the downs lying between the Morvah hill barrow, and the Men-an-tol, or famous holed stone, were a large number of these graves, until their granite sides and covers were, a few years since, car- ried away to make some waterfalls in the gardens at i N^NIA CORNUBI.^. 79 Castle Horneck. Dr. Borlase has preserved an account of the accidental discovery of a Kist of this description, in which large human bones were found. ^ As these appear not to have been burnt, there may be an instance here, though a very doubtful one, of the actual disinterment of a contracted body, buried in its entirety. The account is as follows : — ^ "About the year 1716, Matthew Williams, of Maen (near the Land's End), wanting some stones for building, and passing along the lane which leads from Maen to Sennen Church, about midway betwixt the church and the village, the mason with him struck his iron barr on a flatt stone, 6 foot by 7, and finding it to sound hollow, advised Williams to take up that stone as very proper for his service. The stone came up easily, and to their great surprise a square cavity appeared, at the end of which was a stone about two feet long, and a stone about four foot long on each side. In the middle of this cavity was a clay pott or urne full of earth as black as soot, ^ Mr. J. G. Fuller, of Camelford, has recently most kindly supplied the author with the account of what appears to be an undoubted example of con- tracted interment discovered in a barrow at Lesnewth, near Tintagel. A cell, nine inches deep, was found under a pile of stones in the centre of the tumulus, covered by a slab 4 feet 3 long, by 3 feet 3 broad. This contained a skeleton, which must of necessity have been disjointed or contracted, as the bones were proved to be those of an unusually tall man. A legend, told by the crones of the neighbourhood, recorded that a gigantic figure could often be seen on the top of this mound. * Parochial Memoranda, MS. p. 23. k 8o N^NIA CORNUBI^. and round the urne very large human bones scattered irregularly and not placed in their natural order ; several bitts of brass were found, supposed to be part of an helmet buried with the bones, and Williams shewed us the point of a brazen sword found at the same time and place, the piece had the thickness in the middle, and declined thinner towards the edges, as swords generally have, and the reason why the point should endure the violence of time and moisture more than any other part of the sword was likely owing to its being better tempered and hardened than the rest as more used to execution. It was incrusted with the green rust of copper, so that any one might take it for pure copper as the owner did, till on his cutting it at our desire it appeared to be true brass, July 12th, 1742." But however doubtful an instance this may be, of the practice in Cornwall of contracting the corpse, the following details will be sufficient to shew that there is in the west at least one genuine example of the mode of burial so general in the North of England. THE TREVELGUE, OR TREVALGA TUMULI. About a quarter of a mile east of the curious, and partly insulated, entrenchments known as Tre- velgue Cliff Castle, there are situated, on the pro- N.^NIA CORNUBLE. 8 I perty of Lord Churston, two exceedingly fine bar- rows. They occupy not only the highest position on the cliff, but the summit of one of the most com- manding elevations in the district, whence they are clearly distinguishable for many miles round. On the 7th of March, 1872, a party of gentlemen, among whom were Mr. Spence Bate, F.R.S. ; Captain Oliver; Mr. Evans; the Revd. W. I ago, and Mr. R. N. Worth, very kindly accompanied the author, to take advantage of the permission granted him to explore the mounds. The distance between the two is thirty-eight paces, and their northern bases are connected by a low semicircular bank of earth. They point in a direction E.N.E. and W.S.W. The west- ernmost of the two measures 250 feet in circumfer- ence; the greatest axis being from E. to W., in which direction the diameter is 100 feet. Eleven feet repre- sents the height of this mound in the centre. Driven by the weather to the northern and shel- tered side, the workmen began by cutting a trench towards the middle. At a depth of two or three feet from the surface, it became evident that the entire substratum consisted of burnt earth, quite as red and almost as fine as brick dust ; of this there were several hundred cartloads. ^ Observing that the ' A paper on the subject of these tumuli was read to the Society of Anti- quaries on the 2nd of May, 1872. Tlie quantity of liurnl earth is most re- F S2 N^NIA CORNUBI^. colour became more intense on the eastern side, it was determined to follow it in that direction, and before long a pile of stones, many of them brought from the beach, and much blackened by fire, was found to be lying beneath the red earth. This heap was about twelve feet in diameter, and four feet high. On reaching the opposite side of it, the burnt earth was found to be worked out. Under the "cairn," however, lay a large spar, singularly flat for a stone of that nature, which, by the bye, does not occur in situ. It measured lo feet 6 inches long, 5 feet 6 inches broad, and i foot 9 inches thick. The outer edge was only twenty-four feet from the eastern side of the tumulus, and from that direction a pit was accordingly sunk beside it. The stone was then seen to be lying on a level with the surrounding soil of the country. A pit had, however, been sunk under it, into the sides of which, four slate stones set on their edges, and averaging seven or eight inches thick, had been inserted. These formed the sides of a chamber of which the large spar stone was the covering.' Being anxious to ascertain the contents of the tomb, and not likino- to remove markable, both when the reduction caused by the fire from the original quantity, and when the time that must have elapsed during the process of incineration is taken into account. ' Were it not sunk beneath the soil, this chamber might, from its propor- tions, be justly called a Dolmen, or Cromlech of the Kist-Vaen class. N/^iNIA CORNUBI^. 83 either of the side-stones, (upon all four of which the cap-stone rested), the author caused a piece of one of the slates, already fractured, to be removed. An entrance for the body being thus effected, the in- ternal dimensions of the chamber were measured as follows : — ^Length, 6 feet 2 inches ; breadth, 2 feet 6 inches ; height, 2 feet 9 inches. So well were the slabs fitted together that no earth had found its way in. The floor seemed originally to have been paved with slates, but many of these had been by some means or other displaced, and, strange to say, por- tions of a skull were taken up from below instead of above them. Section of the Western Barrow, Trevelgue. From a Drawing by the Author. Along the centre of the grave, which lay N.W. and S.E., was strewn a quantity of brownish mould interspersed with particles of white matter, evidently decayed bone. The skull lay close against the N.W. end ; small portions of it were alone preserved, but these were of an unusual thickness. The bones were unburnt, but in what position the body had been placed it was impossible to determine ; although the subsequent discovery of a contracted interment in a 84 N^NIA CORNUBI/E. similar chamber makes it most probable that such was also the position in this instance. From the fact of unburnt remains being found beneath the burnt stones and earth above men- tioned, it would seem that a fire had been lighted on the roof of the grave subsequently to the burial ; and so great was the quantity of burnt matter, that it is probable that these fires were alight, and the funeral feasts kept up for several weeks, perhaps months to- gether. Amongst the stones which composed the pile was a slate, about one foot in diameter, perforated, and slightly concave, very similar to the granite mills, found near British huts. A small piece of thin Roman, or late Celtic, pottery of the domestic type was found in the debris of the mound, as also several small pebbles and a rough flint chip. The second and eastern barrow was opened on Monday, March nth, 1872. This measured eighty- six feet in diameter, and was thirteen feet high. From the greater acclivity of its sides, it is far the most conspicuous object of the two, and the shape is rather that of the "bell" than the "bowl" barrow; at the summit was a depression of some eighteen inches. The workmen proceeded to sink a shaft twelve feet in diameter from the top to the centre. Immediately under the turf they found a bed of stones to the depth of three feet (a) ; under this, a N-«NIA CORNUBI^. 85 Stratum of hard clay, brought from a neighbouring valley, to the depth of five feet (b) ; under this again a second layer of stone, like the first, three feet deep ; and lastly, under all, an immense slate stone, traversed with spar, and evidently transported thither from the cove below. There was no red earth as in the other mound, but at the depth of five feet from the surface, among the clay, a secondary interment, consisting of a de- posit of burnt bones and ashes, was discovered. These were protected by no covering stone, and were observed to be immediately over the centre of the large flat stone beneath. They were about a quart in all, and among them was a single flint chip.^ 'C Section of Eastern Barrow, Trevelgue. On arriving at the flat stone it was found, like the other, to be on a level with the natural soil (c), and, like that one also, to be the covering of a sepulchral chamber. A pit was accordingly sunk at one end of it, and an entrance effected, not without some diffi- culty, owing to the fact that the covering stone in this instance overlapped the side-stones by several ' The abundance of flints in this neighbourhood is noticed at a subsequent page. 86 Ni€NIA CORNUBI^.. feet. As in the former case, the vault lay N.W. and S.E. In length it measured 5 feet 2 inches ; in breadth 2 feet 10 inches, and in height (including a pavement six inches deep) 2 feet 9 inches. Owing to the depth of the mound, the covering stone could not be entirely laid bare. Its dimensions, however, cannot have been less than nine feet by ten, wath a thickness averaging two feet ; it therefore weighed many tons. On the pavement of the vault lay a skeleton on its left side;' the head being at the N.E. corner, nearly a foot from the end wall. The legs were bent at the knees, and the arms stretched out, so that the hands must have touched the knees, or nearly so. The body had thus been contracted into a space not more than four feet long. Just at the spot where the hands would have been, lay a small perforated axe-hammer, beautifully fashioned out of a granitic stone, containing felspar, quartz, and shorl,- and measuring four inches in length.^ This curious little relic \vas taken out perfect, but the bones on being touched, instantly crumbled away. One of the ' This is the usual position of the. contracted interments in other parts of England. See Bateman's Ten Years' Diggings, Qj'c, &^r. '^ The fact that this stone is found in situ, is suggestive of the native origin of the deceased. 3 A very similar little axe-head is preser\'ed at Penrose. It was found with several others in a field at Venton Vedna, whence it was brought to J. J. Rogers, Esq. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 87 lumbar vertebrae, however, measured two inches in transverse diameter, by i^V inch in thickness. Axe- heads, similar to the one here described, have rarely been found in England;' and in France they are still more uncommon : in Ireland and Scotland, they are more plentiful, and in Germany they are common. ^ Stone Axe-hammer. Trevelgue. In several instances they have accompanied bronze ' Bateman gives a parallel example to this Trevelgue one. See " Ten Years' Diggings," p. 24. See also Nillson, Stone Age, p. 60, edit, by Sir J. Lubbock. Horn ferales, p. 139, I'l. iii. 88 N^.NIA CORNUBI/E. daggers of an anticjue type. In Scotland they are known by the name of Purgatory hammers. ' " Found, as they frequently were," says Dr. Wilson, " within the cist, and beside the mouldering bones of their old Pagan possessors, the simple discoverer could devise no likelier use for them than that they were laid there for their owners to bear with them 'up the trinal steps,' and with them to thunder at the gates of purgatory." The more probable solution of the difficulty, as regards the smaller ones at least, is, that they were ornamental ^ rather than useful ; but w^hether any peculiar ceremony or superstition caused them to be laid beside the dead, it is impossible to say. Sir John Lubbock believes they belong to the ' Bronze Age.' {Prehist. Times, New Edit, p. 91). From the details here given of the exploration of these two graves, it must be at once admitted that they belong to a class of interment, as primitive in character, as they are rare in the district where they occur ; and in concluding the account of them, it may be observed that the connecting link, which their contents have supplied between the ancient inhabi- tants of Danmonia, and their North country con- temporaries, is exceedingly valuable and instructive ' Prehist. Annals. Vol. i., p. 192. ^ The author has been informed that in some savage communities stone celts are carried by the principal men, just as light canes are carried in Eng- land. N.ENIA CORNUBI^. 89 to the Prehistoric Archaeologist. Indeed, there can- not be a shadow of doubt that, if of native oiHgin, they belong to an earlier date than can be fairly assigned to any other interment mentioned in this volume. It is not, however, impossible that they are not of native origin, but are the traces of an intruding people, a party perhaps of the earliest Norsemen, whose galleys sailed forth in quest of ad- venture in the sunny southern clime. This idea is strengthened by two considerations. Firstly, the position of the barrows on the edge of the cliff, which will remind the reader at once of the grave of Beowulf, raised high on Hroness in order that his kindred rovers might behold it, as ' ' Their beak-carved gallics, Out of hazy distance, Float haughtily by." And secondly, the fact that while such interments are almost unique in Cornwall, they are well known to be common both to the Northern parts of Great Britain, and to the whole of Scandinavia.^ Whatever these speculations may be worth, the discovery of a contracted interment, in a megalithic grave, in company with a stone hammer, in Corn- ' For evidences of this the reader is referred to Mr. Bateman's Ten Years' Diggings ; to those researches which Canon Greenwell has already made public, and to the excellent little volume of Worsaae, edited by Thoms. 90 N^ENIA CORNUBI^. wall, is an Archaeological fact well worthy of record. The division of the subject of this essay into two distinct classes of interments, inhumation and crema- tion, now brings the reader to the second of the two. Whether, in point of time, the former or the latter custom claims priority in the annals of the human race is a question for those to decide who have made the origin of civilization their special study. Speaking, however, on the general merits of the question, there certainly seems a degree of refine- ment in the ceremony of incremation, which would scarcely have suggested itself to man in his primitive state; but, on the other hand, the necessity for such a course must have almost immediately forced itself upon the denizens of a sultry or tropical climate, w^here to bury the bodies in shallow graves unburnt would only be to spread pestilence far and near. That the custom of cremation originated in a tropical clime is indeed almost beyond a doubt. In South America I the funeral pile is quite as fully recognised as a national institution among native tribes, as ever it is in India. Britain has therefore ' Dr. Daniel Wilson, Prehistoric Muii, Vol. ii, p. 291, makes the follow- ing curious remark : — " Mummification, cremation, urn-burial, and inhumation were all in use among different tribes and nations of South America, and have left their traces no less unmistakeably on the northern continent." N^NIA CORNUBI^. 9 I received it from the south, but whether brought northward and westward by an intruding- race, or copied from the custom of other countries, at a period not eariier than the contact with Roman civiHzation, it is hard to say. To the latter behef, as will appear in the sequel, the author is more disposed to lean. When the question is asked generally, " Have there been found in the British Isles any interments, which can with some certainty be said to have pre- ceded the practice of cremation," the answer must be that there are ; but when a similar question is put with regard to Cornwall in particular, the answer is much more doubtful. In the North of England the great proportion of primary interments in tumuli have been found to be unburnt bodies; while incinerated remains have been accumulated subsequently round the edges of the mound. But, after all, what does this prove } Not surely that cremation was universally introduced into these islands as a usage absolutely unknown to the builders of the mounds, at any definite period after their construction, or by any distinct race of conquerors ; not, in short, that its appearance marked the commencement of an epoch in our primitive history ; but simply that at the time when the urns and ashes were deposited, that mode of burial had come more into fashion in that particular neighbour- 92 N/ENIA CORNUBL^. hood, among people who recognised the mounds as the burial places of their family or their friends. But even allowing that these contracted inter- ments of the north and east of England belong to a date when cremation was absolutely unknown, the case is otherwise in Cornwall. The instances of contracted interments are so rare, and (with the exception of that at Trevelgue), so ill-authenticated, that nothing can be judged from them ; while several of the long graves seem even to point to Christian times and observances. On the other hand, however, some of the instances of cremation, which will be found in the following pages, are so extremely rude, that none other than a most primitive people could (it will be said), have interred their dead in such a manner. Taking these facts into consideration, the only position which, with regard to Britain generally, it really seems safe to adopt is, that among the earliest inhabitants of whose sepulchral rites there is any distinct trace, the two modes of disposing of the dead (viz., cremation and inhumation) existed side by side, but that cremation finally gained the ascend- ancy which it had always held in some districts, and which it continued to hold down to Christian times. Thus, in the Sepulchral Chamber at I'Ancresse. in Guernsey, Mr. Lukis found examples of contracted inhumation in close proximity to calcined bones, and N.ENIA CORNUBIiE. 93 urns. And, not to go out of England or even Corn- wall for an instance, the larger Kist-Vaen at Lower Lanyon contained an entire carcass in company with an urn. Even if the over-strained theory of primary and secondary interments be brought into requisition to account for this, it can hardly be taken as evidence of the intrusion in the meantime of a different race of men. It is hoped that the difficulties which, owing to the present empty state of the monuments, have beset the earlier parts of this enquiry, will be less felt in the pages which follow. Fire is a great preserva- tive, so much so, indeed, that in some localities it is customary to bury charred wood under the boundary stones of landed property, in order that should any dispute subsequently arise, the presence or absence of this durable matter under the stone might at once settle the question. But the gain which, in this respect, the Antiquary may experience in the preservation of the bones or relics is unfortunately more than counter- balanced by the destruction of the skulls, as by this means he is deprived of the most valuable criterion, though, perhaps also the most perplexing object of study, which has occurred to modern ethnology. To proceed, then, to the rudest and most primi- tive examples which Cornwall affords of the practice of cremation. 94 N^NIA CORNUBI^. THE MENHIRION. No pre-historic monument is so common in Corn- wall as the Menhir, or as it is now called the " Long Stone." The researches made by the author at the foot of more than one of these rude pillars, lead him to conclude, with Sir John Lubbock, that, like the Gallan or Leagann, of Ireland, the Maen-gvvyr, of Wales, and the Hare Stone, of Scotland, they were ** sometimes tombstones, sometimes memorials of important events," and that the period of their erection ranges from very early far down into historic times. Some, slightly more symmetrical than the others, are graced with a simple inscription in plain bold Roman characters, recording the name of an individual, coupled by "filius" with that of his parent, and perhaps a military title. Others, extremely rude and of considerable height and bulk, are simply pitched on end in a shallow cavity sunk in the natural soil, typical in themselves of the rude ages in which they were set up, and of the almost superhuman force used by those who were engaged in the task. That this class of monument was much more fre- quent in Cornwall than at present is evident from the recurrence in the Tithe Apportionments of such names as " Long Stone Croft," " Field," " Downs," &c., indicating localities where no such remains now exist. The more ancient Celtic equi- valent is found in the words Men or Maen, Men- NyENIA CORNUBI^. 95 heniot, Hangman (Hen Maen), Menheer, and Tre- menheere. Speaking of the last instance, Dr. Borlase mentions in his MSS. having seen an upright stone of this description standing on the farm of that name, in the parish of Ludgvan ; and it is curious to notice that the ancient Cornish family, who own the name and estate of Tremenheere, bear for their arms, — ■ Sable, three Doric columns, pale- wise. Argent ; thus showing that when this " canting " coat was assumed, the meaning of the Celtic word was fully compre- hended. Of the monuments of this kind which still re- main, the greater part owe their preservation to the use they are put to, as rubbing stones for cattle. Veneration for them, if it ever existed, has quite died out, or is only retained in some such Post- Reforma- tion absurdity, as that they are persons turned into stone for neelectine the rigfid observance of the Sabbath. In some countries, as their original mean-^ ing was forgotten, superstition afforded them an idolatrous sanctity, and at one in especial at Kerloaz, in Brittany, (forty feet high), Venus is said to be worshipped by " Pagan " votaries of the present day. At Loch Maria Ker in the same country, a spot famous for its cromlech and other megalithic re- mains, a monolith, now prostrate and broken, is said, when erect, to have attained the monstrous altitude of sixty feet. That at Rudston, in Yorkshire, is 96 N^NIA CORNUBI/E. twenty-six feet above the ground, and twelve below. Worsaae says that the " Bautastene," "memorial stones " of Norway range from nine to twenty feet in height ; an average which would correspond very closely to that of the Cornish ones, and indeed of those in the British Isles in general. Dr. Borlase gives' the following account of one at Men- Pern, ^ (in Cornish the " stone of sorrow)," in the parish of Constantine. " About four years since, in the garden adjoining to the house, stood a very tall stone, twenty feet above the ground, and four feet below; it was pyramidal in shape, and made above twenty stone posts for gates clove up by y^ farmer, who gave me the account, September 29th, 1752." Two monoliths, called the Pipers, at Boleit, in Buryan, measure respectively fifteen feet, and 13 feet 6 inches above ground. In the neighbourhood of St. Columb many of these pillar stones may still be seen. Two of the most remarkable are situated on the St. Breock downs, the tallest (13 feet 6 inches in height) on the summit of the beacon hill, and the shorter (eight feet high) on a less elevated slope, some eight or nine hundred ' Parochial Memoranda. MS., p. 58. ^ Perhen is "a purchaser," from pema "to buy;" but Pern is also "Sorrow." Hence, this stone may have been either the "witness" of a con- tract, or a burial place. Often, however, where etymologists puzzle themselves over a word of this kind, the most probable solution of the difficulty is that it is after all nothing more than a proper name. N/ENIA CORNUBL^. 