NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 171 



Down. Appeals were made, in vain, by members of the Institu- 

 tion, to secure permanence for at least one or two of these Barrows ; 

 and all that could be done under the circumstances, was to have a 

 trench driven through the centre of one of the mounds, and its 

 material carefully examined as it was in course of removal. For 

 this operation every facility was afforded by Capt. Teague, the 

 landlord ; and it was performed in the presence and under the 

 supervision of Mr. Smirke, President of the Institution ; Dr. Bar- 

 ham, a Vice-President; Mr. Tweedy, Mr. Alexander Paull, and 

 other members ; but no deposits of any kind were found. This 

 mound consisted throughout of clay ; an adjoining one, which was 

 also opened up, had a central cairn of not very massive spar 

 stones, which was covered with mould ; but no evidences of in- 

 cremation or of urn-burial were discovered. 



A notice of these antiquities, by Mr. Mc. Lauchlan, in his 

 valuable series of Observations on Ancient Gamps and Tumuli, was 

 published in the 29th Annual Report of this Institution (1847); 

 and, for our readers' convenience, we here reprint it : — 



" GwLOWETH. — About two miles from Truro, on the right or north side of 

 the Eedruth road, there is a waste piece of ground on which are the remains 

 of several burrows. It is called Beacon Down, probably from one of the 

 biu'rows having been used for such a purpose at some former period. The 

 ancient name of the spot was Goon-loweth, probably, from Goon, a down, 

 and loweth, or loeau, the Anglo-Saxon plural for burrows, or heaps of earth. 

 The word Goon, when used as a prefix, is often spelled Gw' only, and where 

 used as an af&x, 'on or 'un, as may be seen in the neighbourhood of St. 

 Austell and other places. 



" The farm on the opposite side of the road for some distance, still goes 

 by the name of Gwloweth, and there can be little doubt that the Anglo-Saxon 

 loe, so common in England at one time, was adopted to designate burrows in 

 Cornwall. 



" There had at some time been eight burrows on this gently rising ground, 

 and from their being situated towards the western declivity, it may be con- 

 jectured (if they were placed over the bodies of those who had fallen in 

 battle, as has been supposed of those recorded at St. Austell, between Pen- 

 tewan and Charlestown,) that the attacking party came from that direction. 

 The burrows lie in a gentle curve, in a direction north and south, the chord 

 lying on the eastern side. Four of the burrows are in tolerable preservation, 

 but the other four are much reduced, and, in two instances, only the outer 

 rim of them remains. 



" About half a mile further to the westward, on the south of the road, is 



