CHAPTER 11. 



MINERALS AND MINES. 



It will be remembered that, when examining the peculiar 

 nature of mecliseval seignorial rights, we briefly touched on 

 the intricate question of mineral ownership.^ It is now 

 proposed to examine more closely the history of British mining, 

 especially where it is most nearly connected with the Landed 

 Interest. 



In our last chapter we contrasted the Feudalism of the 

 Celtic element in these islands with the Feudalism of the 

 Teutonic element. Perhaps the preference of the Celt for a 

 tribal, and of the Teuton for a manorial, polity is nowhere 

 more accentuated than in the diversity of mining rights in 

 various parts of this country. In its hilly districts, mining 

 customs and laws are very different from what they are on its 

 plains ; and since it was in the least accessible spots that the 

 Celt found a refuge when driven off by the Saxon, it seems 

 as though his ethnic proclivities would survive there if any- 

 where. 



Now, though Cornwall was one of the chief sanctuaries of the 

 fugitive Britons, and though, as we have demonstrated earlier 

 in this work, a tribal economy is clearly visible throughout 

 the Cornish stannary laws, the early history of the tin in- 

 dustry is also concerned with a foreign mining element, so 

 that it would not be wise to lay too great stress on any Celtic 

 survivals in this direction. This drawback does not, however, 

 apply in a study of Derbyshire lead-mining, where a tribal 

 economy is quite as accentuated. And, indeed, this latter 



' Ilislory of EiKjllsh Landed Interest, Part I. ch. xvi. 



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