97 yards to the east. Both these stones are spar stones, common to the country, rudely pitched on end in the ground, the largest of the two inclining considerably Monoliths on St. Breock Downs. From a Sketch l>v the Author. to the north. About 150 yards S.W. of the taller stone and upon equally high ground lies a flat stone, also a spar, 9 feet 6 inches long, by six feet broad at its greatest breadth, resting on the ground at its northern edge, and at its southern, diagonally upon a second stone, 7 feet 6 inches long, by 2 feet 6 inches in breadth, and about the same in height above the ground. It has all the appearance of an imperfectly formed Kist-Vaen,' and therefore should perhaps have been inserted at a previous page. A barrow of small stones, from thirty to forty feet in diameter, lies round it, and a farmer mentioned ' This species of monument is sometimes called an "earth-fast Cromlech;" sometimes a "demi-dolmen " — Examples are not uncommon in Brittany, and one at Kerland (Rude Stone Monuments, p. 346^ bears a strong resemblance to the above. 98 N/ENIA CORNUBL-E. the fact that an old man in digging among them had once discovered something curious, but of what nature he could not remember, A small cairn also sur- Kist-Vaen, or "Earth-fast" CroiMlech, St. Breock Beacon. From a Sketch by the Author. rounded the adjacent monolith, while barrow^s are scattered in abundance over the nei^hbourincr downs. Some idea of the St. Breock Monoliths may be formed from the accompanying sketch, ' taken by the author in July, 187 1. Another stone, very similar to these, is situated not many miles distant, at a place known as Music- water. ^ The Nine Maidens (Maiden being doubtless a corruption of Maen) are in this neighbourhood represented, not by a circle as is usually the case, but by nine erect stones, averaging from 1 1 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 6 inches high, forming an ortholith or single line pointing in a direction N.E. and S.W., and placed at various and unequal distances apart. They are situated on low ground, near the right-hand side of the road ' See preceding page. " "Musac" is the Cornish equivalent of the highly unmusical word •'stinking;" Wartha, often changed into "water" is "higher." N.'ENIA CORNUBI.E. 99 leading from St. Columb to Wadebridge. In the same line with these pillars, to the N.E. stands a single rude Menhir. 7 feet 6 inches above ground, and once apparently surrounded by a small circle of stones on edge. This goes by the name of the " Old Man," which, to the believers in the theory of the sun worship, will sound strangely like " Houl Maen" or the "Sun Stone." Indeed, it seems very pro- bable that this stone formed part of the same monu- ment as the Nine Maidens, and that, like many of the circles, a religious, rather than a sepulchral origin, should be assigned it.' A "long-stone" near Mount Charles, St. Austell, is II feet 6 inches high; another on the "Long-stone Down," in Sithney, measures eleven feet; and Canon Rogers mentions in a MS. note that "on Molfra Hill, a little below the Cromlech, is a stone fifteen feet long, which seems to have been formerly erect." Wishing to put beyond dispute the origin and purpose of some few at least of these monoliths, and to ascertain if any were indeed sepulchral, the author recently obtained the requisite permission, and examined the ground round some half dozen of them, which lay conveniently within his reach. From these investigations he obtained the following results : The first to be explored was one situated in a ' If Dr. Ferguson makes this monument one of his "acies," no doubt the "Old Man" would be the drill serjeant of the regiment. lOO N.€NIA CORNUBL^. valley close to the farm house of Priddcn or Pcnryn, in the parish of Buryan, the property of D. P. Le Grice, Esq., of Trereife, who kindly gave permission for the investigation to take place. This monolith Pridden Stone. From a Drawing by the Author. Stands 1 1 feet 6 inches above the level of the ground, and is only six inches below the surface. It is an extremely rude unhewn mass of granite, tapering slightly towards the top, but nearly twenty feet in girth in the centre. The workman began by re- moving a hedge which abutted on the southern side, and which it was considered might be the remains of a cairn heaped up against the stone. This impression was confirmed, when, on reaching the natural level of N^NIA CORNUBI^. lOI the ground, and removing a thin stone set on its edge against the foot of the pillar, a deposit of splinters of human bone was exposed to view. It was covered by a flat stone only one foot in diameter. Charred wood and a layer of burnt brownish mould accompanied the bones, which, in all, would scarcely have filled a pint and a half measure. No Kist- Vaen had been formed, but the deposit had been placed on the side of a shallow pit, dug to receive the lower end of the " Long Stone," from which it was distant about one foot. The covering stone rested partly on the natural soil, and partly on two small stones which prevented it from crushing the bones. In this instance, the bones were more com- pletely splintered than in any subsequent discovery, the average length of them being less than an inch, and the amount of burning they received must con- sequently have been considerable. This discovery was made on the iith of February, 1871. About half-a-mile to the westward of this stone stands another, thirteen and a half feet in height ; three feet being buried in the ground. It stands on the summit of a hill on the farm of Trelew. On the 7th of March a pit was sunk on the north side of this stone, which is quite as rude as the last, but much heavier at the upper end than the lower, a circumstance which causes it to lean towards the south- ward. Three feet below the surface of the field (for there was no mound), lay a deposit of splintered I02 N.F.NIA CORXUBfyE. bones similar in quantity and appearance to that found at Pridden. The sphnters in this case were so strongly cemented together that the workman declared they were set in lime. Among them were found charred wood, a small chip of flint subjected to great heat, and a piece of very rudely baked clay, of a reddish colour, two inches in diameter, and shaped like a stopper or plug. The deposit was three feet distant from the base of the pillar ; a good deal of fine clay surrounded the bones, but they were protected by no side or covering stone, and, as in the previous instance, had been placed in the side of the pit exca- vated to receive the monolith, A precisely similar discovery, namely, that of bone chips and ashes, was made some years since by a labourer while digging " for treasure," by the side of a third rude menhir, about a mile distant from that at Trelew. It is a pyramidal stone, lo feet 9 inches in height, standing on the estate of Trenuggo, on the right-hand side of the road leading from Pen- zance to the Land's End, and just inside the hedge. According to the information of the labourer, the pillar was sunk four feet in the ground. Nothing remarkable was found with the bones. The most important discovery, however, of incin- erated remains at the foot of an obelisk, was made in the year 1840, by the tenant at Tresvenneck, in the parish of Paul. The monument in this case is placed N.-ENIA CORNUBL'E. ic- on the summit of elevated ground, about a mile and a half to the south-east of the Trenuggo Stone, while the estate on which it is situated joins that of Trig- ganeris, where the two menhirs with a grave between them, previously described, are situated. The height of the Tresvenneck pillar, a sketch of which is here Tresvenneck Pillar. From a Sketch by the Author. inserted, is 1 1 feet 6 inches above ground, and about four feet below. The stone itself, which, like the others, is granite, seems to have been selected with considerable care. It presents a much more sym- metrical appearance than any of those just described, I04 N/ENIA CORNUBI.^. being- perfectly uprii^ht, and tolerably well squared at the angles, though seemingly unhewn. The farmer, while engaged in turning up that portion of his field which, from its proximity to the pillar, the plough could not reach, struck his tool against a flat block of stone, eighteen inches square, lying in a horizontal position, at the distance of about two feet from the eastern side of the pillar. This stone being turned up, a pit was discovered, cut out of the solid clay soil, and unprotected by side stones or walling of any description. In the centre of this pit stood an urn, the largest Tresvenxeck Urn, Fro VI a Photograph. Large Urn Height ■. . 19 2-5ths inches. Width at mouth . . 14 3-ioths ,, Small ,, Height 5* ,, Width at mouth ..4 ,, N.^NIA CORNUBLE. IO5 perfect one yet found in Cornwall, and belonging to a type of sepulchral vessels which must be noticed more fully at a subsequent page. It stood with the mouth upwards, and contained the larger fragments of the calcined bones of a human body, among which was a molar tooth ; while the smaller and more splintered pieces, together with wood ashes, were scattered throughout the rest of the pit. The vessel is formed of yellowish clay, obtainable in the vicinity ; it is hand-made, and the exterior scarcely sufficiently baked. The interior on the contrary is hard and blackened by fire, the ashes having been doubtless swept into it, while still red hot, and left to smoulder within. The handles, (a common feature in Cornish urns,) are in this instance remarkably large, and neatly put on ; but one, as will be seen, differs from the other in shape and size. The small urn, which accompanies the large one in the above cut, was found i8 inches to the N.E. of it. It was also standing on its base, without a covering stone or protection of any sort. The mouth is in consequence much broken. It was filled with snuff-coloured powder. The Penzance Natural His- tory and Antiquarian Society, among their many obligations to that gentleman, owe a special debt of gratitude to J. N. R. Millet, Esq., of Bosaverne, for the preservation of this interesting relic ; and no less so to those ladies who took infinite pains to restore I06 N^ENIA CORNUBL-E. the urn to its oriL(inal form, from the countless frag- ments into which it had been broken. These four well authenticated discoveries will be sufficient to show the sepulchral character of some at least of the Western " Menhirion." Some, however, belong to a different class, and are either memorial stones " set up for a witness " of some great event or notable compact, or have borne their part in forming one of those inexplicable combinations of standing stones, miniature Aburys and Carnacs, the object and meaning of which still lies as deeply buried as ever under the Stygian darkness of ages out of number. Three rude pillars which seem to belong to this latter class were explored by the author on the i ith of March, 1871. All three lay within a few hundred paces of the stone circle of Rosemoddress, in the parish of Buryan, a district most fruitful in pre-historic remains,^ The two taller ones, called the Pipers, and measuring respectfully 15 feet and 13 feet 6 inches in height,- are perhaps the finest monuments of the kind in Cornwall. They are eighty-five yards apart, and point in a direction N.E. and S.W. If this line were continued for 260 yards beyond the shorter pillar towards the S.W., it would be found, after crossing the brow of a hill, to bisect the circle of nineteen For a plan of these remains see subsequent page. Under the turf they are respectively 5 feet, and i| foot. N^NIA CORNURI.'E. IO7 Stones, called the Nine Maidens. Three or four hundred yards due west of this same circle stands the third pillar, lo feet 6 above the ground, and six inches below. In appearance it is much more slim and tapering than " the Pipers." It stands in a hedge adjoining the " Goon Rith " or Red Downs, a name which has been thought to lend some proba- bility to the tradition of the place, that a great battle was once fought there. On digging carefully round each of these stones nothing remarkable was discovered, and as menhirs are frequently found in other parts of the British Isles in close proximity to stone circles,' the author concludes that they are in this case, as in others, some integral part of the monument, the object of which is unknown. THE TREGIFFIAN BARROW. Being unsuccessful in his exploration of the men- hirs at Rosemoddress, and having the best part of the day before him, the author directed the work- man to a barrow, seemingly less dilapidated than others in the neighbourhood, which stood by the side of the road, some 250 yards to the westward of the ' Not to go out of Coniwall for instances : there are two pillars (nine feet apart) some 120 feet from the three stone circles, called the Hiulcrs, near Lis- keard ; a rude pillar once stood, if it is not standing now, near the circle of Boscawen Un, in the parish of Buryan. I08 N.-ENTA CORNUBI.^.. Stone circle, and 70 or 80 south of the last mentioned pillar. Here he was fortunate enough to discover a very interesting example of early incinerated inter- ment ; which, from the fact that a prostrate menhir lay within a few feet of it, may most properly be inserted in this place. The turf from the top of the mound being re- moved, it became quite evident that it had been overhauled before ; stones had been taken from it to make the surrounding hedges, and their place sup- plied by a pile of mud and refuse from the road. Owing to this, the diameter of the barrow could not be ascertained, although, in several places, stones on edge seemed to have formed a rude ring round it. Two feet from the western edee the workman came to a large stone, lying in an inclined position, nine feet in diameter, and eighteen inches thick. The upper and under faces of this stone were flat, and it rested at the south and west sides upon two upright stones, a cavity being thus formed beneath it some two or three feet in depth. The other end rested on the ground, having apparently been knocked off its supporters by a "Long Stone" (eleven feet in length) which had fallen across it. This stone was very similar in character to that in the neiehbourino- hedee at Goon Rith, and, judging from its present position, the author believes that it once stood upright on the summit of the tumulus, side by side with the Kist- N.EXIA CORNUBI.E. IO9 Vaen. A monument would thus have been con- structed precisely similar to those raised by the Khasias in India, of which Dr. Hooker has recently presented the Archaeological world with such capital illustrations. Instances of monoliths in close proxi- mity to, or even standing on tumuli are by no means uncommon — -one in especial of considerable height, now covered with Christian devices, crowns a large tumulus in the neighbourhood of Carnac. But to return to the exploration. On the upper face of the covering stone, and probably disturbed before, though never by Archaeologists, lay a great quantity of ashes and splintered bones. Among these was found a flint flake, two and a half inches long, excessively sharp, and conveniently formed for handling as a cutting tool. Though of the very rudest, and what would be called the most primitive type of " flint chip," the edges of this instrument Flint Flake from Barrow near Rosemoddress. seem to bear the unmistakeable marks of use ; small scratches or chippings being visible, which are appar- ently not natural to the stone. ^ ' So very artificial did these markings at first sight appear, that in revi- r lO N.^iNIA CORNUBI/E. On digij^ing- under the coverincr stone, a very con- siderable quantity of bone splinters, mingled with ashes, was brought to light ; and under a smaller flat stone, placed beneath the southern end of the large one, was found an entirely separate, and more care- fully arranged deposit. The small pit in which it was placed was lined with shell sand peculiar to the Cove of Porthcurnow (not the nearest cove), some three or four miles distant, and the bone chips and ashes it contained would more than have filled a quart measure. More than one body was therefore in all probability interred in this barrow. Several pebbles were found in the course of the work, and a round flint, but no trace of pottery or metal. This is rather remarkable in connection with the circum- stance that pottery similar to that found with the bronze daggers, has been taken from a barrow quite as near as this one to the circle of Rosemoddress. sing his MS., the author has allowed the above sentence to stand. A commu- nication, however, kindly sent him by Nicholas Whitley, Esq., F.M.S., the author of several most valuable papers on "flint flakes" and the "glacial action," to whom he referred this specimen, seems to set the matter at rest. That gentleman observes "I have examined under a lens the flint flake, and compared it with several shattered flints and ground celts. From the position in which it was found, I should infer that it had been placed there by man. The markings on one of its sides appear to me to be the result of fracture and not made by grinding or use. I find very similar lines on accidentally broken flints, radiating in the same manner from the bulb, and having a shattered look. To illustrate this, I send you a flake crushed out by Blake's Stone- breaker. I obsei-ve that the lines on both flints are on the bulb side of the flakes. The lines which result from grinding have a parallelism and a grooved appearance unlike those on your flint." N^NIA CORNUBLE. I I I Before proceeding to relate other instances, where cremation in its simplest form (that is, without pot- tery or metal) has been discovered by barrow diggers, it may be as well to make a short classification of the various kinds of tumuli which are to be met with in Cornwall. " The raising of mounds of earth or stone, over the remains of the dead, is a practice," says Mr. Akerman, " which may be traced in all countries to the remotest times." Dr. Wilson adds, that " their origin is to be sought for in the little heap of earth displaced by interment, which still to thousands suf- fices as the most touching memorial of the dead," It will be superfluous therefore to call to mind the individual instances of this practice which history supplies, or to dwell on the memorials which the conjugal affection of Semiramis, or the vast riches of Croesus, the friendship of Alexander, or the stern obedience of Joshua to the will of the Deity, raised to the honour or dishonour of the noted dead. From times so remote one might, indeed, pass to European examples of much more recent date, and relate how Sigurd Ring, in the 8th century, buried his van- quished uncle in a tumulus, after the battle of Braa- valla, or how Queen Thyra and King Gorm in the middle of the loth century were interred in a similar manner at Jellinge. Coming nearer home, Mr. Petrie might be quoted for the record of many an ancient 112 N/ENIA CORNUBI/E. Irish chieftain's burial mound ; and lastly, to make the chain perfect down to the present day, one might turn to the American Indians for a similarity in their customs of mound-building, which, when compared with those of ancient Europe, is certainly most re- markable. Suffice it, for the present, to say, that as far as Cornwall is concerned, not a single record or available tradition, as to the origin of these mounds, has been handed down to us ; although by hundreds they lie scattered through the length and breadth of the country ; on the summit of almost every hill, along the edofes of the cliffs ; wherever, in short, a barren tract of country has afforded them protection from the plough. In the West the word "burrow" (the more correct pronunciation of the usual term barrow,) is applied as well to the refuse heap from the mine, as to the sepulchral mound of more ancient date. In this latter sense it has taken the place of the Celtic "cruc," or vulgarly " creeg," the genuine Cornish word for a hillock or mound, still found among others in the following local names : " Creegcarrow" — Deer's barrow; " Creeglase" — Green barrow; "Cruk heyth" — Barrow-heath ; Crig-an-bargus — " Kite's barrow ;" and "Creggo" (the plural) " The Barrows." The later Saxon word occurs in Hensburrow, Four- Burrow, &c. The ancient burrows are sometimes piles of earth, N/ENIA CORNUBLE. II3 sometimes accumulations of stones. In the latter case they are termed " cairns," or by the Cornish "Karns."' Those tumuli, on the other hand, which are composed of earth and stones indiscriminately thrown together, are seldom or never found to be sepulchral in their origin, but have been raised for a beacon, or occasionally for a hermitage ^ to be perched on their summits. It must be men- tioned, however, that in the centre of an earthen barrow, a "cairn" of loose stones^ is very fre- quently found. In one instance where this arrange- ment had taken place, (a most promising barrow on the Carnecledgy Downs near the Nine Maidens, St. Columb,) no interment could be discovered, though the mound was clearly undisturbed by pre- vious explorers. In spite of Dr. Wilson's opinion to the contrary, as regards Scotland, it may be laid down as a general rule in the case of Cornish " burrows," that those formed of earth belong to districts where stone is not readily obtained, while the " cairns" are the natural product of a stony district. Thus, to the St. Columb, ' The name Karn, however, belongs to natural as well as to artificial piles of rock and stones, and is frequently applied to the rude formations of granite which protrude through the moors. ^ Chapel Karn Brea, in St. Just. 3 In many parts of England this arrangement is the rule and not the ex- ception. Near Winchester, the author discovered burnt bones, and a bone pin under a pile of flints in the centre of an earthen barrow. H 114 NiENIA CORNUBI^. St. Austell, and Lizard districts the earthen barrows belong; while "cairns" are invariably found on the granite hills of Dartmoor ; at Sharpy Tor, near Lis- keard; as well as throughout the entire range of West Cornwall. By far the greater number of Cornish tumuli, whether cairns, or barrows of earth, were surrounded by circles of stones set on their edge, not peristaliths or rings of rude pillars apart from the mound, like that at New Grange, but circular base-works or walling ; the stones being generally contiguous, and serving both to confine the earth or stones within their proper area, and to support the superstructure of the tumulus. