Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/434

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A HISTORY OF CORNWALL being a small doorway usually about 3 or 4 ft. in height and about the same in width. 1 The cave at Bodinnar in Sancreed may have consisted of a single chamber only, but it was in ruins in 1769^ and had wholly disappeared in i845. 3 That at St. Eval * seems to have been always a single chamber, but it makes up for that deficiency in being the largest in internal dimensions, being 50 ft. long by 8 ft. high and 10 ft. wide, the average size of these structures being from 30 to 40 ft. in length, 5 to 6 ft. in height, and 3 or 4ft. wide. The most striking of the class is the cave at Chapel Euny, in Sancreed,' which has on the north side of the main gallery a large round chamber about 1 4 ft in diameter and 12 ft. high in the centre, with a domed roof of stones, of ' beehive ' pattern. The caves at Chysauster, 6 Boscaswell, 7 and Trewardreva 8 have all been much destroyed, and a portion of the side chamber at Trewoofe 1 has shared the same fate ; the others have not been explored or no records have been kept. 9 There is an underground tunnel about 90 ft. long at Bodean Veor, in St. Anthony in Meneage, 10 but this differs from the regular ' Fogous ' in that it is a mere excavation without any stones for walls or roof. At Trenear, in Wendron, 11 is a building of stone, 1 3 ft. by 9 ft., of which the roof is made of eight blocks of granite, four on each side, standing on the walls and leaning to meet in the middle, forming an acutely pointed roof ; at the back of this 'room,' an aperture 3&ft. high leads into a tunnel 19 ft. long, cut into the ' country,' of which part of the walls are faced with stone. This building was said, in Tonkin's time (i739), 12 to have been a cellar and Trenear house, ' one of the hunting seats ' of the ' ancient dukes of Cornwall.' A few of these caves have been carefully searched. Dr. Borlase examined Pendeen and found in the floor of the second chamber a pit 3 ft. in diameter and 2 ft. deep, ' but nothing in it remarkable ' ; I3 a similar pit is recorded u at Trewardreva which contained ashes. It is stated that an urn containing human ashes, a cup, and some bones, supposed to be those of a deer, were found at Halligey. 16 At Treveneague, 18 which was filled with earth and I Trewoofe, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, ana" Antiq. Sev. i, 249 ; Borlase, Antiq. (as Bolleit), 292 ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx. Chapel Euny, Edmonds, The Land's End District, 52 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1862-5), 14; Lukis, op. cit. 1 8 and plan. Treveneague, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1867), 3. Boscaswell, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1864), ii, 7. Pendeen, Borlase, Antiq. 293 ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx. Halligey, near Trelowarren, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cormv. viii, pt. iii (1885), 243 ; Arch, xl; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx.

  • Borlase, Antiq. 292 ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx.

3 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 247 ; Bateman, Vestiges, 5. 4 Borlase, Antiq. 292 ; Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. i, pt. iv (1865), 64. 5 Chapel Euny, Edmonds, The Land's End District, 52. 6 Edmonds, The Land's End District, 5 I . 7 Boscaswell, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. ii (1864), 7. 8 In Constantine, Polwhele, Hist, of Cornw. (as Bos au-an), i, 129; Lysons, ccxx, now used as a fowl-house. 9 Tremenheere in Mullion, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 240 ; Polkanogou in St. Keverne, Polwhele, Hist, i, 129 (note); Altarnun near Roughtor, Journ. Roy. Inst. Comto. (1885), 252; Altarnun at West Carne, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1888), 342 ; at Trew in Breage, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cormv. (1888), 360 ; Chysauster in Gulval, Edmonds, op. cit. 51. 10 Polwhele, op. cit. i, 1 29. II Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1887-8), 348. 12 Gilbert, Paroch. Hist, ii, 138. ls Pendeen, Borlase, Antiq. 293 ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx. 14 Polwhele, Hist, of Cornw. i, 129 ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx. 15 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. viii (1885), 243 ; Arch, xl ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxx. 16 Treveneague, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1867), 3. 368