A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



apparently showing that in some cases the Roman coins were placed in a kist 

 with the urn deliberately. In that instance an urn full of ashes was found in 

 the year 1702 in the parish of Towednack, under ' a prodigious rock' of 

 moorstone ' supported by four pillars of the same,' and beside the urn a 

 round ball of earth, and in this ball four-score silver coins of the late emperors, 

 ' very fair and well preserved.' 



It is unfortunate that no measurements of this ' prodigious rock ' and the 

 four pillars were kept, as the description would be applicable to a quoit 1 rather 

 than to a kist vaen of the character usual in Cornwall. The distinction between 

 the two is almost entirely a matter of size. While the kists are generally 

 about 2 ft. or 3 ft. square, the tallest side stone in Trethevy quoit 2 is 9 ft. 8 in., 

 and that at Zennor 3 is 8 ft. 7 in. ; while the covering stones vary from 8 ft. 

 by 5ft. at Grugith * to i8ft. 6 in. by 13 ft. 6 in. at Lanyon. 6 But the shape 

 of the quoit is in general that of a huge kist vaen having two, 6 three, 7 four, 8 

 or even six 9 side stones with one big covering stone resting on them. 



Those at Zennor, 10 Mulfra, 11 Lanyon, 13 and Carwynnen 13 have fallen at 

 different times, and the two latter have been restored ; 14 but even in these 

 cases it seems as though they had all been merely variations from the 

 type represented by Trethevy 16 and Chyoon, 16 which latter the editor of 

 Naenia Cornubiae rightly describes as the ' most perfect and compact ' in 

 Cornwall." 



There is reason to believe that all the Cornish quoits, except perhaps 

 Grugith, 18 which is unique in having only two supporting stones, were origin- 

 ally surrounded, if not covered, by a mound, as some traces of such a structure 

 are found in every instance, except at Carwynnen, where it must be remembered 

 the whole structure fell, and has been restored. 



1 The monuments usually described as ' cromlechs ' are always called ' quoits ' in Cornwall, where a 

 cromlech or ' grumbler ' means a circle, and a tolmen a holed stone. 



3 Joum. Roy. Inst. Corntv. (1850), 31 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hilt, and Antiq. Soc. (1850), 435 ; Borlase, 

 Naen. Corn. 45 ; Lukis, Pre-hist. Stone Mon., 1 1, 13, pi. xxvii ; Lysons, Magna Brit, ccxix. 



3 Borlase, Antiq. 231 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 51 ; Tram. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 200 ; (1882-3), 

 203 ; Lukis, op. cit. IO, 28, pi. xxi ; Lysons, ccxix. 



4 Borlase, Naen. Corn. 278 ; Lukis, op. cit. 10, 29, pi. xxiii. 



5 Borlase, Antiq. 231 ; Lukis, op. cit. 8, 25, pi. xviii ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 197; 

 Lysons, Magna Brit, ccxix. 



6 Grugith, Borlase, Naen, Corn. 278 ; Lukis, op. cit. 10, 29. 



' Lanyon, Borlase, Antiq. 231 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 197 ; Carwynnen, Borlasa, Naen. 

 Corn. 25 ; Lukis, op. cit. 1 1, 29, pi. xxiv ; Lysons, ccxix. 



s Chyoon, Borlase, Naen. Cam. 55 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 198 ; Borlase, Antiq. 227 ; 

 Lukis, op. cit. 9, 24, pi. xx ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxix, and pi. 



9 Zennor, supra note (3) ; Trethevy, supra note (2). 



10 Borlase, Antiq. 231 ; Boilase, Naen. Corn. 51 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 200; 

 (1882-3), 203 ; Lukis, Pre-hist. Stone Mon. 10, 28, pi. xxi ; Lysons, op. cit. ccxix. 



" Borlase, Antiq. 230 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 198 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 59 ; Lukis, 

 op. cit. 9, 28, pi. xix ; Lysons, op. cit., ccxix. 



" Borlase, Antiq. 231 ; Lukis, Pre-hist. Stont Mon. 8, 25, pi. xviii ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. 

 Soc. i, 197 ; Lysons, Magna Brit, ccxix. 



13 Borlase, Naen. Corn. 25. 



14 Lanyon fell in 1815, and was re-erected in 1824. Dr. Borlase says (Antiq. 231) in 1759 ' l was so n 'gh 

 that a man could sit on horseback under it ; it is now 5 ft. 8 in. in height. 



15 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1850), 31 ; Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Sot. (1850), 435 ; Borlase, 

 Naen. Corn. 45 ; Lukis, Pre-bist. Stone Mon. n, 13, pi. xxvii ; Lysons, Magna Brit, ccxix. 



la Borlase, Naen. Corn. 55. 



17 The specimen which gave the name to the townplace of Quoit, on the Goss Moors in St. Columb Major, 

 appears to have been very much like that at Chyoon, but perhaps larger. It fell, and the stones were broken 

 up and removed before 1871 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 62. 



18 Borlase, Naen. Corn. 278 ; Lukis, Pre-hist. Stone Mon. 10, 29, pi. xxiu. 



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