48 DISCOVERY OF A GOLD CUP IN CORNWALL. 



P.S. — Since the publication of my friend Mr. Way's " Supple- 

 mentary Notices," he has brought to my notice a former discovery 

 of mixed bronze and gold relics in the western part of Cornwall, 

 of which Mr. Malachy Hitchins sent a description in 1802 to 

 the Society of Antiquaries through Sir Joseph Banks. — It is found 

 in Vol. 15 of the Archceologia, p. 118.-— A farmer, having occasion 

 to remove some earth in a field in Lelant parish, found, a few 

 feet beneath the surface, numerous celts, and portions of copper 

 swords, and lumps of fine copper, evidently brought for the 

 purpose of fusion, as the ashes found in company with them 

 seemed to indicate. Mr. Hitchins considered the whole to be 

 the remains of a foundry for the manufacture of such objects. 

 At the bottom of some of the celts small bars of gold were found 

 not larger than a straw, as bright as if they had been lately 

 deposited there. The bronze objects were sold to a blacksmith 

 at St. Ives, and weighed 14 or 15 pounds. One of these celts, 

 with the gold within it, was secured by Mr. M. Hitchins, and 

 sent to Sir Joseph Banks. This discovery is also adverted to by 

 Lysons, in his Cornwall, p. ccxx. 



In the same neighbourhood, in a field in St. Hilary parish, 

 some celts and military weapons, and considerable masses of 

 copper, weighing 80 lbs., were found about eighteen months before 

 this last discovery at Lelant. The bronze celts were found to be 

 very diflS.cult of fusion, and the gold is supposed to have been 

 inserted to facilitate the operation. Urns, filled with common 

 Eoman coins of brass, seem to have been frequently found, under- 

 ground, in the western part of Cornwall, in the latter half of the 

 last century. See, Vol. 14 of the Archceologia, a previous com- 

 munication by Mr. Hitchins, p. 224. Mr. Lysons, as well as Dr. 

 Borlase, notices the remarkably abundant occurrence of metallic 

 celts in the mining districts of Cornwall. It is suggested that 

 they are probably referable to the working of tin mines, although 

 so impotent a tool would be of little value except in superficial 

 works. 



E. SMIEKE. 



