A HISTORY OF CORNWALL In 1848 Mr. McLauchlan 1 mentions 'a valuable suggestion by Mr. J. D. Crook respecting the number of these camps surrounding the heads of the two estuaries of the Fal, at Grampound and Truro.' 3 The number on the shores and in the immediate neighbourhood of the Helford and its creeks is also noticeable. 3 There is also the peculiar feature here that on the north side of the main estuary the five camps, Carwythennack, Nancenoy and Merthen in Constantine, Grumbla in Wendron and the camp south of Gweek in Mawgan, are high up on the slopes, and overlook the tidal waters or valleys which were possibly tidal when the camps were made ; while on the south all the camps, except the one at Tremaine in St. Martin, are placed well away from and out of sight of the creeks. And it is also noteworthy that to the north of the Helford, from Penryn to Helston, the district of about 10 miles by 4, including the parishes of Mabe, Stithians, Constantine and Wendron, is the largest area of land in Corn- wall, throughout which no camps of any kind are found except the four on the shores already mentioned. But south of the estuary in the Lizard district there are not less than twenty. It may be that these camps will yet tell us something of the days when the Channel swarmed with the war-galleys of the Northmen. 4 Two of the ' camps ' in List III., both nearly exact squares with rounded corners, namely ' Tregear ' at Nanstallon, in Bodmin, and Bos- ence in St. Erth are, from the character of the objects found in them, usually accepted as Roman, and they have therefore been placed in a subdivision under this description. A division of these earthworks in the manner here attempted has been made by previous writers. Dr. Borlase * arranged them in two classes, describing the hill and cliff castles as Danish and the others as Roman. In this scheme the cliff castles are the places at which the invaders made good their landing, and the hill castles are their subse- quent holds on the country. In attributing to the hill castles a Danish origin he was supporting the theory which prevailed in his day and, as Leland knew nothing of it, perhaps originated with R. Carew," who wrote in 1602 of the hill castles 'which are termed Castellan Denis or Danis as raysed by the Danes when they were destyned to become our scourge.' Dr. Borlase mentions only six of the entrenchments, including iu these Little Dinas in St. Anthony, and there can be little doubt but that he was greatly influenced to call these Roman by the finds then recently (1756) made at Bosence in St. Erth, and by the 24 gallons 'of Roman brass money of the age of Constantine ' found in 1735 at Condurrah near Little Dinas. 1 Roy. Inst. Cornw. 3Oth Rep. (1848), p. 25. 2 See Probus, Kenwyn, St. Clement, in List III. Div. ii. 3 See Constantine, Manaccan, St. Anthony, St. Martin, and Mawgan in Meneage. 4 Pol. bk. ii. ch. i. 6 Borlase, The Antiquities of Cornwall (1769), pp. 348. 6 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (1602). 454