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, In his valuable essay on the " British Remains on Dartmoor," states that he discovered at Hayter Tor " concentric-circle-cairns," that is, cairns not only surrounded at the base, but also crowned with standino- stones. The extreme desolation of the tract of country in which these re- mains occur has no doubt preserved in their Integrity many a type of monument, which, in more cultivated Cornwall, has lost its characteristic traces ; and It Is therefore highly probable that the antiquary might once have added this latter class to his list of West Country tumuli. This rinof of stones round the "cairn" formed, as will be presently seen, one of the principal features, N.^NIA CORNUBL-E. I I 5 and perhaps the first step in the ceremony of the interment. A Danish Antiquary has attributed those tumuli encircled by great stones to a more primitive age than those not so surrounded. ^ This may be true as far as regards his own country; but in Cornwall, in those few instances where no such circle seems to have existed, interments have been found of a very primi- tive character, while, on the other hand, in the case of encircled barrows and cairns, discoveries have been made of comparatively recent date. No such dis- tinction is therefore possible, and, indeed, in many cases where no circle appears at first sight, a small amount of digging round the edge of the mound will show that it is really there, and only concealed by an inch or two of turf. The sepulchral mounds of Cornwall, whether of earth or stones, ^ range from fifteen to one hundred feet in diameter, and from two to twenty-five feet in height. As it has been usual to classify them accord- ing to their form, the reader may learn that he will find in Cornwall — first, the Cone-shaped barrow ; ' Worsaae. Prim: Ant: of Denmark. Translated by Thorns, p. 93. "The tombs of the stone-period are peculiarly distinguished by their important circles of stones. ***** Those of the bronze-period, on the other hand, have no circles of massive stones." ^ Some cairns are quite as large as the earth-barrows ; one on Caradon hill measures even now seventy feet in diameter. Il6 N.'ENIA CCJRNUHI.Ti. second, the Bowl-barrow ; third, the Bell-barrow ; fourth, the Flat-barrow ; and fifth, the Ring-barrow ; a class which may perhaps, with equal propriety, be called the Unfinished barrow. " Long barrows," " Druid barrows," " Egg bar- rows," " Twin barrows," {i.e., two surrounded by the same trench,) are unknown. I, The Cone-shaped Barroiv. It is probable that all the circular tumuli which had any pretension to height were originally finished, or intended to be finished, by a peak or cone at the top. The action of rain upon this peak of newly formed ground, and doubtless, in many cases, the hollow nature of the centre of the mound itself, caused most invariably a sinkage to take place resulting in a circular depres- sion of the summit. From the form thus acquired the name of Bowl-barrow has been given, as we shall presently see, to these mounds ; but there still remain examples where, owing to circumstances, such as the existence of a Kist-Vaen near the summit,^ such a sinkage could not have taken place ; and it is to such as these that the term Cone-shaped barrow is applied. As an example of this form of struc- ture, the reader is here presented with a sketch of the Northern and perfect side of the chambered ' Dr. Borlase, in the Ant. of CoriitiHill, gives an engi-aving of a barrow with a Kist-Vaen at the top. When perfect, this was, doubtless, a cone- barrow. N^NIA CORNUBL^. 117 tumulus near Chapel Euny, previously described at page 56. Northern View of the Chapel Euny Barrow. From a Sketch by the Author-. The elevation of the central chamber, and the small space intervening between the stones that form it, and the ring of upright blocks which support the sides of the mound, render, in this case, the conoid shape unavoidable ; and, so thin is the coating of rubble which at present covers the roofing stone, that it is remarkable that neither the action of rain nor the hands of the curious have entirely denuded the chamber long ere this, and reduced it to the same naked state in which nine-tenths of the Cromlechs of the Kist-Vaen type appear. It has been already observed that the greater portion, if not all, of the monuments of this type were once enclosed in tumuli. Where, however, traces of such mounds still remain, as in the instance at Chapel Euu)-, Il8 NiENIA C0RNUBI7E. it does not seem that the area enclosed was of greater extent than barely to admit of the central chamber being thinly covered in by a mound of a sharp conoid shape. If, then, it was by such scanty mounds, with sides nearly perpendicular, that the Cromlechs of the Kist-Vaen type were originally covered, it is not hard to understand how the huge stone chamber quickly came to shake off its inade- quate envelope, and emerge once more into the light of day. In one or two instances the author has observed an attempt to preserve the conoid shape of the stone cairn by covering it with layers of stones on their flat, in such a manner as that each layer should overlap the one below it, in the manner of a Beehive Hut. These instances are rare, and will be adverted to at a future page. 2. The Bowl Barrow. This is by far the most usual type of burial mound in the west, as indeed it is in other districts. The name has been given from its resemblance to an inverted basin or bowl, the likeness rendered more complete by the slight concavity (previously accounted for) in its summit, corresponding to that caused by the rim round the bottom of the basin. In cairns and earth-barrows this depression is alike observable, though more so in the latter than the former. 3. The Bell Barrow is a more lofty variety of N.^NIA CORNUBI^. I I9 the Bowl Barrow. The name is also given in respect of its shape, a gradual acclivity at the base becoming steeper as it approaches the summit, and giving it the form of a Bell. This form is, perhaps, the natural result of its more lofty proportions, the materials for the upper part having been carried over the new made ground which formed the base. A fine example of a Bell-shaped barrow stands on the summit of the cliff at Trevalga, near Newquay, but the form is decidedly very uncommon in Cornwall.^ A slight depression is generally found at the top. No cairns of this shape are known. 4. The Flat Barrow is a second variety of the Bowl Barrow, and might quite as appropriately be compared to an inverted saucer. It is sometimes scarcely two feet in height, though its diameter is often considerable. It frequently accompanies the higher Bowl Barrows in the lines of tumuli which stretch across the downs, and in more than one in- stance is found in close proximity to the Cromlech. The Flat Barrow does not appear to be so necessarily surrounded with a ring of stones, as is the higher Bowl Barrow. Cairns in this form are common. Two barrows, a large and small one, are not un- frequently placed close together. This arrangement ' About a mile and a half to the East of Bedruthan Steps, along the coast, is a depressed example of a Bell Barrow, surrounded by a slight circum- vallation. I20 NACNIA CORNUBI^. is SO common in Orkney, that Dr. Wilson believes they " have more than an accidental relation to each other." It may be here mentioned that from the external form of the Cornish barrow, it is at present impos- sible to judge of the nature of its contents ; though from future investigations the author does not despair of being, to some extent, able to do so. 5. The Ring Barroiv. Before taking into consi- deration that class of remains to which this term has been applied, it may be as well to say a few words on the subject of Stone Circles in general. As in the case of the Cromlechs, so in that of the Circles, two pretty well defined varieties are notice- able. I. Where the stones stand upright on their end ; are placed at some distance from each other ; and enclose only a level piece of ground. 2. Where the stones are set on edge, (rarely on end) ; are con- tiguous to each other ; and enclose either a large rock, a few small mounds, or at all events an area of uneven ground. These latter are of a smaller size than those of the first class, are undoubtedly sepulchral, and are what will here be termed the " Rine" or " Unfinished Barrows." Dr. Borlase has added a third class of circle very similar in con- struction to these last ; but as they are evidently the bases of huts or pens, they do not belong to the present subject. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 121 I. The district chosen for the subject of these pages presents us with numerous instances of Circles 'THROWN DOWN ' THROWI'J DOWM ITHROWM DOWN Tregaseal Circle, St. Just. From a Drawing by Mr. Barnicoat. of erect stones. Four distinct monuments of this kind are still to be found within a circuit of eight 122 N^.NIA C0RNUBI7E. miles in the Hundred of Penwith. They are situ- ated respectively at Boskednan, in Gulval parish ; at Tregaseal, in St. Just; and at Rosemoddress and Boscawen-un, in Buryan. In all these cases, as Borlase observes, the number of standing- stones was nineteen, while the diameter ranges from sixty- eight to seventy-five feet. Of "The Hurlers," (three circles in a line close to Railway Village, near Lis- keard,) the centre one has a diameter of 130 feet, while the two others are as nearly as possible equal, their diameters being each 104 feet. The spaces intervening between the centre circle, and that on either side of it, are from seventy to eighty feet. The respective numbers of stones in each ring, as given by Borlase, are sixteen, seventeen, and twelve. Sir John Maclean, in his valuable work on the Deanery of Trigg Minor, mentions two Circles in the parish of Blisland. One of these, situated on a moor, near Carbilly, consists of nine stones, five upright and four prostrate. It is called the " Trippet Stones," and is 108 feet in diameter. The second circle, known in the reign of Elizabeth as the " Stripple Stones," "has the appearance of having been surrounded by a trench, with an entrance on the east side." Five stones are standing, and eight are prostrate, the diameter is 152 feet, and in the centre is a prostrate stone twelve feet long. This last fact is curious in N^NIA CORNUBI^. I 23 connection with the Boscawen-iin circle, near the centre of which a similar pillar is still standing. The remarkable circles once to be seen opposite the Manor House, at Botallack, in St. Just, have been so frequently figured and described,^ that they need no further comment at present. Their sepul- chral origin, though frequently conjectured, has never been proved; and therefore, until further evidence is forthcoming, it would be superfluous to insert draw- ings of them in an essay devoted to funereal rites and remains. Wherever circles of stones erect, such as those just described, are to be found, it seems clear that they owe their origin to the same design which at- tained its perfection in Abury, and finally in Stone- henge. If the former of these monuments may be called the Westminster Abbey of the circle builders, the latter is no less truly their Sir Christopher Wren's St. Paul's. Whether the Cornish circles are compared with Abury or Stanton Drew, Broidgar or Callernish, the antiquary will find the same primitive design which has led eminent architects to recognize " the ' Drawings or notices of this really mysterious monument, all copied from Dr. Borlase's plan, will be found in Btdlcr's History of St. jfitst, in Higgins' Celtic Druids, in Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments (where they are erro- neously named Boscawen circles), &c., &c., &c. A few of the old people, living near, can remember an upright stone or two standing in the croft where they were, but beyond this there is no trace of them whatever. 124 N/ENIA CO R. XL' 1'. IT.. circular" as one of the tlirce prevailing characteristics by which to distinguish the so-called Di^iiidical re- mains, whether in the Dekhan of India, or on the barren hills of northern Europe. And not only this, but he will not infrequently be astonished to dis- cover some small matter of detail, which seems to bind together by an inseparable link the manners and customs of peoples separated by rivers and moun- tains, nay even by the ocean itself. The only ques- tion now before him, and which he has, if possible, to decide, is how far the British circles, and the Cornish ones especially, can be regarded as Sepulchral in their origin or use. From the great number of barrows, (as for in- stance, at Stonehenge), which seem invariably to have been congregated round these monuments, it has been forcibly argued that, if not in themselves sepulchral, they were at least centres of deep and superstitious veneration among the inhabitants of the neighbour- hood. If those authors who, from Dr. Stukeley to Sir John Lubbock, have considered Stonehenge (and by inference other remains of the like character) as temples, are right in their conjecture, it may fairly be supposed that the same reverential custom which induces Christians to lay those near and dear to them in and around the Church of their God, ma)- have had its counterpart in the no less affectionate natures of a ruder age — an age. perhaps, when the new- f N.€NIA CORNUBLE. 1 25 born instinct of religion prompted a superstitious people to approach, for the performance of their most awful rite, as near as possible to holy ground. But whatever may have been the origin of the circle of standing stones, history and tradition seem to point rather to a civil than a religious use of them. Thus Homer' singfs : — " Kvpui^sg VapoL Xaov spy]Tuov. 01 oe yspovrif E'lar I'm ^B(XToi7i ?\idoig^ lepu evi /.'I'/.'Xa). and to come to more recent times, and to Northern Europe, there is still extant at Solafordna,- in Nor- way, a place of public meeting composed of twenty- four stones erect placed in a circle, and each of them connected with a central stone by a line of smaller ones. As recently as 1349 a court was held "apud stantes lapides de Rane en le Garniach," and thirty years later the son of Robert II, of Scotland, held his court " apud le standard stanys de la Rathe de Kyngucy Estir."^ Sir John Lubbock, after quoting these latter instances, says : " This comparatively recent use of the stone circles does not enable us to form any opinion as to the purpose for which they were originally intended." Of the Boscawen-un Circle, in Cornwall, there is a curious notice con- • //iad. lib. 18, 503. * Waring' s Monuments, dr'c., of Remote Ages, pi. 35. 3 Pre/list. Man. p. 1 17. 126 N^iNIA COKNUBI^, Ij^ tained in a Welsh triad, the authenticity of which is perhaps greatly supported by this very fact. It is as follows : — " The three Gorsedds of Poetry in the Island of Britain : the Gorsedd of Beiscawen, in Danmonia, the Gorsedd of Salisbury, in England, and the Gorsedd of Bryn Gwyddon, in Wales." From these and many other sources it may be taken for granted that ancient stone circles, whatever they were, have been found to be very convenient spots for public assemblies or private rencontres, from the first dawn of history, down to the luckless meeting of Minna and her pirate lover among the night- shadowed stones of Broidgar. Those who think they trace the origin of these monuments to the necessity for providing a suffi- ciently defined area for the popular assembly, would doubtless account for the traces of mortality which lie scattered around them by supposing that the leaders and elders of the council naturally chose for their burial place the scene of their wisdom and power, where after death they might fairly expect their unwritten virtues to be longest held in remem- brance. ^ » It is worth remarking in support of this idea, that where there was no central pillar, as at Boscawen and the Stripple Stones, there seems to have generally been one stone in the circle, considerably higher than the others, at which the chieftain or principal speaker may have taken his stand. This is particularly noticeable at the Boskednan and Tregaseal circles in West Penwith. N.^NIA CORNUBLE. I 27 But whether their origin is sought in the dictates of poHcy, or religion, \}i\€\x purely sepulchral purpose does not seem sufficiently substantiated either by tradition, or investigation. That interments have not unfrequently been found within their precincts is simply, as was said before, evidence of the veneration in which they were held, so that the discovery of an urn at the foot of any of the pillars, may only mark the place in the assembly occupied by the deceased during life. Dr. Wilson,' in especial, records the fact that close at the foot of one of the monoliths of a circle on the hill of Tuack, in Aberdeenshire, a sepulchral urn was found, twelve inches high, in the usual in- verted position. 2 Traces of sepulture have been often found within the areas of Irish circles ; one instance alone has, as far as the author can learn, occurred in Cornwall. Mr. Pedlar mentions that in the year 1861 "an attempt was made to set up the fallen stones" of a circle of stones-erect at Duloe \^ ' Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, vol. i, p. 417. ^ At Crichie, also in Scotland, a funereal deposit was obtained at the foot of every stone in a circle. Fergusson's Rude Stone Monutnents, p. 75. See also Id. p. 264. Since the above pages were written, Dr. Fergusson has pro- pounded his battle-field origin for the circles. This seems curiously borne out by the traditions at Rosemoddress, vide infra. 3 This circle is near Duloe Church, and equally near a hamlet called Stonetown, which derives its name from that or some adjacent monument now destroyed. In size it more nearly resembles some of the sepulchral circles of the second class, being only twenty-five feet in diameter. Mr. Mac Lauchlan, 128 N.^NIA CORNUBIyE. " when there was found beneath one of them a cinerary urn with its contents." Fragment of an Urn, from Duloe Circle. A fragment of this urn the author is, by the kind permission of T. H. Bewes, Esq., enabled here to figure ; and in a letter which he received on the sub- ject from N. H. P. Lawrence, Esq., of Launceston, the additional fact is recorded that it was in pulling down a hedge that the interment was discovered. It seems very probable that a portion of this hedge, as is often the case, was in reality a cairn or barrow raised within the circle ; in which case, the monument in a paper written in 1846 for the Journal of the Royal Institution of Corn- wall, considers that eight stones completed the circle ; of these, six or seven are still standing. Near this circle is a manor called " Trcmodref (in Domes- day), a name singularly like that of Rosemoddress. "Mod," and "rhwy " are equally names for "a ring" in Welsh, and "moderuy" is the Cornish for a "bracelet." i N.^NIA CORNUBI^.. I 29 would belong to the second class of circles, such as will presently be described. Dr. Borlase mentions a remarkable feature in the Circle at Boscawen-un which seems to have confirmed his opinion that these monuments were originally sepulchral. "There is part of a Cromleh," he says, " to be seen on the Skirts of Boscawen-un Circle." The two stones which led him to this con- clusion still remain in their place or near it, midway between two of the pillars which form the ring. Stukeley seems to have been much interested in this discovery, as appears by a letter addressed by him to a brother antiquary, in October, 1749.' There is a circle on the highest part of the moun- tain called the " Mule," in the parish of Rushen, Isle of Man, the interior diameter of which is forty- six feet, entirely formed of Kist-Vaens, of which about a dozen can still be traced. As a link in the chain of megalithic remains, connecting the Kist- Vaen and the Circle, this monument is most valuable, and Mr. Halliwell justly observes that it is "perhaps the most curious sepulchral monument in Great Britain." Its sepulchral origin is preserved in the ' " All my studys in antiquity," says Stukeley in this same letter, "have ever had a regard to religion, nor do I think any other studys are worth culti- vating, but what have some aspect that way. I am thoroughly persuaded, our Druids were of the patriarchal religion, and came from Abraham. I believe Abraham's grandson helped to plant our island," &c., &c., &c. Af.S. letter. I 130 N^NIA CORNUBI^E. Manx name "Rhullick-y-lag'ii;' ShliVg'ah," that is, "the grave yard of the valley of broken slates." This monument, however, cannot be regarded as belonging to the same class as our circles of erect pillars ; and, if the stones at Boscawen-un be really the remains of a Kist-Vaen, it must be remembered that the circle would have been equally perfect without this addition, which, therefore, like the urn at Tuack might have been in no way connected with the original design of the structure. It may be added that when a trench was cut some years since through the centre of Boscawen-un circle, nothing w^as discovered ; a similar cutting made throuo^h that in Rolldich, in Oxfordshire, in the last century, was equally unattended with any evidences of sepulchral interment. The exploration of the tumuli which surround the circles has in Cornwall, as elsewhere, been at- tended with varied, and, to those Antiquaries who would draw a sharp line between the Stone and Bronze periods, most perplexing results. The dis- covery of a flint knife among calcined bones near Rosemoddress Circle has already been noticed ; as also the fact that in tumuli equally near that circle, urns, such as occur with bronze daggers, have been brought to light. Close to the Boscawen-un circle, similar pottery was found, as will be presently seen, and also small globules of bronze among a deposit of N^NIA CORNUBL^. 131 calcined bone. Near the Treofaseal circle, on the other hand, Mr. Buller found in a barrow several greenstone celts of the very rudest type. Fig. I. Stone Celt. Fig. 2. Stone Celt. Hj^ From near Tregaseal Circle. Of these remarkable implements, two, which are preserved in the Museum at Truro, are here figured.^ A third is to be found in the Penzance Museum. With these observations may be dismissed, for the present, the perplexing question of the origin and purpose of circles of stones erect. It must be remembered, however, that in the absence of direct testimony, the antiquary has no more right to call them piLrely sepulchral monuments, than he would ' Mr. Buller only mentions that they were found in the parish of St. Just, but a labourer supplied the author with the account of their discovery near the " Nine Maidens," at Tregaseal, at which he himself had assisted. 