OAKDINHAM ANTIQUITIES. 359 



these were orig-inally so denominated from local considerations, or 

 derived their title (as some have concluded) from a settler arriv- 

 ing from Diuan on the continent, is doubtful. It is more likely 

 that those settling here took the name Dinham, Dinan, or De 

 Cardinan, from the spot, than that they (whether Britons or 

 Bretons) gave the name of some other place to this locality ; and 

 it must not be forgotten that identically significant names of 

 similar sound were, in many instances, independently acquired 

 by places in northern Graul, Corn- Wall, and Wales, though their 

 being occupied by kindred races carrying on frequent intercourse 

 and using similar terms of description in language. Thus we 

 find many places called by like names on both sides of the 

 channel, and we have a name formed of Graer and Din, viz., that 

 of Din-gerrein Castle in a western part of Cornwall which no 

 writer has ever suggested had any reference to Dinan in Nor- 

 mandy. Din being a form of Dinas. However, this may be, 

 soon after the Conquest a family of note, whose ancestor is 

 supposed to have come over with the Conqueror, was residing at 

 Old Cardinham Castle, which stronghold we shall presently des- 

 cribe ; but first we must observe that further to the north in this 

 parish is the great entrenchment called 



CAEDINHAM BUEY. 



This structure is even older, to all appearance, than Old Cardin- 

 ham Castle. This extensive camp of Cardinham Bury is nearly 

 round, and consists of several circumvallations or ramparts, some 

 of them concentric. It appears to be one of a strong chain of 

 British circular earthworks, fortifying the hills across this part of 

 Cornwall, and is 840 feet above the level of the sea. 

 To return to the before-mentioned 



OLD CAEDINHAM CASTLE. 



This stands on a hill of less elevation, and is about a mile south 

 by west of the Bury. Whatever may have been its early charac- 

 ter, it is found to afford evidence of comparatively late occupation. 

 Many writers have noticed it. 



C. S. Grilbert stated — "With respect to Cardinham Castle, 

 " anciently the seat of the Lords Dinham, not a single vestige noio 

 '■'■remains — it stood near the utmost point of a singular ridge of 

 " land which shot out into the midst of a deep valley, and com- 

 " manded a winding perspective view of flourishing wood scenery. 



