372 



THE ST. HILARY INSCRIBED STONE. 



by a rather shorter term of frequent conflict with the Saxon till 

 their final conquest by Athelstau. Assuredly this was no period 

 for the construction of great roads had there been any motive 

 for it ; and I am not aware that at any subsequent period any 

 large scheme for the laying down of such lines was adopted or 

 any great expenditure incurred. In fact there was little occasion 

 for it. The general use of carriages, or even of carts, is com- 

 paratively recent in Cornwall. I myself rode in the first public 

 conveyance from Penzance to Truro, and I well remember the 

 arrival at church of the dame seated on the pillion, behind her 

 man-servant, and alighting and mounting by the aid of the 

 hepping-stock everywhere provided, without needing to support 

 her dignity the example of good Queen Bess, going in like 

 fashion to Westminster. Strings of mules were also then in 

 general use for the carriage of ores, as indeed in some districts 

 hey have continued to be more or less. 



But we must revert for a moment to the condition of the 

 county in the first centu^ries of the Christian era. There is 

 sufficient evidence that many ages earlier St, Michael's Mount 

 the Ictis of Biodorus Siculus, was preeminent as a mart for tin ; but 

 there is little doubt that, almost concomitantly, trading commui- 

 ties were established about the heads of our chief tidal estuaries 

 along the whole line of our coast, being for the most part in 

 connexion with tin producing districts. These villages were 

 hardly of such importance as to be noticed by the ancient geo- 

 graphers; but the Yoluba, and Uxela of Ptolemy, probably 

 Grampound and Lostwithiel, may serve as examples. It may 

 be remarked, by the way, that the extension of the villages 

 naturally followed the line of road, so that they crept up the 

 hills from the water side. 



The question arises, of course, whether many of these roads 

 were not used as lines of communication and traffic by the 

 Britons before the Eoman invasion, and it must, I think, be 

 admitted that this was the case in a good many instances. The 

 tumuli found at intervals in close juxta-position to some of the 

 main lines of ways, and even, as in the case of the great ridge- 

 way called the Pour Biirrows road, giving name to them, belong 

 almost certainly, as well as stone monuments similarly placed, to 

 an earlier age ; but it will hardly be contended that these tracks 