132 N.€NIA CORNUBI^. have to apply a similar term to the ruins of Glaston- bury Abbey, simply because stone coffins and other indications of interment have been discovered be- neath its walls. We now turn to the second class of circles, or those monuments to which the author has given the name of " Ring Barrows." 2 It is not uncommon, in rambling along the edges of the Cornish cliffs, or over the summit of the uncultivated downs, to stumble upon small circles of earth, or contiguous stones set on their edge. The diameter of these rings ranges from 10 to 100 feet, and their area is occupied either by a few irregular piles of stone, or by a central rock, natural to the surface of the ground. That rings, such as these, were originally sepulchral, there is little doubt ; and, on examination, they are almost invariably found to be cairns or barrows in an uncompleted or demol- ished state. From the ordinary encircled bowl-barrow take away the superincumbent mound, and you have the ring barrow, with its hearth or burning place and its sepulchral deposit. A remarkable example of one of these remains was explored by Sir Gardner Wil- kinson, and by him described and figured in his essay on the British Remains on Dartmoor. It was situ- ated on the Rhossili Downs, in South Wales, was N^NIA CORNUBL^. 133 thirty-three feet in diameter, and very similar in general appearance to the Goonorman circle, figured 2.0 2.0 scale of feet Ring Barrow, on Goonorman Downs.' From a Skdch by Mr. Barnkoat. ' The Rev. F. H. A. Wright, vicar of Stithians, has kindly informed me that an urn ha.s recently been discovered " in a small stone chamber," on this same downs. 134 N^NIA CORNUBI^. above. In the centre was an inner circle of con- tiguous stones, surrounding" a hearth "composed of seven flat stones, carefully fitted together, and upon them a mass of charred wood." Below one corner of this hearth was a slab covering a kist in which were fragments of pottery and bones. A pile of stones, 3 feet 4 inches high, had to be removed from this barrow before the hearth was arrived at. In the detailed accounts of the explorations of some Cornish tumuli, presently to be laid before the reader, he will find many instances where, when a few feet of stones or earth have been removed, a natural rock, or altar of incremation, has been dis- covered standing in the centre of a ring of upright stones. But a ring barrow, properly so termed, seems never to have been covered by a mound at all. Mr. Cotton investigated three of these (26th September, 1826,) with the following results. They lay in the same line, at distances of about 300 feet from each other, on Botrea-hill, in the parish of Sancred. " These circles," he says, " are formed by a low wall or bank of earth and stones, which may be perceived, by some portions remaining, to have been formerly built up in a regular manner, without cement. Their areas are slightly elevated above the level of the ground without (about 18 inches) ; that towards the south is the most perfect in respect of the size and preservation of its walls ; its diameter is sixty feet. N.^NIA CORNUBI.^. 1 35 The middle circle is ninety feet in diameter, and the most northern one ninety-eight. The areas of these circles were slightly elevated in three or four places in each, which circumstance induced us to remove the earth from one of them, and we presently came to a small vaulted cell, measuring 3 feet 6 inches long, by two feet wide. It was formed with flat stones, artificially arranged, and covered with a large stone on the top. Within we found a cylindrical earthen pot or urn, about twelve inches in diameter, standing on a slab of granite. On examining the urn, we found it to be made of a coarse kind of clay, mixed with small particles of decomposed granite, very little, if at all, baked ; perhaps only burnt in the funeral pile. It contained a rich black earth, unctu- ous to the touch, and the ashes of burnt wood." It was standing upright, and the upper rim was orna- mented with a double border of parallel lines, rudely indented or scratched. " A small flint was found imbedded in the greasy earth within the urn, shaped, and, in size, like a common gun flint. It is probable that it was the instrument used in scratching the ornamental border, as it fits exactly in the marks made on the urn."' It was in the most northerly of this same line of barrows that Mr. Cotton discovered ' Illustrations of Stone Circles, &(., by William Cotton, Esq., M.A., p. 39, et seq. 136 N^NIA CORNUBI^. the grave and flint arrow-heads previously described, at page 26, A short time since, the author caused a smaller ring barrow, about thirty feet in diameter, to be opened on the adjoining hill of Trannack ; in this case, the centre was occupied by a large natural granite slab, but no interment could be discovered. This ring, then, of earth or stones seems to have formed an essential feature in the works of the cairn- builders of the West. A convenient spot of ground, generally on the bald summit of a hill, was first of all selected as the scene of the funeral solemnity. Where natural rocks, especially of a tabular form, such as the granite often assumes, were found cropping up through the soil, one of them was selected as the most fitting altar upon which to raise the pyre. Encircled Rock at Trescaw. It is highly probable that the Trescaw and Wen- N.'ENIA CORNUBI^. I37 dron' rocks, mentioned and figured by Borlase, and copied by Col. Forbes Leslie into his " Early Races of Scotland," were, in reality, the altars of increma- tion for the dead ; although the circles which surround them have been attributed to idolatrous, rather than funereal customs. From discoveries made at the Boscawen-un, Morvah-hill, and Tredinney Barrows, (vide irifra), it is beyond doubt that the central rock often served such a purpose, and was, for this very reason, selected for the ceremony and encircled by the ring. Where, however, nature afforded the mourners no such substantial bier on which to lay the corpse, a hearth, such as that found at Rhossili, a pile of stones, or a simple flooring of clay, formed the found- ation on which to rest the wood for the burning. The spot being chosen, the next step seems to have been to surround it by a ring of stones or earth, and thus make it a teVevo? or sacred spot within the precincts of which none might approach who were not engaged in performing the last rites of affection to the deceased, or in kindling and keeping alive the flame. A circle of this kind would be a very useful precaution against the overcrowding of the multitude of spectators who, no doubt, attended at each and all of these funeral rites. It is possible, however, that ' A drawing of the Wendron rock will be found at a subsequent page. 138 N/KNIA CfjRNUBLIi. Other and more elaborate ceremonies, some, perhaps, copied from the Romans, actually took place when a great man was to be reduced to ashes. In some cases the barren hills of the west may have even beheld the solemn Dcciirsio of the Roman soldiers round the funeral pile : Ter circum accensos cincti fulgentibus armis Decurrere rogos ; ter mKstum funeris ignem Lustravere in equis, ulutatusqiie ore dedisse. Certain it is that, if the Pre-historic Celts at all resembled their nineteenth-century descendants, in Ireland, Wales, or Cornwall, the funerals of their countrymen were by no means scantily attended. It is, indeed, highly probable that the prevailing habit of flocking from far and near, in their Sunday best, to the funeral of some person with whom, during life, many of them were, perhaps, scarcely acquainted, is attributable quite as much to ancient custom handed down from their ancestors, as it is to the pleasure which the Celtic nature always derives from the con- templation of the melancholy. The circle being formed, the fire was lighted, sometimes in the centre, sometimes at the side of the area enclosed. Where the body was burnt on a rock, the ashes were swept into a kist or urn at one side of it, but where the pile of wood rested simply on the ground, the charred remains of it are generally to be found on one side of the floor, while the Kist-V^aen N^NIA CORNUBI^. 1 39 is in the centre. In one instance, (a barrow on Boskenwyn Downs, Wendron,) instead of a raised bank of stones or earth being drawn round the area, a ditch was dug three feet deep, at a distance of ten yards from the base of the mound. ^ The burnt bones being placed in their narrow chamber, and hidden from view, the ceremony was so far completed ; and thus what has been termed a " Ring barrow" was formed. ^ In general, however, the work of barrow building now began, the materials (as has been observed before) depending greatly on the nature of the soil surrounding. 3 The sketch on next page has been reduced from a drawing made by Mr. Blight, and published in the ' See plan of this barrow, Report of the Roy. Institution of Cornwall, 1862, p. 27. Another curious barrow, apparently of the same class, is mentioned in Mr. Davies Gilbert's Historical Survey of Cornwall, p. 193. " In the midst of an open field, between the villages of St. Erme and Ladock, is a raised circular piece of ground, flat on the top, and secured by a deep ditch. The late Rev. John Collins examined the ground to the depth of several feet, but met with nothing, except ashes, that could elucidate the origin of this rude structure, which from these, was undoubtedly, funereal." ^ It is very probable that the Senor, or Zennor Circle, of which a drawing is given at Plate xv. o{ Borlase's Antiquities, is nothing more than a "Ring barrow." The stones standing on the top of the circular embankment is an arrangement very similar to that of the Rayne and Fiddes Hill circles in Scotland. In the former of these, Mr. Stuart (Sculptured Stones of Scotland, vol. i, p. xxi^ discovered ashes, and fragments of urns. 3 The sentence, "I will add a stone to your cairn," was doubtless quite as proverbial an expression of respect among the Cornu-Britons as it was among the Scotch. 140 N^NIA CORNUBI.^. Jonnial of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, for the year 1867. The "ring" in this case consisted of nineteen or twenty stones, outside which, on the Encircled Barrow on Trewavas Head. Denuded of its envelope. (From a Drawing by y. T. Blight, Esq., F.S.A.) western side, were traces of an outer or protecting ring. The circle was 19 feet 6 inches in diameter, and close to its western side was a Kist-Vaen. The sides of this chamber measured respectively 3 feet 6 inches, and 2 feet 10 inches in length ; the height was 2 feet 3 inches. The covering stone measured 4 feet 5 inches long, 4 feet wide, and i foot 1 1 inches thick. The cairn was unfortunately rifled by a miner, with what result is unknown. It is perched, like many others, on the very edge of the cliff, and is an excellent specimen of a type of encircled barrow by no means uncommon in Cornwall. When perfect it probably belonged rather to the Cone-shaped, than to the Ring barrow class,' and is only inserted in ' A very curious example of what, but for its envelope, would have been N.^NIA CORXUBL^. 14I this place as a good specimen of the interior of a cairn divested of its superincumbent mound. In a subsequent part of this essay, several minor details in connection with the ceremony of the inter- ment will be brought to light, such as the positions of the urns, the formation of the kists, and the general structure and design of the mounds them- selves. But, meanwhile, two questions, much dis- puted in the Archaeological world, must not be passed by without remark. Firstly. Is there any good reason to suppose that the articles interred with the deceased were placed there with a view to their utility in the next world ; that is, are they the result of a matured belief in a future state ? The author must confess at once that he does not believe that their presence there is due to any such feeling. Cornish barrows are, as a general termed a "concentric ring-barrow," is noticed by J. N. R. Millet, Esq., in the Report of the Royal Institutwn of Cornwall, for the year 1840. This structure was discovered on the hill known as Cam Galva, in the parish of Zennor. It consisted of a pile of stones, covering three concentric walls. The inner of these was much decomposed ; in the second the stones were much more perfect, and the wall of better workmanship. The third was not so well built as the second, the stones being more rounded by decomposition. At the base of the barrow, black earth was mixed with the stones to the depth of more than a foot, and in the lower part was some charcoal. Between the second and third walls an Urn was found of coarse clay, having on its upper part the common dotted zigzag ornamentation. It was mouth-upwards, and was filled with black earth, charcoal, and burnt bones, "apparently those of a young person." An engraving at page 45 1 of The Rude Stoue Monuments, of the uncovered base of a tumulus at Nikolajew is strikingly similar to this Cam Galva barrow. The one on the Steppes of Asia, the other at the extremity of Britain ! 142 N^.NIA CORNUBI^. rule, unproductive ; and if each object, as the spade brings it to Hght, cannot be accounted for by accident, it may at least be ascribed to the same affectionate feehng which so often prompts people, now-a-days, to lay beside the departed some trifling object dear to them in life. While, however, the idea is thus negatived in the precise terms in which it has been put, it must not be taken for granted that a belief in futurity was non-existent in the days of the barrow- builders. Indeed, some of these monuments seem to date from an age when it would have been hard to find an educated citizen, or even a rude provin- cial, in Europe, who was not impressed, either by his religion or his philosophy, with some sort of belief of this kind, no matter how indistinct it might be. But, the bronze dagger, the flint arrow-head, and the charm, are the exception and not the rule in Cornish barrows ; and, with the exception of a golden drinking cup, and a few daggers, literally nothing has been found, which could be of the least service to one setting out for the banquets of Valhalla, or the war-trails of the Gods. In this opinion, viz. : that the relics were merely votive offerings of affection at the tomb, Mr. Green- well, after his long experience in the primitive graves of the north, fully concurs. There are, however, many advocates of the contrary opinion ; and, indeed, it would be the more poetical view of the case were N.^NIA CORNUBI.E. 1 43 it admissible to sing with Schiller those beautiful lines, so exquisitely translated by Lord Lytton, and quoted by Sir Charles Lyell : — " Here bring the last gifts ! — and with these The last lament be said ; Let all that pleased, and yvt may please, Be buried with the dead. Beneath his head the hatchet hide, That he so stoutly s\Mang ; And place the bear's fat haunch beside — The journey hence is long ! And let the knife now sharpened be That on the battle day Shore with quick strokes — he took but three — The foeman's scalp away ! The paints the warriors love to use, Place here within his hand. That he may shine with raddy hues ■ Amidst the spirit land." The second question which remains to be an- swered is : What evidence, if any, is there in Cornish barrows of the custom of slave-killing, or the suttee ? There is indeed none whatever. The only instance that seems at all in point, is that of the barrow near the Rosemoddress Circle, previously described, where the calcined bones certainly represented the remains of several, perhaps a great number of bodies. But, if Dr. Fergusson's battle-field theory be entertained, this fact is thoroughly accounted for. In all other cases, the presence of more than one deposit of ashes in the same tumulus can be amply accounted for, 144 N^NIA CORNUBI^. either by secondary interments, or by separate col- lections of the ashes of the pyre. A few words on the fictilia of the barrows will close this portion of the subject. The pottery found in Cornish tumuli does not readily fall into the classification made by Antiqua- ries for any other part of England. As might be ex- pected, the urns of Devon and Dorset bear the nearest resemblance to it ; but with the general type of North-country fictilia it seems to have little in common. The Larger Cinerary or Sepulchral Urns may roughly be divided into two classes according to their shape — Vase-Shaped Sepulchral Urn, from Penquite, From a Sketch by tJu late Canon Rogers. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 145 1. Vase-shaped vessels, averaging ten to twenty inches in height, ribbed with bands or ridges round the upper part, sometimes ornamented with small indentations, but never with the chevron or dansette pattern. 2. Cylindrical or Barrel-shaped vessels, averaging from eight to thirteen-and-a-half inches in height, invariably ornamented with the chevron pattern. Besides these, however, smaller vessels, which, from their resemblance to the larger ones, may be Cylindrical Urn, from Lanlawren, From a Sketch by Mr. Couch. termed " Miniature Sepulchral Urns," are very fre- quently found in Cornish barrows. These are some- times found standing in close proximity to the larger K 146 N^.NIA CORNUBI^. urns, (in which cases they are unquestionably intended for miniature representations of them),' but not un- commonly by themselves. They average from four- MiNiATURE Urn, ** Dug up on an estate of Sir John St. Aubyn, west of Penzance, containing human ashes." From a Drawing by the late Canon Rogers. Height and diameter .... 5 inches. and-a-half to six inches in height. As they generally contain 3. considerable quantity of burnt bones, mixed with snuff-coloured powder and ashes, these Minia- ture Urns- cannot come under Mr. Bateman's defi- nition of J^ood Vessels, nor do they agree any better with that gentleman's description of Incense Vessels, or Drinking Cups. Of the former, viz., Incense Cups, there are no examples in Cornwall ; and, of the ' See Tresvenneck and Trevello Urns, at a previous page. ^ Some Antiquaries suppose them to be children's urns. One is said to have occurred in Scotland, where the bones were identified as those of an infant. N^NIA CORNUBI.E. 1 47 Drinking Cups, only one or two exceedingly doubt- ful instances can be adduced. A cup, found by the author, at Denzell Downs, near St. Columb is, per- haps, the best authenticated example of this class, but even this curious little vessel does not resemble the " Drinking Cup" known to the Antiquary of the North ; and, more than this, it may be considered as a genuine cinerary urn, inasmuch as it contained cal- cined bones. A vessel much more resembling the shape of Mr. Bateman s " Drinking Cup" is the " Sancred Urn," figured in Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall, and reproduced at a subsequent page. But even in this case, it was in company with "well-burnt ashes." " In a barrow, on Lamburn Downs, in the parish of Piran Sanz," says Hals, " was found an earthen pot, containing about two gallons, wherein was lodged much ashes, some bones in small pieces, and char- coal ; and, by the side of the said pot, were also found two small drinking cups of like clay, with several handles made of the same matter." As, how- ever, this good old Cornish Antiquary did not live in the "Drinking Cup" age, it is impossible to decide what sort of vessels these were. The almost universal prevalence of handles, from the rudest unpierced cleat, down to the well-formed pitcher handle on Cornish pottery, is very remark- able. 148 NiENIA CORNUBL1L. No extant example of Cornish fictilia has been found with unburnt bones. The texture of the sepulchral urn is, in general, rude in the extreme, and the baking on the exterior of the vessel exceedingly slight. In the case of several fragments in the author's cabinet, the soft yellow clay which forms the outer coat has scarcely lost its original consistency, while the hard black lining of the interior of the vessel, has evidently been subjected to great and continued heat. This fact has already been noticed in connection with the Tres- venneck Urn, and doubtless arises from the ashes of the pyre having been deposited in it while yet red hot. On comparing the pottery taken from the tumuli, with that found in the British huts and Cave dwell- ings, it becomes evident that while the former was made on the spur of the moment, to contain (accord- ing to custom) the remains of the dead, and then be lost sight of for ever, the latter was formed for lasting and continuous use. The domestic \vare was so constructed as to contain water within, at the same time that it was subjected to the action of fire without. Thus we find it to be thick, hard, and at times slightly glazed. The clay, however, of which it is composed, is precisely the same as that of the sepulchral urn ; and where ornamentation is at- tempted, (which is seldom,) it is the same chevron N^NIA CORNUBI^. 1 49 pattern,' occasionally relieved by rows of indenta- tions, the product of the end of a stick, or perhaps of an implement of flint, bone, or bronze. Some specimens of the pottery from the ancient British dwellings bear evident marks of having been made on a wheel of some kind. How far true it would be to venture a similar statement with regard to the urns, is a question very difficult to decide. That those of the cylindrical shape, and chevron pattern, are exceedingly symmetrical, no one can doubt who will turn to the engraving of the Trevello Urn ; and it seems really beyond belief that so rude a process as that mentioned by Messrs. Squier and Davis, namely, the stick and hand, should be im- ported into Britain by our Archaeologists to account for the formation of vessels so well fashioned, and so accurately finished, as the urns of this description usually are. With regard, then, to the cylindrical urns at least, the author is of opinion that a wheel of some de- scription was used in their formation ; although, in the case of these vessels, it was seldom or never thought necessary to bring the clay to that state of maturity and thickness necessary for domestic use. ' Two specimens of the chevron pattern on domestic pottery have come respectively from "Roman" remains at Carminow, and from Came, in Zennor. A good specimen of the indented pattern was found with Samian ware, &c., in a subterranean dwelling at Chapel Euny. 150 N/€NIA CORNUBI^. As a rule, the urns display far greater ornamentation than the domestic pottery ; but they are carelessly baked, and their shape is, (seemingly, according to custom,) one peculiarly their own. There is nothing, therefore, in the fictilia itself, to shew that some of these urns may not contain the ashes of the dwellers in the huts and caves. * The reader having thus become acquainted with the various classes of sepulchral remains he may expect to meet with in Cornwall, it now remains to collect from the county histories and MSS., as well as from the author's own notes, such detailed accounts of the explorations of the tumuli, as still lie within reach of the Archaeologist. It may be said, that in bringing evidence to bear on these subjects, nothing should be adduced but the author's own experience in barrow digging, or those facts which have been elicited during the last few years by persons conversant with the modern scien- tific view of the matter. This view is, in great measure, correct. Few persons have the faculty of careful observation, still fewer that of careful re- lating. Ask a labourer, a week or two after he has made some discovery, to give you an account of it, and you will soon see how much exaggeration has effected in the meantime. Still, as regards Corn- wall, so little has been recorded, and alas ! so very I N.