JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL INSTITUTION OF CORNWALL. 



No. XII. APRIL. 1871. 



■ I. — Tintagel Castle. — By Eev. John James Wilkinson, Rector of 

 Lanteglos juxttt Camelford. 



Bead at Trevena, Tintagel, August 8, 1870. 



THIS decayed fortress, says Carew, " more famous for his an- 

 tiquitie than regardable for his present estate, abutteth on 

 the sea ; yet the ruines argue it to haue been once no vnworthie 

 dwelling for the Cornish Princes." Its origin is buried in obscurity. 

 Borlase was of opinion that th^ ancient Britons had here a place 

 of defence before the invasion by the Eomans, and that the present 

 buildings are of too mean a construction to have been the work 

 of the latter people. Norden, who surveyed these buildings and 

 left us a drawing of the place as it was in 1585, states that "it 

 was somtime a statelye impregnable seate, now rent and ragged 

 by force of time and tempestes ; her ruyns testefie her pristine 

 worth ; the view wherof and due obseruation of her situation, shape, 

 and condition, in all partes, may moue commisseration that suche 

 a stately pile shoulde perishe for wante of honorable presence. 

 Nature hath fortified and arte dyd once beautefie it in such sorte, as 

 it leaueth vnto this age wounder and imitation ; for the morter and 

 ciment wherwith the stones of this Castle were layde, excelleth 

 in fastnes and obduritye the stones themselues ; and nether time 



