Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/419

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EARLY MAN others are shorter than these, but much the same in other dimensions. The barrows on the Isles of Scilly are generally of this kind, 1 but only five are now known in Cornwall, and they are all in the extreme western extremity beyond Penzance. Most of those on the islands have been rifled by irre- sponsible people, and of the Cornish specimens three, viz., Pennance, Treen, 2 and Brane, 5 have been opened longer than any records and used as shelters for calves. At Tregiffian,* which is curious for its irregular shape and in being more in the nature of two chambers, one higher than the other, opening into one another, Mr. W. C. Borlase found in 1879 on the floor, under the stones and earth of which the chamber was full, a stratum of human bone mixed with the ashes of a peat fire, and everywhere indications of great heat ; and at Tregeseal 6 were the bases of three urns, a large quantity of burnt human bones, a whetstone with a hole in it, and at the back of the chamber, standing in a little stone kist, the largest sepulchral urn ever found in Cornwall. The urn, which was nearly 2. ft. high, was, as is so often the case in barrows of the other type, standing mouth downwards. At Kerris 6 was found a small urn of finest red clay, which Dr. Borlase thought to be Roman. The rest of the Cornish barrows are of the other kind referred to. They are round, and some of them are built up around a natural earn or projecting rock and surrounded by a single ring of stones, 7 while in others the mound is entirely artificial and surrounded at the base by a circle of flat stones set on edge. 8 It is probable that many which are now without this protection originally possessed it, the stones having been removed for hedging or other purposes, as sometimes traces of some such foundation are still to be seen. 9 In some cases the barrow contains one 10 or two, 11 and in one instance four l * concentric stone walls buried under the material of which the whole is composed. Most of the barrows still existing are to be found on the hill sides and higher moorlands, but this may be due to the fact that those which perhaps 1 Journ. Roy. Intt. Cornvi. 48th Report, 1863, 50.

  • Boriase, Naen. Corn. 73. * Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornto. i (1865), 19.

4 Ibid. (1879), ii. 5 In St. Just, Tram. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Sue. (1880-1), 19. 6 Dr. Borlase, Antlq. 307, mentions that in 1723 in removing an old hedge the workmen discovered 'a vault about 8 feet long and 6 feet high, the floor paved with stone, and the roof arched over with the same materials.' Unless his informant was mistaken this is unique in Cornwall, and cannot be classed with any other of the monuments. 7 Trewavas Head, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornui, (1867), 306; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 140; Tredinney, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 232 ; Trescaw in Breage, Borlase, Antlq. zoo ; Carmenelez, Wendron, Borlase, Antiq. 200, 308 ; Boscawen Un, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 219. 8 Clahar Garden Mullion, Borlase, Naen. Com. 224; Pradanack, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 240; Morvah Hill, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 249; Pelynt, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 191 ; Hustyn, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornto. vii, 144. The circle at Duloe, where an urn was found, may have been the base of a barrow of this description, Borlase. Naen. Corn. 127. 9 Goonornan Downs, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 133; Boscreggan, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornvi. (1879), vi. 204; Durval, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 172. 10 Bosporthennis, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 284 ; Lanyon, Ibid. 154 ; Hustyn, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornvi. vii, 144. " Ballowal, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornto. vi (1879), 194 ; Bodinnar, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Sof. i, 235 ; Bosavern, Borlase, Antiq. 235 ; Bosporthennis, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 284 ; Boleigh, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 229. 11 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornvi. zznd Ann. Rep. (1840), 39 and section. Mr. Millett describes this barrow as being on Cam Gollewa (Galver), but there is no such thing on that hill ; it is presumed that he meant the north eastern barrow on the adjoining (Morvah) Hill. This is composed entirely of loose stones. It is difficult to discover four walls there now 359