^NIA CORNUBL^. I5I little Still remains to be explored, that surely it will be pardonable to pick up every scrap of information, and let the reader himself judge of its value. Take, for instance, a passage from Carew, who wrote in 1602. "I haue receiued," says he, " credible infor- mation, that some three yeeres sithence, certaine hedgers deuiding a closse on the sea side hereabouts, [i.e., Trewardreth Bay), chanced, in their digging, vpon a great chest of stone, artificially joyned, whose couer, they (ouer-greedy for booty) rudely brake, and therewithall a great earthen pot enclosed, which was guilded and graued with letters, defaced by this mis- aduenture, and ful of a black earth, the ashes (doubt- les) as that, the U7')ia, of some famous personage." Now, let there be deducted from this the pardonable '' gilding," which three years had given to the story ; let the chevron pattern be substituted for the letters ; and the reader can make the rest of the narration thoroughly consistent with hundreds of other dis- coveries, and doubtless with the facts of the case. It is therefore with the intention of giving the reader all the information he possibly can, where inductive evidence is so slight, that the author has added to his own scanty list of researches the accounts con- tained in the works of those who have preceded him. Explorations & Discoveries in the Tuinuli, " O for a stroke of luck like his, who found A crock of silver, turning up the ground." Horace. Sat. vi. Transl. Conington. THE ONE! BARROW. ST. AUSTELL DOWNS. [From the account given in Mr. Whitaker's Cathedral of Cornwall, vol. ii., p. 83.] "In the middle of that extended waste, the downs of St. Austle, was, what was called. One Barrow, This waste, in 1801, was resolved to be enclosed, and the barrow was obliged to be levelled. In this opera- tion, the single workman came near the centre, and there found a variety of stones, all slates, ranged ' Probably "wyn," Welsh "gwjTi" white — white barrow. '■'■ One man" is the name of a cairn at Moytura. — See Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments. N^NIA CORNUBL^. I 53 erect in an enclosure nearly square. The stones were about one foot-and-a-half in height, apparently fixed in the ground before the formation of the barrow. The stones were all undressed, but had little stones carefully placed in the crevices at the joints of the large, in order to preclude all commu- nication between the rubbish without and the con- tents within. On the even heads of these stones was laid a square freestone, which had evidently been hewn into this form, which seemed to rest with its extremities on the edges of the others, and was about eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. The summit of the barrow rose about eight or ten feet above all. In the enclosure, the leveller found a dust, remarkably fine, and seemingly inclining to clay. On the surface it was brown, about the middle down- wards it took a dark chesnut colour, and at the bottom it approached towards a black. On stirring it up, a multitude of bones appeared, different in the sizes, but none exceeding six or seven inches in length. Among them were some pieces about the laro-eness of a half-crown, which, from their concave form, convinced him they were parts of a skull. The whole mass of bones and ashes might (he thought) be about one gallon in quantity. On touching the bones, they instantly crumbled into dust, and took the same colour with the same fineness as the dust in which they were found. They were exceedingly 154 N/RNIA CORNU15I/E. white when tlicy were first discovered, but remark- ably brittle ; the effect assuredly of their calcination in a fire, antecedent to their burial. Much in fine- ness and in colour with these ashes, appeared several veins of irregular earth on the outside of the en- closure ; which, from their position without, yet ad- joining, and from the space occupied by them there, he conjectured to have been bodies laid promiscu- ously upon the funeral pile." Such is Mr. Whitaker's account of the One Barrow. It may be added, that the workman rebuilt the kist-vaen in a hedofe ad- joining, and deposited in it the bones as he found them. BARROWS, NEAR LANYON CROMLECH. [From an account given to the author by Mr. Hitchins, the proprietor of the estate.] A hundred yards or so to the northward of the Lanyon Cromlech and between that monument and the farm-house, was a barrow some twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter, which, like the " One Bar- row," had to be removed for agricultural purposes. During its removal, some four years since, the work- men discovered in the centre a ring of large stones set on edge. In the centre of this ring, and placed on the natural soil, was a large deposit of human bones and charred wood, as much as would fill a four- gallon measure. Among these, Mr. Hitchins noticed N^NIA CORNUBI^. I 55 a jaw-bone with the teeth still in their places. These relics were again deposited in the place where they were found. On the South-west side of Lanyon Cromlech, and twenty-one feet distant from that monument, is a long low barrow, which, being opened, was found to contain a ring of stones set on their edge in the centre, in a similar manner to the one just described. The place had clearly been overhauled before, pro- bably on more than one occasion, and nothing remark- able was found. VERYAN BEACON. [From an account given by the Rev. J. Adams, in the yonrnal of the Royal Institution of Coi'tiwall, 1855-] " The Beacon of Veryan stands on the highest ground in Roseland, at a short distance from the cliff which overlooks Pendower and Gerrans Bay. Its present height above the level of the field in which it stands is about twenty-eight feet, and its circumference at the base 350 feet ; but it must have been originally much larger, as a considerable por- tion on one side has been removed, its summit being now about eighty feet from the base on the south side, and only fifty feet on the north, whilst the top of the cairn which was discovered in it, and which was no doubt placed exactly in the original centre of the mound, is at least ten feet still further north than the present summit. 156 N.^.XIA CORNUBI^. A tradition has been preserved in the neighbour- hood, that Gerennius, an old Cornish saint and king, whose palace stood on the other side of Gerrans Bay, between Trewithian and the sea, was buried in this mound, and that a golden ' boat and silver oars were used in conveying his corpse across the bay, and were interred with him." Having obtained the consent of the Rev. S. J. Trist, on whose land it stands, and accompanied by the Hon. and Rev. J. T. Boscawen and other gen- tlemen, Mr. Adams commenced the excavation on the 8th of November, 1855. " We began," he says, " by cutting a trench to- wards the centre, at an elevation of about eight feet above the ground. On the third day of the opera- tion, the workmen came upon the side of a heap of large stones, built up rudely but firmly on one another, at a distance of forty feet from the outside of the cutting. After clearing away as much as possible of the earth from the stones, and digging to the base of the heap, which lay about four feet below the level of the trench, and twenty feet below the top of the mound, we proceeded to penetrate this cairn." A mass of earth here unfortunately fell in, ' This tradition of a golden boat in connection with a Cornish barrow is rendered doubly curious by a report which seems to have been current at the early part of this century, that a golden boat had been found in a barrow near the Cheese-Wring. N.ENIA CORNUBI.-E. I 57 completely overwhelming two of the workmen, and partially interring- one or two amateur excavators. The diggers having been in their turn dug out, not much the worse for this accident, " it was thought advisable to clear away all the earth above the stones, before attempting to remove any more of them ; accordingly the trench was lengthened, so as to ensure our uncovering the cairn beyond its centre, thus making a cutting altogether sixty-four feet in length, and widening from 3 feet 6 inches on the outside, to nineteen feet at the interior. Immedi- ately above the middle of the cairn, several indica- tions were found of the ground having been disturbed subsequent to the construction of the mound ; e.g., the outer coating of rubble, which formed a dis- tinctly marked stratum along the sides of the trench, had been broken through in various places, and as we descended, it became manifest that several narrow shafts had been sunk from the summit of the mound to the central heap of stones ; at the bottom of each of these shafts there were ashes, half calcined bones, some of which were identified as human, and a quan- tity of light- coloured clay." "In one place the cairn itself had been opened to the depth of three feet, in order to admit the ashes of a funeral pile ; and in another, a small cavity, con- taining ashes and bones, had been carefully formed, and covered with a large flat stone, about two feet 158 N^NIA CORNUBI/E. wide. In fact, it was evident that the top of the mound had been used as a place of sepulture long after its construction, that in every interment the body had been burnt, and that the ashes had been deposited as near as possible to some sacred remains beneath the cairn ; probably they were in some cases enclosed in unbaked clay,' as in one of the graves there was a stratum of clay two inches thick, mixed with ashes and charcoal, whilst in others there was no clay whatever, but merely ashes and bones. In removing the cairn underneath these graves, large oblong stones were found, placed erect one above another, from the apex to the base of the pile. They were no doubt so placed, in order that the top of the cairn might be uniformly preserved in its erection, above a certain point beneath. That point, as we conjectured long before we reached it, was the rest- ing place of the ancient king. It consisted of a Kist- Vaen, formed of massive unhewn rocks, lying north and south. Its length was 4 feet 6 inches, breadth two feet, and depth 2 feet 6 inches. The covering slab was a huge limestone rock, nearly two feet thick, and the sides were smooth rocks of the same kind, placed on their edges, and resting on the soil. We removed the south end of the tomb without much ' This remark probably applies to very many other instances, where pottery is absent. N^NIA CORNUBI^. I 59 difficulty, but found nothing whatever within, besides ashes, mixed with small stones, pieces of charcoal, and dust of a brownish hue. The contents were carefully examined, but not the least trace of pottery, armour, or other relics, could be discovered," For the indefatigable perseverance with which Mr. Adams and his friends carried on the investigation of this extensive tumulus, no less than for the concise and graphic account he has given of the work and its results, he deserved the best thanks, not of Cornish antiquaries only, but of the Archaeological world at large. BARROW AT SAMSON, SCILLY. [From a paper by Augustus Smith, Esq., read at the Meeting of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, May 29th, 1863.]' It will be remembered that at a previous page the reader's attention was directed to a line of long graves, extending along the back of the Southern- most hill on Samson island. The Barrow, now to be noticed, is situated with four or hve others, mostly rifled, on the corresponding high ground at the Northern^ end. ' Mr. Smith mentions the remarkable fact that similar grave mounds occur even on those islands which are too small ever to have been inhabited. ^ It is a characteristic feature in the Isles of Scilly, that the greater num- ber of them are composed of two elevated plateaux of granite, connected by a narrow isthmus of sand. l6o NyENIA CORNUBI.^. "The mound, in its outer circumference, measured about fifty-eight feet, giving, therefore, a distance of near upon thirty feet to its centre, from where the excavation was commenced. For about eighteen or twenty feet the mound appeared entirely composed of fine earth, when an inner covering, first of smaller and then of larger rugged stones, was revealed. These were carefully uncovered before being dis- turbed, and were then one by one displaced till a large upright stone was reached, covered by another of stil! more ponderous dimensions, which projected partially over the edges of the other. At length this top covering, of irregular shape, but measuring about 5 feet 6 inches in its largest diameter, was thoroughly cleared of the superincumbent stones and earth, and showed itself evidently to be the lid to some mysteri- ous vault or chamber beneath." On the lid beino- removed, there was " disclosed to view an oblong stone chest or sarcophagus beneath," on the floor of which, "in a small patch," "a little heap of bones, the fragmentary framework of some denizen of earth, perhaps a former proprietor of the Islands — were discovered piled together in one corner." " The bones were carefully taken out, and the more prominent fragments, on subsequent examina- tion by a medical gentleman, were found to give the following particulars : — Part of an upper jawbone presented the alveolae of all the incisors, the canines, N^NIA CORNUBI^. i6r two cuspids, and three molars, and the roots of two teeth, very white, still remaining- in the sockets. Another fragment gave part of the lower jaw with similar remains of teeth in the sockets. All the bones had been under the action of fire, and must have been carefully collected together after the burn- ing of the body. They are considered to have belonged to a man about 50 years of age." During a subsequent examination of these re- mains the flint, here figured, was discovered amongst them. Flint from the Samson Barrow. " The bottom of the sarcophagus was neatly fitted with a pavement of three flat but irregular- shaped stones, the joints fitted with clay mortar, as were also the interstices where the stones forming the upright sides joined together, as also the lid, which was very neatly and closely fitted down with this same plaster." " Two long slabs, from seven to nine feet in length, and two feet in depth, form the sides, while 1 62 N^NIA CORNUBI^. the short stones fitted in between them make the ends, being about three-and-half feet apart, and to fix which firmly in their places, grooves had been roughly worked in the larger stones." The paving stones had been " embedded immediately upon the natural surface of the granite of which the hill consists." One of two Bronze Armlets, from St. Mary's, Scilly. Half the actual size. The above woodcut represents one of two bronze armlets, found about fifty years ago in a barrow on the Peninnis Head, in the island of St. Mary's, Scilly. Their discovery is mentioned in the above paper on the Samson barrow, but under what cir- cumstances it occurred is unfortunately not recorded. Mr. Smith has generously deposited them both in the Museum at Truro. N^NIA CORNUBIyE. 1 63 Urn Burial. W I T H I E L . Norden, who is thought to have made his Survey in 1584, records the discovery of an urn in a Cornish barrow. His account is as follows : — " An auntient buriall." " Withiell," a parishe wherin one Gydlye, not manie yeares since, as he was digging a borowe or buriall hill, wherof ther are manie in theis partes, in the time of the Romish, Saxon and Danish warrs occasioned to be made, founde in the bottome of the borow, 3 whyte stones sett triangularly as pillars supportinge another stone nere a yard square, and vnder it a earthern Pott verie thyck, haulfe full of black slymye matter, seeminge to have been the con- gealed ashes of some worthy man, ther comitted in this manner to his buriall ; the like wherof have been, and are often founde,"^ Would that modern antiquaries would be so concise and graphic in their accounts ! TRELOWARREN. mnts are taken from the printed ^ Dr. Borlase.]- Ant. p. 214. " In a field at Trelowarren, there [The following accounts are taken from the printed Works and MvSS. of Dr. Borlase.]- ' p. 70, edit. 1728. Carew, who published his Survey in 1602, gives the same account with the addition that the name of the Barrow was " Borsneeuas." See p. 140. ^ Besides the urns mentioned here, Dr. Borlase found one at, or very near to Castle-an-dinas, no account of which is preserved. 164 N^ENIA CORNUBIiE. was opened in July, 1751, an Earthern Barrow, very wide in circumference, but not five feet high. As the workmen came to the middle of the Barrow, they found a parcel of stones set in some order, which being removed, discovered a Cavity about two feet diameter, and of equal height. It was surrounded and covered with Stones, and inclosed Bones of all sorts, Legs, Arms, Ribs, &c., and intermixed with them some Wood-ashes ; there was no Urn here ; but at the distance of a few feet from the central cavity, there were found two Urns, one on each side, with their mouths turned downwards, and small bones and ashes inclosed. All the black vegetable mould which covered the place where the urns were found, was industriously cleared off, and the Urns, inverted, placed on the clean yellow clay (which in this field lies under the soil) ; then the black vegetable mould was placed round about the urns ; and throughout the whole composition of the Barrow, I observed afterwards the same materials, clay, mould, wood- ashes, and rubble-stone, mixed very disorderly, so that there can be no doubt but that the people who formed this Barrow took indifferently of the mould and clay that lay nearest at hand. Three thin bits of brass found near the middle, just before I came there, were given me by the Workmen ; they were covered with cEi^iigo, neither inclosed in the cavity, nor in the urns, by which I conjecture, that they were N.ENIA CORNUBI^. 165 pieces of a sword, or some other instrument of war, which, after having been inserted in the funeral pile, and broke, were thrown into the Barrow among the earth, and other materials that were heaped together." It is much to be regretted that in this instance the Doctor has neither figured the pottery, nor de- scribed its shape or ornamentation. CHIKARN. Ant. p. 234. " Sometimes '"' '"" we find many Urns placed close one to another ; the most remark- able Monument of which kind that I have yet heard of in Cornwall, was that opened by Ralph Williams, yeoman, in the tenement of Chikarn, (St. Just, Pen- with,) where, (A.D. 1733,) in removing a Barrow, was discovered a great number of Urns; and as they approached nearer the centre, a stone square chest, or cell, paved under foot, in which was also found an Urn, finely carved, and full of human Bones, (as I have been informed, since the death of R. W., by his daughter, who saw the Urn, which her Father brought from the field into his house). As well as could be remembered, (at the time when I had this relation from him, which was four years after the dis- covery,) there were about fifty Urns which sur- rounded the central and principal one, which alone, because it appeared to be neatly carved, he carried 1 66 N^NIA CORNUBI^. home to his house, the rest (all which had some re- mains of bones and earth in them) were thrown away and broke, as of no consequence." The farm on which this remarkable find took place, lies about four miles from the Land's End, but search has been made in vain to identify the spot on which the barrow stood. On the top of the " karn," or rough hill from which the farm takes its name, stands a large artificial " karn," of the bell shape. On the summit of this, which is some twenty- five feet in height, there once stood an ancient ora- tory called Chapel Karnbre. This is now completely demolished. A few years since, the author caused a trench to be dug to the centre of the mound, in hopes of finding a central chamber. Nothing was, however, discovered, and it is possible that the mound was raised merely for the sake of placing the anchorite's habitation (like those of the Egyptian hermits) a few feet nearer to heaven. On the western side of this farm may be observed a track-way, which Dr. Bor- lase considered as a Roman Road, leading towards the Land's End. A barrow, partially demolished, is conticruous to it on the Northern side. BOSAVERN ROS. Ant. p. 235. There are "three Barrows lying in a line nearly S.E. and N.W., in the tenement of Bosavern Ros, in the same parish, (St. Just,) about N^NIA CORNUBI^. 1 67 a mile distant from the foregoing. In the eastern- most Barrow, about the year 1 748, there was found the carcase of a man laid at full length ;' a long stone on each side, and one at each end on their edge, the cavity like a grave, the bones large sized, no stone covering the body ; the middle Barrow was opened afterwards, and bones in it, but not regularly placed ; the Barrows seem to have been searched before. On the 29th of May, 1754, I got the westernmost Barrow to be opened ; there was a kind of cave or door vault which led into this Barrow, with a tall stone on each side, and a covering stone across, but fallen inside ;- the floor was riddled clear to the rab- man, (or hard ground), on which there was about three inches depth of sea-shore gravel, the biggest of the gravel about three-quarters-of-an-inch dia- meter, then some bones scattered on the gravel, then an Urn of the contents of three quarts (beer measure) full of bones, and a little partition beyond it fixed on the gravel ; about a foot farther, some walling, which, being removed, a little Urn of about a pint full of bones appeared in a cell of stonework, (the cell about 2 feet 8 inches long, and i foot 6 inches wide, with a covering flat-stone), placed upon the rabman (no beach or gravel under the Urn); when this little Urn ' Also mentioned at a previous page. ^ A curious featui^e, when compared with the door-ways of the British hut circles. 1 68 N.€NIA CORNUBI^. was taken out, at about a foot distance appeared the side of a tall great Urn, i foot 3 inches high, the bottom eight inches wide, of the contents of three gallons and half, full of bones to within three inches of the top ; some bones eight inches long, and with the bones several pieces of burnt sticks. Fragments of the Bosavern Urn. From the Engravings in the ^^Antiquities of Cornwall." About four inches distant from the great Urn stood two other Urns of about two quarts each, which, with the little one abovementioned, stood tri- angularly round the great one, which stood in the middle. Matted grass had forced its roots among the bones. The northern and eastern parts of this Barrow consisted of natural rock and ground, not moved since the flood ; the rest was artificial, with a ring of rocks forming the outer edge : that part which inclosed the Urns was factitious, and had a wall doubled {i.e. faced within and without) of larcre stones for the space of fifteen yards, about five feet high ; the whole Barrow about fifteen feet high, thirty-six feet diameter. Several shreds of Urns were found before they came to the bottom ; by N^NIA CORNUBI^. 