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). 



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