THE CHEESEWRING. 5 



vetch : and the ancient tinners had certainly the 

 same custom of pomiding in stone troughs their tin 

 ore, before stamping mills were found out : it may 

 therefore be imagined, that these basins were intend- 

 ed for so many troughs to pound their tin ore in, 

 especially if no such monument occurs in other parts 

 of this island ; but there are many objections to this 

 use of these basins. First, these basins are on the 

 tops of hills, whereas, the ancient workings for tin 

 were altogether in valleys, by way of stream work, 

 'or washing (by the help of adjacent rivers) the tin 

 brought down from the hills by the deluge, and vio- 

 lent rains. These basins are generally far from 

 water, which every one knows is of absolute necessity 

 to promote the pulverizing any stubborn, obdurate 

 stones, as our tin ores generally are. In the next 

 place, it may be observed, that if these basins had 

 been much used in pounding tin, they would be all 

 concave at the bottom ; but what is more convincing 

 still, is, that many of the basins are found on such 

 high and almost inaccessible rocks, that people must 

 have been very simple indeed to have made them 

 there, when they had so weighty a substance to man- 

 ufacture by their means, and must have lifted up 

 and let down both the tin and themselves with such 

 inconveniency. 



^' It may with more reason be thought that these 

 monuments were intended some way or other for the 

 purposes of religion, rather than of mechanics ; and 

 according to our proposed method we will first shew 

 what religious use they seem not to have been intended 

 for. First, they are evidently too shallow and irreg- 

 ular, and too close together, to have received obelisks, 

 or stone deities erected in them. 



" Neither do they seem to have been designed for 

 altars, either of sacrifice, of hbation, or holy fires. 



'^ The ancients indeed sacrificed on rocks ; but 

 the rocks of which we are discoursing, have their 

 surfaces scooped out in such a manner as no altar 

 extant, or on record ever shewed the like : altars of 