1 69 which it may be justly conjectured that there were more stages of Urns than one, some placed above the lowermost, when the undermost area was filled." The form of handle figured above is unique in Cornish Urns, the hole being perpendicular, instead of horizontal, as is usually the case, Mr. Duller {History of St. Just, page 90) adds to this account, that about two years before he wrote, (that is in 1840) when "an enclosure was making on the same common, the workmen cut across the remains of an old barrow, and on the level with the surface of the surrounding soil, found three urns of coarse clay which were unfortunately broken, but their contents were nothing more than fragments of calcined bones, and ashes." GWYTHIAN.^ Ant., p. 236. MS. Par. Mem., p. 23. "A re- markable Urn was found in Gwythian parish, where, in May, 1741, about half-a-mile to the S.W. of the Church-town, the sea having washed^ away a piece of the cliff, discovered (about three feet under the ' Tradition lield that the Castle of King Theodore was on the coast of this parish. ^ On the 2 1st of February, 1872, the author noticed several barrows a few miles east of Gwythian Church-to\\'n, one of which was standing so close to the edge of the cliff that half it had already slipped away. On the Reskajeage Downs are five large barrows, all of which seem to have been opened. lyo N^NIA CORNUBI^. common surface of the land) a small cavity about twenty inches wide and as much high, faced and covered with stone. 'li%Pf#ff ^i^^ 11,, GwYTHiAN Urn, and Kist. From an unpublished Drawing by Dr. Borlase. Height by scale 1034^ inches. The bottom was of one flat stone, and upon it was placed an Urn with its mouth downwards, full of human bones of which the vertebrae were very dis- tinct. Round about the Urn was found a quantity of small dust or earth, which had all the appearances of human ashes, (in the opinion of Mr. Treweeke, Surgeon, of Penzance, to whom the Urn was brought on the 5th of June,) and filled the lower part of the cavity about four inches high from the bottom." i N^NIA CORNUBI^. 17I The above drawing is taken from the sketch-book of Dr. Borlase, and gives a good idea of an Urn in the inverted position so common in Cornwall. " The Urn," adds the MS. "is pecked round about the brim with some small indents made by the point of some tool, before the clay was hardened." Its shape was " inelegant" and the pottery " coarse." DURVAL, OR DERWELL. DuRVAL Urn. From a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. Height 5 9/10 inches. Width at bottom ■• 3 inches. MS. Drawings, p. 3. Thjs Urn was found at Derwell, in the parish of Sancred, in 1753. "It is ornamented with indented fillets alternately dancette and horizontal. Its brim is a quarter-of-an-inch thick, the clay finer than any except that of the Kerris 172 N^NIA CORNUBI^. Urn,' and somewhat ruddy, but neither so fine or red as that. The ashes well burnt; no sign of bones. Above it was found a flat cutt stone. It must have been a child's urn. It is in the keeping of Mr. Nicholas Cloke, at whose house I copied it, and at the same time was shewn an Antoninus of the large size : R. a soldier helmetted, sitting on the globe : Cos. III., brought him from the same parish." Whereabouts on the Durval Downs this urn was found cannot now be determined. The summit of the hill which bears this name is surmounted by three barrows placed in a line, and about thirty paces apart. In one of these opened by the author in August, 1862, two long flat stones were found resting on their edge on the natural soil, and between them a great quantity of black incinerated earth, but no pottery or bones. In the second and middle one, a ring of stones had been placed round a granite rock, but this one, as well as the third, showed marks of previous disturbance. On the south-eastern brow of the same hill are the traces of a large ring barrow, the area of which is strewn with heaps of small stones. It was origi- nally forty-four feet in diameter, but only seven of the stones remain in situ ; their height averages three feet. ' Figured at a subsequent page. N.^NIA CORNUBL^. 1/3 It may, therefore, be in any of these spots that this urn was found. On the south-western slope of the hill (viz., at Chigwidden), is a most remark- able fortified enclosure, in which, as will be seen at a future page, third brass Roman coins have been found. The Durval Urn much resembles the drinking cups of the English Antiquaries ; and as no bones were found in it. it is possible that a cinerary urn is yet undiscovered near the spot where it was disin- terred, or perhaps an inhumated body. TREWINARD. Paroch. Mem. MS., page 14. "In the year 1750, March ist, the workmen at Trewinard, (the seat of Christr. Hawkins, Esq.,) removing a barrow near the way coming from the west found an Earthen Urne. The w^orkmen broke it to pieces before they saw what it was ; perceiving marks of fire upon it, they took some of the earth inclosed and vanned it in water, thinking it to be tin, but, finding themselves disappointed, threw by the fragments of the Urne and the inclosed ashes. The Urne was placed on its mouth near the centre of the tumulus, which was mostly (and especially in the middle) of white spar stone. Round the urne was a little sept7im of stones set in order, open only at one end; on the top of the 174 N^NIA CORNUBI^. septum a broad flat stone, about two feet in diameter, which covered that and the urne. The bones in the urne were decayed and turned to clay." Fragments of the Urn from Trewinard. From a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. From the fragments of this urn, here engraved, the vessel itself may be compared with that found at Angrowse, in Mullion, figured at a subsequent page. The portion with the handle, probably belongs, not to the upper rim, but to the same level on the vessel as the lower of the two horizontal lines figured on the other fragment. N.^NIA CORNUBL'E. /D The Kerris Urn. From a Drmuing by Dr. Borlase. Height 8^ inches. Diam. at mouth .... 5^ inches. Ditto in swell 6^ inches. KERRIS. MS. Paroch. Mem., p. 6. "About 200 3-ards to the N.W. of Kerris House, (in the parish of Paul,) in the year 1723, some workmen removing an old hedge discovered a ^^fe, vault. It was about eight feet long, and six feet high, paved under foot with stone, and arched over with the same mate- rials. Within, was a fair Urne of the finest red earth ; it had no appearance of fire on it ; it was found full of earth. The rim round the mouth is one inch deep." With it were found some brass coins now no more to be heard of. From the stress which Dr. Borlase lays, both here and in the Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 307, on the fairness and redness of this pottery, it seems not improbable that it was a piece of Samian w^are ; and a similar discovery at Chapel Euny, only a few miles off, renders this doubly probable. On this same estate of Kerris, stands a rude block of granite, nine feet broad and seven-and-three-quarters in height. By the side of this, the author made some excavations, but without any result. Two 176 N^NIA CORNUBI^. hundred yards from this stone, and joining the lane leading into Kerris, are the remains of a remarkable oval enclosure, (a sketch of which is engraved by Borlase,) still called the Roundagoe. It consists of a platform 150 feet long, by 107 broad, levelled on the summit of a gentle eminence. Two pillars, respectively 6 feet 6 inches and 7 feet in height, form part of a curious oblong recess mentioned and figured in the Antiquities of Cornwall, but of a " Kist-Vaen," six feet long by three-and-a-half feet wide, no trace can be found. There are no traces of hut circles within the enclosure, nor do the walls at any time seem to have been sufficiently lofty or substantial for purposes of defence ; so that its origin and purpose must still remain, like that of the monu- ment in the Deer- Park at Sligo,^ (to which it bears some resemblance) a mystery still to be solved. A second discovery was made on this same farm of Kerris, in the year 1844. At Kerris Vean, says Mr. Edmonds, 2 the author of the Land's End Dis- trict, was opened a grave, eighteen feet long, four feet wide, and three feet deep, "containing fragments of urns, calcined human bones, charcoal, and a very rich black unctuous soil." In this grave was also found a large fragment of ' Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments, 234. " Report of the Penz. Nat. Hist. Society for \i i N.EXIA CORNUBI^. I 77 a bowl of granite, " smoothly cut inside and outside." It would have been, judging from the fragment, four inches high, fourteen inches in diameter at the top, Kerris Vaen Bowl. From a Drawing by Mr. Edmonds. and eight at the bottom ; and, when restored, its appearance would have been as given in the above sketch. The thickness of the vessel at top and bottom was one inch, but in the centre it increased to one-inch-and-three-quarters. The brim is marked by a small drill or trench running round it, and the lower part of the vessel was so rounded that it could not stand firmly on its base. In pi. xxv, of Borlases Aittiquities, a very similar bowd occurs, and both were probably corn-crushers.^ ' This structure at Kerris would seem to be very similar to the Giant's Graves at Scilly, and also to that at Pennance. If so, it is possible that they also contained incinerated remains, M 178 Ni^NIA CORNUBI/E. A grave, which from the description of the tenant farmer, appears to have resembled that at Kerris Vaen, was accidentally found a few years since, in the middle of the farm-yard at Castallack, in the same parish of Paul. GOLDVADNEK. The following is an extract from a MS. letter, in the possession of the author, from Thomas Tonkin, Esq."*'to Dr. Borlase, dated March ist, 1727. "In 1 700, a parcell of tinners, opening a burrow of stones in the parish of Gwendron, not far from Carnky, called Collbadnack Burrow, came at last to some large ones, disposed in the nature of a vault, in which they found an urn full of ashes, and a fine chequered brick pavement, (which, together with the urne, they igno- rantly broke to pieces) with several Roman brass coins of the second size, and a small instrument of brass, set in ivory, which, I suppose, the Roman ladies made use of about their hair. The coins were much defaced. Two of them, with the instrument, were brought to me. On the first was very legible diva FAVSTiNA. ''' '" The other, as well as I could guess, was of Lucilla. ''''' ''"' " Since that, I had another given me of Marcus Antoninus Pius." This letter is inserted in the Antiqidties at p. 308, where it is also stated that a first brass of Trajan, together N^ENIA CORNUBL/E. I 79 with two second brass, one of Nerva, and one of Marcus Aurellus Antoninus were found at the same place. KARNMENELEZ. MS. Paroch. Mem. p. 43. " About half-a-mile to the east of Golvadnek Barrow is Karn-men-Elez, or the ' Karn stones of Angells.' It is a range or run of Karns, natural, intermixed with two large stone barrows bearing in a line nearly N. and S. In the southernmost Karn, I {i.e. Dr. Borlase) found many large flat stones, lying near one the other, like the coverings of cromlechs, having some rock basins on the top. These flat stones covered a narrow gutt about two feet wide and fifteen feet long. Near them lay many rude stone pillars from eight to ten feet long. About 200 yards to the North is a stone barrow very large ; by the hollow m. the middle, it has been searched, the stones being thrown up on every side. Here the man, who was my guide, told me that some coins of Julius Caesar were found, which relation may probably have taken its rise from some Roman coins found here, (bearing the word Caesar on them.) From this first barrow we kept on to the North about 200 paces, where we came to a natural Karn of flat rocks ; the top rock was nineteen feet long by sixteen broad. Round it there was a ditch eight feet wide, edtred with a mound of stones, rocks, and earth. I i8o N^NIA CORNUBI^. which made a regular circle quite round the rock,' in the following manner. About 200 yards more brought us to another barrow of stones. Searched this also had been, and in the middle of it a range of long stones in their natural order was enclosed and buried. On one side Karnmenelez Ring and Rock. From a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. of the barrow I perceived a stone wall, about seven feet high from the ground, which makes me think that the heap had formerly a more regular shape, and might have been built in the shape of a pyramid." PERRAN SANDS. The Urn here figured is copied from the drawing made by Borlase. There is, unfortunately, no de- ' This rock, in common with one at Tiescow, Scilly, to which it bears a striking resemblance, was probably used for sepulchral purposes, i.e., to bum tlie body upon. N^NIA CORNUBI^. I8l scriptlon of its discovery. It was of coarse clay, con- tained a large quantity of bones ill burnt, and was, it is believed, deposited at Pencarrow. Perran Urn. Frotn a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. Height, (about) 1 1 inches. Diam. at mouth 1 1 inches. Do. at bottom 5 inches. ST. MARY'S, SCILLY. Nat. Hist, of Cornwall, page 322, and plate. A plain urn, six-inches-and-a-half high, by seven-inches- and-a-quarter at its greatest diameter, and inclosing human bones, was found about the year 1754, in Mr. T. Smith's garden at Newport, on the island of St, Mary's. "It stood upon the natural clay, inclosed in a vault 4 feet 6 inches long, 2 feet 3 inches wide, and 162 N^NIA CORNUBI^. about I foot 3 inches deep. The sides of the vault were faced with stone; its covering, flat stones." Dr. Borlase mentions that he inserts it as the only one up to that time discovered in the islands, but several are said to have been found since. KARN, MORVAH. Fragment of Karn Urn. From a Drawing by Dr. Borlase. Height of fragment 0,% inches. Thickness ^ths of an inch. Nat. Hist., p. 322. The fragment here engraved was a portion of an urn found under a large heap of stones at Karn, in the parish of Morvah, in 1754. " The clay was fine and well burnt," " the ansa solid," and " the colour cinereous." Like many other urns presently to be noticed, the wavy chevron pattern is, in this case, extended over the handle. On this same hill of Karn, on the side declining towards Morvah church, were formerly N/ENIA CORNUBL'E. 1 83 many small circles, supposed to be the ground-work of British huts. The Rev. Malachi Hitchins, writing to the Ar- chceologia, in 1802, mentions the fact that an urn with coins was found close to this place in the year 1789. "It was found," he says, "near the N.W. corner of a small enclosure, surrounded by a thick uncemented stone wall, at the foot of a very long and large stone inserted in the wall." It was about a foot from the surface, and covered by a flat stone of granite. No mention is made of any bones. The Morvah Hill Barrow, where coins of Con- stantius have been found, is the next high ground to the East of Karn. MISCELLANEOUS. The following notices of sepulchral interments are from Hals, and Carte, and are quoted by Dr. Borlase. 1. "At Tencreek (in Creed parish) or Tencruck, i.e., the fire bank or tumulus, is the sepulchre of one interred before the sixth century, whose body was burnt to ashes by fire, and his bones and ashes laid up in an urn, or earthen pot." Hals, MSS. 2. "In a barrow on Lamburn-downs, in the parish of Piran-san, was found an earthen pot, con- \^4 N^.NIA CORNUBI^. taining about two gallons, wherein were lodged much ashes, some bones in small pieces, and charcoal ; and by the side of the said pot were also found two small drinking cups of like clay, with several handles made of the same matter." Hals, MSS. 3. " On the open downs of Hundra, in this parish. (Piran-sands), are extant in a direct line ex- tending from E. to W., twelve or fourteen notable barrows. '" ''" ''" Some have been searched, and in the centre have been found I, 2, 3, 4 or five large urns of clay, and in some of them ashes, charcoal, pieces of iron, and brass mony." Hals, MSS. 4. " The same author has recorded the discovery of a coin of the Emperor Gordian in a Cornish tumulus, but unfortunately does not name the locality. 5. Carte (vol. i, p. 103, Histoiy of England}) men- tions that, " a little while before he came into Cornwall," (in the year 1714), "a fine Roman urn was discovered, with a cover to it, very large, on a hill opposite to Karnbre. It had ashes in it, and one coin of the bigness of a crown-piece, with an inscription on it very legible, shewing it to be a Medal of Augustus Csesar." (?) " Within less than ten years before I was N.^NIA CORNUBI^, 1 85 there," he continues, "a quantity of Roman coins was dug up in one of the barrows in the parish of Illogan. I have seen a great number of the coins found here in searching barrows, but none later than Lucilla and Faustina, found in those urns and barrows, but in other places down along to Valentinian the Third." Carte also alludes to urns found at Ludgvan. ST. AUSTELL, or, GWALLON DOWNS.' \^Philosophical Transactions, 1740.] [MS. notes by Canon Rogers.] The " One Barrow" on these Downs has been already described. Several others have been ex- plored in the same vicinity; the first by Dr. Williams in the year i 740, with the following results : " The body" of the barrow, according to that gentleman's account, " seemed to be composed of foreign, or adventitious earth. Near the centre we found a circular pit, one foot deep and the same dia- meter, dug out of the natural soil of the country, and two flat stones on it. The earth of this and the other barrows, of a yellowish colour, is known to be the natural soil of a hill a mile distant from them." "It deserves our serious observation, that the stones ' The barrows on these downs number in all about twenty. They run in straight lines of from three to seven. Near them, is a "Menhir" or Long-stone, mentioned in Davies Gilbert's Co-nwall, vol. i, p. 193. 1 86 NyENIA CORNUBI^. which compose the heap over the cyHndrical pit, were brought from places both high and low situated, and many miles distant from one another, as the Par, Polmeor Cliff, Hainsbarrow, Pentuan and Carnclays." " Near the outward edge of one of these barrows an urn was discovered under two flat stones. It is composed of burnt or calcined earth, very hard and very black inside. In it were seven quarts of burnt ashes ; the urn will hold two gallons or more." The height was thirteen-and-a-half inches ; the diameter at mouth, eight inches ; at the middle, eleven inches ; and at the bottom, six-inches-and-a-half. It is probable that the fragments of this same urn afterwards became the property of a gentleman of the neighbourhood, well versed in antiquarian lore, the Rev. Richard Hennah. If so, they are now to be found in the Truro Museum, accompanied by the following note: — "Found in a barrow on St. Austell Down, filled with human ashes, about 1740 or 1750. It (the urn) had four small handles, and is described in the Archseologia. It was given to me by the late Mr. Hennah, who had it from his uncle, Oct. 1818. J. Mayers." Mr. Davies Gilbert, vol. ii, p. 869, mentions that, on the 29th of May, 1805, Mr. Hennah opened a barrow on the same Downs, which was found to con- tain a sepulchral urn. N.'ENIA CORNUBLE. 187 The fragments of this urn were presented by the late Rev. Canon Rogers, to the Truro Museum, he Pottery from St. Austell Downs. From a Draiaing by Canon Rogers. having received them from Mr. Hennah. The fol- lowing are the measurements of the vessel. Internal diameter at mouth five-and-a-quarter inches ; ditto at middle ten inches. Thickness from three-eighths to half-of-an-inch. Height (probably) ten to twelve inches. It contained five quarts of human bones. An attempted restoration of the Urn will be found in Mr. Gilbert's work, and also in the MSS. of Canon Rogers, kindly lent to the author by J. J. Rogers, Esq., of Penrose. It is from the latter of these that the above enorravinor of the fragments is taken. In the note accompanying these MSS., it is said 1 88 N^NIA CORNUBL^.. that this urn was found, not in a separate barrow but in the outer edge of the " One Barrow " previously noticed. This, however, can hardly be the case, as the One Barrow seems to have been cleared away for agricultural purposes four years previously. It is much to be regretted that the records of the ex- plorations of these barrows have been so greatly confused together and mislaid, and that the pottery, having passed through so many hands, has not been properly labelled. Several fragments of other urns, probably found in the same vicinity, and deposited at Truro by Canon Rogers and Mr. Mayers, have thus been rendered completely valueless.' PELYNT. [Bond's East and West Looe.] \Accounts of Barrcnvs in the Parish of Peiynt, by Jno. Couch, Esq., ditto by W. H. Box, Esq., printed in the yournal of the Roy. Institution of Cornu ' ' »--l Plan of the Morvah Hill Barrow. ' " De Septentrionalibus populis refert Christianus Cilicius belli Dithmar- sici lib. I. ' Erant eomm sepultura^ in silvis et agris, tumulosque aggestis lapidibm vestientes muniebant, quod genus complures passim adhuc visuntur, qui gigantum strata vocantur.' " y. A. Quenstedt, Sep. Vet. p. 190. This may refer to a similar practice. 250 N^NIA CORNUBI^. Within the ring on the northern side, as may be seen by the plan, lies a large natural rock (A) at present uncovered. At the eastern extremity of this rock is a small circular cavity, four or five inches deep, which, from the appearance of the granite, seems due to artificial, rather than natural causes. The rock itself was resting at each end on the natural soil, from which it had never been removed ; but a pit had been sunk, as was afterwards found, immedi- ately underneath it. Sinking a shaft in the centre of the barrow, at the depth of about eight feet the workmen arrived at two natural granite rocks, the one resting on the other, (just as at Tredinney) and sloping downwards to- wards its eastern end. This slanting rock was about four feet square ; and when found was covered with a black, slimy substance. This being removed, a small artificial cavity was observed in the upper end of the stone, from which a narrow trench could be traced down the sloping surface. Following this trench, a flat stone was soon reached, three feet square. Under this was a Kist-Vaen about eighteen inches deep, (formed as usual of four side- stones,) in w^hich stood an urn, mouth upwards.^ On the cover-stone being first raised, the urn was ' The urn was unfortunately broken by the Morkman placing his foot upon the earth in the pit. