212 ANNUAL EXCUKSION. 



end of the bank is the entrance into it. A broad fosse opens xip, 

 carrying a rampart on each side still showing the remains of a cross 

 rampart, which once united with gates to secure this only avenue 

 to the castle. The fosse appears to have been excavated with 

 great labour, and the earth thrown upon the area within. The 

 rampart is nine or ten feet in height ; the part on the right a 

 regular bank of earth, perpendicular without, yet sloping within, 

 carrying two or three eminences in its line that look like so many 

 turrets of earth, and are supposed by the neighbours to be stations 

 for sentinels. Whitaker (Hist, of Ancient Cathedrals of Corn- 

 wall, vol. 2, p. 292— a book full of learning and perverse 

 ingenuity) has given an account of a remarkable subterraneous 

 passage extending from the castle to the sea, the opening of 

 which on the side of the hill-cliff was visible at the time he 

 visited the neighbourhood, and was commonly called the Mer- 

 maid's Hole, the mouth of which is large enough to admit a man 

 walking erect. It has been pursued by some of a more daring 

 spirit for 40 or 50 yards up into the land. At that distance, by 

 reason of the falling in of the roof, it contracts very much. Dr. 

 Winn, in 1844, expressed the hope that some day the funds of 

 this Institution would permit of thoroughly exploring the castle 

 and the neighbouring barrow where Gerennius was reported to 

 have been buried in great state. Tradition talks of a boat being 

 buried in the barrow at the same time as the body of the king, a 

 boat with oars of silver and sides of gold. In 1855 the 

 cairn was opened by a local clergyman to satisfy the curiosity of 

 the natives. It was unfortunate, as no scientific account 

 was preserved of what was .found. Everyone thinks he 

 can open a cairn, whereas it should only be done by experts. 

 No precious metal was found, but a kist vaen, formed of unhewn 

 rocky masses lying north and south, measuring internally four 

 and a half feet in length, two in breadth, and two and a half in 

 depth. The sides were smooth rocks placed on edge upon the soil. 

 The huge covering block of limestone was nearly two feet thick. 

 Within were charcoal and a.shes — perhaps those of the king, but 

 probably not (See 37 Eeport E.I.C., 1855, p. 23). 



For information respecting the beautiful cinerary urn found 

 at Merrows farm near Dingerein, and now deposited in the 

 museum of this Institution, see 26 Report H.I.C, 1844, p. 19. 