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 251 not perceived ; but upon the top of the earth in the kist, on which the stone had been resting, lay a third- brass Roman coin, in a state of semi-decomposition, the substance of it being more Hke clay slate than metal. Several other coins were found in the Kist- Vaen, and on the obverse of one, a middle brass, is a laureated head to the right, with the legend constan ^ very plain. Another bears the head and shoulders of a soldier helmeted, with the shield below, from the disc of which protrudes the point of a spear. This is a type well known on the coins of the later Emperors, and, like the first, probably belongs to some member of the Constantine family. It may be as well to state at once that from the position of these coins, their distance from the surface, and the con- struction of the kist itself, it is quite impossible that by any means they could have reached the situation in which they were found after the covering stone had been once set in its place. 2 The urn appears to have been, when perfect, a small vessel, of the usual cylindrical shape, rising from a bottom of five inches diameter. It is well baked, though the pottery is thick and rude, and the ' The rest of the legend is obliterated, and the head is also indistinct. The author at first believed it to be a Constantius, but a more careful examina- tion proves it to be Constantine the Great. A.D. 274-337. ^ This fact alone, (even were it a single instance,) is enough to throwback the onus probandi on those who deny the Post-Roman origin of some at least of the Cornish "Cairns." 252 N^NIA CORNUBI^. exterior still wears the original yellow colour of the clay. Its ornamentation is, as will be seen, the ordinary chevron pattern, placed perpendicularly between doubled lines of indentations, below which are two rows of small round holes, some of them sunk to one-twentieth-of-an-inch in the clay. This pattern is varied by semicircular embossed ornaments in high relief, serving, no doubt, for holdfasts or handles. A precedent for this unusual type will be found in the fragment of pottery from Duloe circle, engraved at page 128. The bones contained in the urn were so thoroughly calcined that they adhered like white cement to the interior of the vessel. Under the slanting rock in the centre of the barrow were a few more bones and a limpet-shell. Quantities of ashes, burnt stones, a few pebbles, and charred wood, were scattered throughout the mound. On examininof the bones taken from the urn, a small flint disc, struck from a pebble, was discovered. Similar chips are common to the surface of the neigh- bouring downs. €>##^###<^^# The Age of the Momtments, "1st. Barrow Digger. ' Give me leave. Here is a Common ; good ; here is the Barrow ; good ; if the Barrow contains Roman Arms, or Urns, it must be a Roman Barrow ; mark you that.' " The Barrmu Diggers. A Dialogue. S the ultimate purpose of all Antiqua- rian research is, as was stated at the outset, to affix a date to each and every object of which it takes account, it now only remains to be seen what evidence the preceding pages may have afforded on the subject of the age of the Monuments therein described. Hitherto the essay has been simply descriptive ; the only deviations from this rule being the few 2 54 na':nia cornubi^. remarks upon the comparative antiquity of Kist- Vaens and Tripod Cromlechs ; and the practices of Inhumation and Cremation. No proposition has been given to be worked out ; no skeleton theory to be filled in; and the author may freely confess, that when he commenced his researches among the ancient Cornish sepulchres a few years since, he had no theory whatever to offer on the subject of their age. With the works of Nillson and Sir John Lubbock before him, he was rather, if anything, impressed with the notion that they all belonged to the remote irrecoverable past ; and it was not until he came to reflect on the consequences involved in the dis- covery, just narrated, at Morvah Hill, and to com- pare it with other finds in the same district, that he arrived at the conclusion that some at least of the most typical of the interments might be brought within historic times, and assigned to the early centuries of the Christian era. The importance of findine a coin in such a situation as that at Morvah Hill needs no comment. It marks a period, anterior to which the deposit cannot be. On the other hand, however, it by no means settles the question of how long a time may have elapsed between its coinage and its interment in the urn in which it was found. It is probable, although by no means a point to be insisted on, that these brass coins of the later N.ENIA CORNUBLE. ^d:) Emperors served, in the absence of native money, the purposes of traffic among the Britons, long after the Romans had departed. This view of the case is rendered probable, first, from the vast number that were coined ; second, from the evidences of a lengthy circulation which their worn and defaced state often indicates ; and, third, from their not un- usual occurrence in England in company with those coins of the Lower Empire which were certainly in use in Western Europe a few centuries later. The proportion in which coins of the several Roman Emperors and Tyrants have been found in Cornwall, does not materially differ from that of other parts of England. Stray coins of the earlier Em- perors have been found, but these are few and far between. With the age of the Antonines the propor- tion greatly increases ; but it is not until the middle of the third century that they appear in any con- siderable quantities. From Gallienus (260 A.D.) down to Valentinian, a century later, all the hoi'-des of coins date. Among the more common are those of Postumus ; Victo- rinus ; Tetricus, sen. and jun. ; Claudius Gothicus ; Aurelian ; Tacitus ; Probus ; and the family of Con- stantine. Mr. Duller, in his History of St. Just, men- tions the remarkable fact that coins of Carausius (usually scarce) are common in that parish. Unfortunately there is no period of the British 256 N^NIA CORNUBI^. Annals involved in such impenetrable darkness as that during which these very coins were in circu- lation. From the absolute silence of the chroniclers, Lingard infers that the seventy years which suc- • ceeded the death of Severus " were years of tran- quility and happiness." But, while it is true that the Northern tribes may have been held in check by the strength of the new fortification, there seems to have been nothing to overawe the southern portion of the fcrox provincia ; and a maritime district, such as Cornwall, remote from the main road of the legions from Gaul to the North, can scarcely, in those lawless times, have escaped being frequently the stronghold of some marauding chief; if not, of one of those petty tyrants, such as Carausius himself, whose claims were just then convulsing the empire of the world. In fact, the more accustomed the eye of the historian or of the antiquary becomes to the darkness of this period, the more readily will it distinguish scenes, not of peace and prosperity, but of bloodshed and rapine. The wilder portions of Western Danmonia, from Dartmoor to the Land's End, bear evident traces of having once been the theatres of military opera- tions offensive and defensive. Earthworks on the hills and cliffs mark the camps of the invaders, and the retreats of the invaded, while the cairns or tumuli, and (if Dr. Fergusson be right) the circles I N^NIA CORNUBIiE. 257 and avenues, scattered over the " bare and broken heather," no less truly denote the spot " Whence the angry soul ascended To the judgment-seat of God." Interspersed, however, with these monuments of unrecorded misery lie the ruinous heaps of what were once the dwellings of a large resident popula- tion. To the cultivation of grain the mildness of the climate was favourable, and thus in close prox- imity to these hut-villages it is usual to find plots of ground, artificially levelled and cleared of stones. The daily consumption was taken from the un- thrashed corn, preserved in caves under the huts, which also served as refuges for the inhabitants, when the winter was severe, or danger threatened. The mills in which this corn was ground were of the rudest possible kind, consisting of granite blocks scooped out on one side. In these hollow basins, mullars, consisting generally of sea-worn stones, averaging from two feet to six inches in diameter, were worked by the hand. Cattle were also kept in considerable numbers in these villages, as appears by the numerous stone pens which accompany the huts. The dwellings themselves were either circular or oblong ; but almost invariably built in the beehive manner, that is, of layers of stone overlapping each other until they approach sufficiently near for a single 258 N^NIA CORNUBI^E. slab to complete the roof. Sometimes the group of structures was surrounded by an embankment of stone or earth ; sometimes it was placed so close to a " hill-castle," that a retreat of a few hundred yards would place the families and their goods in safety; sometimes a cave, built in the same beehive style, formed part of the group, serving, as before observed, for the suffiigimn Jiicnii et receptacuhiin frugibiis.^ In their structure these huts are doubtless of native origin, and have their counterpart in the ' Picts Houses' of Scotland, as well as in Irish examples. Their occupation, however, as far as Cornwall is concerned, dates from Romano- British times. Of this fact, the following discoveries made in some of them, may be considered as very good evidence. I. At Carnbre, near Redruth. In one of the many circular huts on this hill was found a pint of Roman coins; the head of an animal in brass, etc. Two of these coins figured by Borlase are, respectively, those of Tctriciis senior, and the U?'bs Ronia type.- [An excellent paper on the subject of the fortified hut town on Carnbre has been drawn up by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and will be found in the Report of ' Tacitus on the Caves of the Germans. Germatiia, Ch. xvi. ' Antiquitks of Cornwall, Edit, i, 288, and pi. v. J N^NIA CORXUBLE. 259 the Royal Institiition of Cornzuall, for the year i860. Gold Celtic coins were found "on the ridge" of Carnbre, in June, 1749, and are en- graved by Borlase. Ant. of Corfiwall, pi. xix. Bronze celts in company luith Roman coins, viz : Antoninus Pius, Severus Alexander, and Con- stantius, were taken in 1 744 from the side of this same "fruitful hill." Id, page 263.] 2. At Bodinar Crellas, in Sancred parish. This group of huts is ranged round the southern and eastern slope of Bodinar Hill. It is not surrounded by any rampart, but from its posi- tion, must have been a place of considerable strength. Within the memory of man a sub- terranean passage was to be found at this place, as also two beehive huts with lintels over the doors. The most perfect of those huts whose foundations can still be made out, measures forty-two feet by thirty-five in diameter, is of an oval form, and is surrounded by smaller huts opening into it. On two separate occa- sions, deposits of Roman third brass coins have been found in connection with this beehive village. The first was accompanied by pottery, ashes, a stone bowl, and a mullar ; the second and larger deposit was taken from under a flat stone at the entrance of the enclosure. Out of this latter horde, three, secured by the author, 26o N^NIA CORNUBI/E. proved to be those of Tetricus, jun., Victo- rinus, and Probus. Several others have been picked up in the adjacent fields. -^^^'^-'-mr^' j^r-^-t tliXiBLieilT ^ The Long Chamber — Chapel Euny Cave. ( Repi-oduced by permission of the Society of Antiquaries). At Chapel Euny. In a subterranean structure containing three long passages and a circular beehive hut, and running under a group of huts of similar construction on the surface, the author discovered in the year 1863, among other things, an iron spear-head, a crook and rivet of the same metal, a small perforated stone or spindle-whorl, a quantity of black pottery, bones of animals, and a piece of Sa- N.^NIA CORNUBL^. 26 1 'niian zuare. ^ [An account of the exploration of this cave will be found in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiqiiai'ies of London, for i868.]2 4. At Chigwidden, The fortified enclosure which bears this name is situated, like the two last- mentioned places, in the parish of Sancred. Immediately inside the rampart, an old man named Dennis found several small copper coins, which, from the account he gave of them to the author, were undoubtedly Roman third brass. Pottery, ashes, and mullars were also dug up in the same place. Within the me- mory of persons now living, there were small houses of the beehive kind in the centre of this enclosure ; and a cave is said to have been discovered, roofed in with large slabs, in the next field. To these four instances of late Roman remains, found in connection with the dwellings and forts of the ancient inhabitants of Cornwall, may be added the discoveries of coins of Antoninus near a subter- ranean structure at Boscaswell, in St. Just, and of un- certain Roman brass money in a circular enclosure at ' Compare the finds in Romano- British villages in other parts of Great Britain. ^ Part of a granite mill-stone has been lately picked up here, and sent to the author by the farmer at Chapel Euny. It is an improvement upon the ruder ones usually found. 262 N^NIA CORNUBI/E, Morvah. A similar find was made at the Cliff-castle of Treryn, near the Logan Rock, and has been duly recorded by Leland ; and, indeed, (were it necessary to do so), instances might be multiplied. The hut dwellings and fortified enclosures being thus, from internal evidence, satisfactorily referred to a Romano- British occupation, the question may be asked : " where are the sepulchres of so considerable a population to be found ?" It is true that the cairns which invariably sur- mount the nearest available high ground seem to afford a tacit answer. Not, however, to jump at this conclusion without a fair amount of evidence, it will be necessary to name the following points of resemblance between the beehive huts and the tumuli. These consist : First, in the similarity of their general megalithic construction and arrange- ment -.^ Second, in the fact that the mill-stones and muUars used by the occupiers of the huts have also been found deeply buried among the stones composing the cairn i^ Third, in the occurrence of the chevron, and indented linear patterns, on the pottery common to both i^ and Fourth, in the dis- ' e.S- Barrows on Morvah Hill, and Sharp Tor, and indeed all the ring ban-ows ; many of which have been mistaken for hut-dwellings. ^ e.g. Boscawen-iin and Rosemoddress Barrows. 3 e.g. On the sepulchral pottery, passim. On the domestic, on that from Carne, in Zennor, and on a specimen in the Traro Museum. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 263 covery of coins of the same ag-e in both huts and tumuli, I Anyone who has taken the trouble to read carefully the descriptions in the previous pages of the explorations of the barrows, will at once re- member the recurrence of the above points of resemblance, and will also recollect how frequently it has happened that tumuli, as well as megalithic monuments, have been found to be in close and con- venient proximity to forts or beehive towns. Perhaps of all the barrows above described, that on Morvah Hill is most worthy of a second notice. Here was an instance of an interment in a cairn, where the body had been burnt on a central natural rock surrounded by the usual ring of stones, the ashes placed in an urn of the usual chevron pattern, accompanied by the usual limpet and flint, protected by the usual Kist-Vaen, and finally covered in by the usual pile of stones. The whole arrangement, in short, being one of the most typical examples of the generality of barrows opened in the district. But here, in the very kist itself, what should appear but late Roman coins of the third century ! What is the most natural inference then ? That the coins must be thrown out of the question, because of the flint chip ? or the whole structure referred at ' <'.^'-. Morvah Hill, Kenis, Goldvadnek, Karnmenelez, Ludgvan Barrows, Illogan, Carn Bre. Coswinsawsoii, (lor the latter example see the coins of Con- stantine in the Truro Museum), lic, &c. 264 N^NIA CORNUBT^E. once to the Stone Age, thousands of years b.c, because it is encircled by large stones,' or because the pottery is rude, and its ornamentation not curvi- linear?^ Is it not rather the only fair course to admit at once that this interment, although possessing every characteristic of the so called Stone Age, was placed here not earlier than the end of the third century, a.d. ; that is, at the time when the coin was struck. But a comparison of the Morvah Hill Barrow and pottery with other finds in the neighbourhood proves to demonstration that it is only one out of a large number of interments, which owe their origin to one and the same funeral observances, and therefore presumably to one and the same people ; and, ap- proximately speaking, to one and the same age. If, therefore, the evidence as to date in the case of the Morvah Hill Barrow is considered conclusive, by far the greater number of the Cornish tumuli, and pro- bably all the sepulchral pottery, must be handed over to Post- Roman times, and acknowledged as the genuine relics of the inhabitants of the beehive huts, and of those warriors who scaled or defended the ramparts on the hills. But although a stand-point has thus been gained ' IVorsaae, (Edit. Thorns.) p. 93. ' Sir John Lubbock. Prehist. Times. 2 Edit., p. 16. N.^NIA CORNUBI.E. 265 with regard to the date of many individual tiimuh, and a stepping stone as it were fixed in the abysmal gulf, it must still be remembered that, in many other cases, the extreme rudeness of the interments, thoicgh accompanied by the same generally charac- teristic features, betokens to all appearance a more remote period in the annals of the race. Either the urn is less carefully baked, or its ornamenta- tion more rudely traced ; or there is no urn at all, or perhaps no kist at all, only the deposit of splintered bone. Thus the difficult question arises, how many years may be allowed for the prevalence of a custom, such as that of placing a particular pattern on the vessels, or, indeed, of urn burial and incremation at all ? A careful comparison of the Cornish interments will only lead to the supposition that it must be reckoned by tens rather than by hundreds, and by hundreds rather than by thousands of years ; and, while, on the one hand, it is extremely doubtful whether cremation was practised in Britain anterior to the contact of that nation with the Roman world ; on the other, it must be remembered that as far as Cornwall is concerned, there are few, if any, instances of inhumation which can fairly be assigned to a period prior to that of the rude deposits of burnt bone-chips, such as have been found at the feet of the Menhirion. 266 N^NIA CORNUBI/E. It is true that in the case of the Trevelijue Barrow (see page 80,) an instance occurs of a class of inter- ment whose Pre- Roman origin in the North of Eng- land Canon Greenwell has satisfied himself of; but, while acknowledging this to be the most ancient of our Cornish sepulchres, the fact must not be over- looked that in the same tumulus, and immediately- above the kist containing the contracted body, a secondary interment had been deposited of the usual incinerated type. This mound was therefore recog- nised as a place of burial at the time when crema- tion was in vogue ; and, just as in geology, the cir- cumstance of one stratum overlying another implies (unless denudation has intervened,) immediate suc- cession in point of age, so in the case of these two interments, it seems most probable that if their origin was not contemporaneous, no great distance of time can have elapsed between the deposition of the first and of the second. From the extreme rarity of the earlier and con- tracted mode of burial when contrasted with the later and incinerated form, one inference may at all events be drawn, viz., that Cornwall was not a populous country until the time when it was inhabited by the people among whom the latter custom prevailed; that is, the author believes, until the early centuries of the Christian era. If before that time it possessed any considerable population, all that can be said is that N^NIA CORNUBI^. 267 " their memorial has perished with them." The reason of so great an influx of Ceks at this period into a seemingly desolate land may be hard to account for ; but the fact that such was the case is only the natural conclusion which an inspection and classification of the ancient sepulchres justifies the antiquary in arriving at. The tendency to modernize these remains is by no means lessened when the Cromlechs are taken into consideration. These stupendous edifices, " piled by the hands of Giants in the godlike days of old," have hitherto, in the popular mind at least, found their place in that great supernatural, which, with a total disregard to common sense, is always conveniently made to do duty in the case of every object about which nothing is known. To invest either a Jewish patriarch, or a Pre- Adamite savage with superhuman strength, is all very well. But some little evidence on the sub- ject is required, when either the one or the other is said to be building a Cromlech. Without such proof, the further the monument can be drawn into a modern, and metallic age, the easier will it be to bring to the rescue the aid of such appliances, as would, without miracle, account for the erection of such grand and mysterious sarcophagi. In all the larger Kist-Vaens, as has been re- marked before, the graves are of sufficient size to 268 N^.NIA CORNUBI^. have contained a body laid at length ; and some by their shape seem to indicate that such was the inten- tion of their builders. In one instance, however, (that at Bosporthennis) the author has himself taken up from the floor of the kist fragments of an urn of the late globular form, with ashes and burnt bone adhering to the inside. This may be set down to a secondary interment ; but even then, those who placed it there must have recognized in the Cromlech a well known and not unusual form of sepulchre. Indeed, it is not at all unreasonable to suppose that Cromlechs are in many cases quite as late as the tumuli in which smaller Kist-Vaens are found. From this point of view the larger chamber would be regarded as the more elaborate form of the smaller, raised at the expense of greater labour in proportion to the honour due to the miohtier dead. A letter written by Mr. Tonkin to Bishop Gibson, on the 4th of August, 1733, and quoted by Dr. Borlase, p. 300 (edit. 2), gives a graphic, and, doubtless, a true description of the discovery of a Cromlech, with coins of a later date than any of the tumuli have hitherto produced. He says. "In 1702, in the parish of Tawednack, between St. les and the Land's End, were found under a prodigious rock of Moorstone called the Giant's Rock, a large flat stone supported by four pillars of the same, an Urn N^NIA CORNUBI.E. 269 full of ashes with a round ball ^ of earth by the side of it, and in the said ball fourscore silver coins of the later Emperors, very fair and well preserved. I could not have the sight of more than five of them, of which I got three, of Valentinian I, Gratian, and Arcadius ; the rest were seized for the Lord of the Soil." MS. B., p. 224. To those who would apply the Danish theory to the Cornish Cromlechs, the author respectfully submits the above account as the most conclusive evidence to the contrary which it is possible to obtain. But the proximity of the Cromlechs to the bee- hive huts and castles affords another reason for as- signing them to the same period. Take the instance of Chywoone. Here is a Cromlech standing at a distance of only 250 paces from a hill castle, close to a British village, the castle itself containing founda- tions of huts, and the walls being formed of enor- mous blocks of granite, many of them larger than those of the neighbouring Kist-Vaen. What does this imply ? Either that the Cromlech is a more recent structure than the castle, or else that the ' Sir John BoMTing has mentioned to the author a custom observed by him in Siam, curiously analogous to the above. On the death of the Queen of that country balls were made from the ashes of her funeral pile, in the centre of each of which a coin, belonging to her in her life-time, was placed. These balls were subsequently presented to her sorrowing friends. The author is in- debted to Sir John for two of these balls which he has kindly placed in his collection. 270 N^NIA CORNUBI^. builders of the castle allowed the Cromlech to re- main unharmed while engaged in their work, and put themselves to the labour of obtaining stones from a greater distance, rather than disturb the structure. In the latter case the veneration which preserved the monument must have been due to the fact that it was either the grave of one of their own people, or of some one whose memory was at that time held in sufficient respect to save his tomb from desecra- tion. Negative evidence of this kind is of course, when taken by itself, anything but satisfactory, but when considered in conjunction with the above-men- tioned discoveries at Bosporthennis and Towednack, it goes far to validate the conclusion to which they so directly point. There is one question in connection with the date of these interments which, from the prominence given it by the advocates of the primaeval theory, must not be passed by without a comment. It is that of the flints; not of the carefully chipped or ground spear-heads, and barbed arrow-points of flint which are evidently works of art, and belong in some countries, such as Ireland, to a comparatively recent period ; but those rough chips which, from their frac- tured forms and sharp edges, have obtained the names of " knives," " scrapers," &c. among modern writers in England, as well as on the continent. Before any argument is adduced from their presence N^NIA CORNUBI^. 27 1 in Cornish barrows, two questions must be asked and answered : — First — Are they in reality of human manufac- ture ? Second — If indeed they are so, what evidence is there of their being purposely placed in the tumuli in which they occur ? With regard to the first of these questions, flints are certainly heterogeneous to the Cornish soil ; therefore, they have been brought there. ^ The very great quantity in which the chips are found, strewn over the downs, leads to the doubt whether so great a traffic could ever have been maintained by human agency ; and the glacial action, which sometimes im- ported such immense masses of rock into foreign and distant soils, has been brought into requisition to account for the phenomenon. Against this theory, it has been urged, (with what truth the author will not venture to say,) that the glacical action would be powerless to break these flints in the manner in which they are broken, and as it must be admitted that sea-washed flints are by no means uncommon on the Cornish coasts, it is possible that the inhabit- ants may have brought them thence to their chip- ping places, their dwellings, and their hearths, where, no doubt, they served, as indeed they have served ' See Sir H. De la Beche Geology of Cornwall, p. 429. 272 N^NIA CORNUBI^. from the most primitive times down to the invention of matches, for the purpose of kindHng the fire. Secondly, then, allowing the possibility of their human origin, how far must it be supposed that they were piLrposcly deposited in the barrows. In answer to this, it may be fairly said, that so common are they to certain districts, that it would be hard, even now, to raise a pile of earth skimmed off the surface, without flint chips being discoverable in it. Acci- dent may, therefore, account for those that are not in immediate and seemingly intentional proximity to the interment. But accident, it must be added, can hardly account for those which occur, as many do, in the urns, in the kists, or mixed with the pile of ashes and charred wood. In these cases the author fully believes them to have afforded the means of kin- dling the fire which reduced the body to those ashes among which they are found.' The circular piece of mundick, cleft and worn in the centre, found at Mullion, and mentioned at page 236, he believes to have served a similar purpose. This view of the case would amply account for all the finds of flint chips in Cornish barrows. The purpose they served in connection with tinburnt re- mains in other countries must still remain a mystery; ' Mr. Evans, with his immense experience, has arrived at the same con- clusion with regard to many specimens. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 273 perhaps, in those cases they were strike-a-Hghts not for any torch in this world, but to guide the trembHng soul in its way through the dusky valley to the dis- tant "spirit-land." In the course of these notes on the age of the Cornish sepulchres, any detailed comparison with those of other countries has been generally avoided, for the simple reason that if a particular district cannot bear testimony to the date of its own re- mains, it surely cannot borrow one from other locali- ties, which, although inhabited by a race observing similar customs, may have been sunk in a state of barbarism at a time when it was civilised, or vice versa. Each locality must yield its separate quota of evidence to its own careful observers, and until this has been effected in more districts than is at present the case, any attempt at generalization would only prove as fallacious as it would be unscientific. To the rude stone monuments of Ireland those of Cornwall bear the most striking resemblance. There is, however, this difference between the two : that while the former country possesses in many in- stances a traditional history attaching to the barrows and cromlechs, the latter (with the exception of the solitary case of Rosemoddress) has lost it altogether. This fact may be attributed in great measure to the preservation of the native Irish language on the 2 74 N^NIA CORNUBI^, one hand, and the decline and fall of the Cornish on the other.' In conclusion, the author cannot do better than quote the words of Mr. Freeman, ^ who observes that, although " the sepulchral barrow can neither err nor lie, zoe must be constantly on our guard against our own misinterpretations." If, in the above remarks, he has misinterpreted the evidence at his disposal, he has at least supplied the reader with the facts in detail which led him to do so. These facts, since they are authentic, will retain their value to science, no matter how false the theories they have given rise to may hereafter be proved to be.^ ' The epitaph of one of its latest spokesmen might well and truly be set up over the giave of each and every ancient Comu-Briton, who in his death has carried with him not only the tale of the past, but the very language in which that tale was told : — "Beneath this fair stone, the remains lie of one, In the Cornish tongue skilled above all : The day shall arrive, when his bones shall revive, But the language is gone past recall." In Cornish — "Dadn an Mean, ma Deskes broaz Dean, En Tavaz Kemuak gelles, Termen vedn doaz, rag an Corfe thethoras, Mez Tavaz coth Kemow ew kellys." The epitaph is to the memory of Mr. John Keigwin, written by Mr. Boson, of Newlyn, the 20th of April, 17 16 ;^and translated as above by Dr. Borlase. Mr. Keigwin died several years pre\aously. (See A/S. Mcms. of Corn. Tongue. W.B. 1743). ^ Historical Essays, p. 27. 3 Descent of Man, vol. ii, p. 385. See Mr. Darwin's remark on False Facts and False Views. Addenda, (a.) sepulchral monuments in meneage. On the 5th of July, 1872, the author accompa- nied Mr. BHght, sen., of Penzance, to visit some of the antiquities in the district known as Meneage. Than that gentleman there is no one who has paid greater attention to the objects of interest in the un- explored tract of country which forms the Lizard peninsula ; and it is entirely through his kindness that the author is enabled to introduce the following descriptions, without which any notice of Cornish sepulchral remains would be incomplete. The Map of the Goonhilly Downs, or that undu- lating expanse of wastrell which forms the central feature of this district, is dotted over in all directions 276 N^NIA CORNUHI/E. with tumuli. Like those in the neighbourhood of St. Cohimb, they are of large size, and are some- times placed in lines of three or four, sometimes singly on the summit of rising ground. Almost all of them, as the author has been kindly informed by Sir Richard Vyvyan, Bart, of Trelo- warren, were searched above a century ago. A few, however, still remain unexplored. In one of these, lately opened by the owner of the property, a large quantity of burnt earth was discovered, but no sepul- chral remains. The highest part of Goonhilly is known as the Dry Tree,^ and is surmounted by three tumuli, on one of which a pole is fixed. Fifty yards to the north of this conspicuous object, and about the same distance from another barrow, is a stone 14 feet 7 inches in length, and 9 feet 8 inches in girth at the larger ex- tremity, lying prostrate at the end of a shallow pit in which it evidently once stood upright. It is an unhewn bastard serpentine, somewhat dissimilar in its nature to other rocks in its immediate vicinity. When erect, it must have been an exceedingly fine Menhir, and was, doubtless, connected in some manner with the barrows which lie around it. At a distance of three miles, as the crow flies, ' This name, like that of Dry Cam, in St. Just, probably alludes to the three tumuli, and not to the Surveyor's pole. NyENIA CORNUBLE. 277 from the Dry Tree Stone, in the direction of St. Keverne, is the farm of Tremenheere. This place derives its name, (Hke the Tremenheere, in Ludgvan, previously mentioned,) from a fine unhewn monolith, the only one which still stands erect in the district, /o-. Monolith at Tremenheere, St. Keverne. From a Sketch by the Aiitlwr. situated in the pathway held leading from that village to St. Keverne.' So finely proportioned, and symmetrical in its outline is this stone, that, although a tool has never ' There is a third farm called Tremenlieero, in the parish of .Slithians. 278 N^NIA CORNUBI.^. been used upon it, it might with justice be termed a handsome monument. It is a diallage rock, measuring 9 feet 5 inches in height. In bulk, (at a distance of 2 feet 6 inches from the ground,) it measures 10 feet 10 inches, but tapers off towards the top. In its ground-plan it is triangular, having three faces, of which the southern- most is the widest. Judging from similar monu- ments in the West, it seems probable that it was on this latter and broader side that the interment took place. The ground, however, seems never to have been searched. But the most interesting object in the parish of St. Keverne still remains to be described. It con- The Three Brothers of Grigith. From a Sketch by the Author. sists of a half natural, half artificial, dolmen or crom- lech, situated on the estate of Grugith, on the Crowza Downs, — a wild marshy tract, strewn with diallage ' ' See Sir H. De la Heche, Geology of Conrwall, ^c, p. 396. N^NIA CORNUBI^. 279 rocks, each of them many tons in weight. In the locaHty it is known as the " Three Brothers of Grugith." In the case of this monument, a natural rock in situ, 8 feet 8 inches long by six feet broad, and 2 feet 6 inches high, has been selected as the side-stone of the cromlech. At a distance of 2 feet 3 inches from it, and parallel to its northern side, a second stone 7 feet 4 inches long, and averaging from six to eighteen inches broad, has been set up on edge. A third stone, measuring 8 feet 3 inches by 5 feet 3 inches, has then been laid across the two. A Kist- Vaen, open at the ends, has thus been formed, 2 feet 3 inches deep, i.e. from the under side of the covering stone to the natural surface of the ground around it. Having obtained permission from Lord Falmouth to search the sepulchral monuments on his property in this district, the author caused a pit to be sunk between the supporters of the ' Ouoit' Nothing, however, was discovered besides a small flint chip,' and the fact that a similar pit had been sunk in the same spot to a depth of four feet from the surface, previous to the erection of the strtictiire. This was, doubtless, a grave like that at Lanyon, which, if it ' The Author hopes at no distant opportunity to be able to give an account of the discovery of a remarkable deposit of chipped flints in this district, as well as some other traces of its very early occupation by man. At present, however, it is foreign to the subject of his work. 28o N/ENIA CORNUBI^. had not been subsequently disturbed, had, at all events, lost all trace of its ancient occupant' (b.) boskednan circle. It has been remarked at a previous page that, although there is no more proof that our megalithic circles were in their origin merely sepulchral monu- ments, than there is in the case of a church from the fact that interments were placed in and around it, still it is well worthy of notice that numerous barrows ^K'^^!k,.^f^!^^v^""'''^j«>"vA;;:^ Boskednan Circle and Barrow. From a Sketch by the Author. or cairns almost invariably occur in very close proxi- mity to monuments of this class, A very good instance of a cairn situated on the very edge of a ' When he wrote his remarks on Cornish Cromlechs, (see page 15,) the Author had not visited this monument. Had he done so, he would have cer- tainly mentioned it as an example of Cromlechs of the third class, such as that at Craig-Madden, in Stirlingsliire. N/ENIA CORNUBL^. 251 circle, is to be found on the higher part of Boskednan on the Gulval Downs ; and as the results of its ex- ploration on the 26th of July, 1872, were curious, the author is induced to insert an account of it here. This circle consisted in Borlase's time of nineteen stones, thirteen of which were then erect, with a detached " long-stone " forty-three paces to the north- west. ' Eleven of these stones are all that now remain, seven of which are standing, while four are prostrate. Of those now standing the average height is four feet, with the exception of a fine menhir,^ on the northern side, which measures 6 feet 6 inches above the surface of the ground. Immediately opposite this, at a dis- tance of seventy feet, on the southern side of the ring, stands a flat-faced stone, about four feet high, the base of which is surrounded by the outskirts of a cairn, which thus is made to cut the circumference of the circle at this point. So large a portion of the stones composing it have been removed that neither its height nor circumference can now be determined. Thinking, however, that some object of interest might still be obtained among the d(^biHs, the author caused a trench to be dug across it ; and the four side-stones of a Kist-Vaen were soon discovered. ' This is still to be found, though the top is broken off. ^ The ground around this was carefully searched, but no interment dis- covered. The occurrence of single stones taller than the rest, in many of these circles, has been previously noticed. 282 ' N^NIA CORNUBI^. This chamber stood in such a position that a hne drawn due N. and S. from it to the Menhir on the northern side of the ring would immediately bisect the circle, and cut the flat-faced stone on the southern side, from the latter of which it was distant twenty- two feet. The measurements of the chamber were respectively: length, (from W.N.W. to E.S.E.,) four feet ; breadth, 2 feet 6 inches ; and depth (to the sur- face of a pavement neatly formed of three flat stones,) I foot 6 inches. The cover had been unfortunately removed, and the chamber rifled. Continuing the trench in a westerly direction, the workman dis- covered, at a distance of two feet from the Kist-Vaen, a large quantity of burnt wood ; and two feet further still, the fragments of an urn, formed of very coarse clay. In shape and size the vessel was probably much like that found at Tredinney. The chevron pattern round the upper part was not unlike that on the first Angrowse Urn ; but the bosses or handles, though neatly formed, were in slight relief and not perfor- ated. The interior as well as the exterior of the rim showed the "twisted-cord" pattern so common to the sepulchral pottery in general, and the vessel seems to have differed little from the usual type. No bones or ashes were found with the fragments ; and as one piece occurred near the present summit of the cairn, it may reasonably be supposed that the vessel, origin- all)' interred in the kist, had been broken b)- the N^NIA CORNUBLE. 283 workmen who discovered it, and the pieces care- lessly thrown aside at the spot where they were re- discovered. The remains of two other cairns are to be found at a distance of some 200 yards to the north-west of Boskednan Circle. "On the top" of one of these stood, in all probability, a Kist-Vaen mentioned in Borlase's MSS. {ParocJi. Mem., p. 9). He describes it as measuring "three-and-a-half feet wide, by six feet long, neatly walled on the two sides and the western end, (the eastern being broken up) ; across the top of it lies a flatt stone, three -and-a-half feet wide, and eight feet long. There was also formerly another covering stone, which, both together, secured the cavity, and what it contained." Another large, but dilapidated cairn, is to be found at distance of 200 yards east of the same circle.' (c.) BARROWS NEAR BOSPORTHENNIS, ZENNOR. On the 14th of August, 1872, the author caused some barrows to be opened on the Downs to the east of the Hut-Circles at Bosporthennis. Two of ' For a drawing of the Boskednan Circle as it waa one hundred years ago, see Borlase's Antiqidties. Plate xiii, fig. ii. 284 N^NIA CORNUBI^. these occupied the summit of a rising ground, at a distance of one hundred paces apart, in a Hne N. and S. ; while a third was placed on the slope of the hill some 800 paces to the W.N.W. All three of these tumuli had been previously dismantled by stone-carriers, the third being only eighteen inches in height. Enough, however, re- mained in each case to make a search worth while, and, accordingly, workmen were set to cut trenches through those on the top of the hill. Each of these proved to be "a ring barrow," (twenty-four feet in diameter) of the ordinary type. Circles of stones on edge had been placed round piles of natural rock, and over the surfaces of these the ashes of the funeral pile were still strewn in abundance. In the southern- most of the two was found a flint chip and a piece of iron, to the surface of which latter were adhering ashes and burnt earth. It seemed to have been pre- served owing to its having passed through the fire. Section of Concentric Circle Cairn, near Bosporthennis. Scale, ^-of-an-inch to a foot. No interments were discovered in either of the ring barrows ; and it is therefore possible that they were simply burning-places for the bodies, which were subsequently interred at the third and last barrow now to be described. N^NIA CORNUBLE. 285 The diameter of this cairn was thirty feet, and its height (as previously mentioned) eighteen inches. It was surrounded by a circle of stones on edge. On cutting a trench to the centre, a second and inner circle was discovered, measurinof eiofht feet in dia- meter, and formed of stones set on end in the manner indicated in the section on the preceding page. The western side of this inner ring was occupied by a single flat stone resting on the hard soil, and on V .-/ Two Urns found near Bosporthennis. Restored by the Author from the fragments. Fig. I. Fig. 2. Diam. at mouth 1034^ inches. Diam. at mouth Tj^ inches. Height (probably) ... 10 inches. Height (probably) ... 8 inches. the eastern side stood (mouths downwards) the two urns here figured. Small stones had been carefully jammed in round them, but apparently no trouble 2^6 N.€NIA CORNUHI.F,. had been taken to shield them from the debris of the superincumbent cairn.' They were therefore hopelessly crushed, or, as the Americans would say, " telescoped." The sketches on the preceding page are therefore only restorations from the fragments. Both vessels were filled with burnt bones, amono- which roots had forced their way. Portions of the skull were clearly recognisable among these ; and in the mouth of the larger urn was the little flint implement, of which a drawing is here given. Flint Implement found with the Larger Urn, in a Cairn NEAR BoSPORTHENNIS. — ACTUAL SIZE. From a Drawing by the Author. Taken by itself this implement would come under the class known to the Pre-historic Archaeolo- gist as " awls ; " but from the company in which it was found, the author believes it to have been simply the strike-a-light for the funeral pile. The marks of secondary chipping are very distinct, and it has passed through the fire. The pottery of the urns is remarkable, from the ' It is possible, however, that the "cap stones" may have been removed by stone carriers. NiENIA CORNUBI^. 287 fact that it bears a greater similarity, both in shape and make, to the black domestic ware found in the " hut-dwellings" than any hitherto noticed.^ In both cases it is exceedingly thick and coarse at the lower extremity of the vessels, but is thinner and better made as it approaches the top. The Zennor Circle, (figured by Borlase, Ajit., pi. xiii, and previously noticed as in all probability a sepulchral monument,) lies to the east of this same Downs. ' Some specimens of domestic pottery found with iron implements and Samian ware at Chapel Euny, as previously mentioned, are not distinguishable from the pottery of these urns. NETHERTON, PRINTER, TRURO. ERRATA. Page II, line 9, for "Ordinance," read "Ordnance." Page 31, note, for "page ," read "page 69." Page 33, last line, for " Cromlech !" read "cromlech." Page 40, note, for "page ," read "page 155." Page 49, note, for "Furgusson," read "Fergusson." Page 50, note, id. Page 54, line 24, for "however, that the," read "however, the." Page 78, line 9, for "p. note," read "p. 69 note." Page 116, line 14, for "most," read "almost." Page 177, line 4, for " Vaen," read " Vean." Page 178, line 3, id. \J THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001013 130