EOYAL INSTITUTION OF CORNWALL. 



At a Meeting of members of the Institution, held at 

 the Museum, on Friday, the 16th of August, the President — 

 Mr. Smirke, having obtained permission from H.R.H. the Prince 

 of Wales, exhibited an Ancient Gold Cup which was discovered 

 in the year 1837, in a cist, beneath a barrow, near the Cheese- 

 wring, on the Duchy Manor of Rillaton, and has since been 

 deposited by His Royal Highness in the Queen's private museum 

 at the Swiss Cottage, Osborne. We hope that in our next Numl^er 

 we shall be enabled to publish a Paper by Mr. Smirke on the 

 subject of this interesting relic, together with an illustrative Plate. 

 Meanv/hile we may state that Mr. Smirke expressed his opinion 

 that the Cup was of Celtic manufacture, and of date prior to the 

 Roman occupation of Britain. It Avas made, by pressure, from a 

 flat piece of thin gold ; with corrugations, each about half an inch 

 wide, commencing at the centre of the cup's base, and thence ex- 

 tending concentrically to the rim. — We have mentioned that the 

 Cup was found in a cist. Mr. Freeth, of Duporth, informed the 

 meeting that with it were found some bits of metal, he believed 

 bronze, and a small piece of earthenware that had the appearance 

 of a portion of a ring or handle ; it was unglazed, of a brownish- 

 red colour outside, with a blueish tint inside, as if it had been 

 placed in fire ; and he believed there was a zig-zag ornament. He 

 could not now remember how the skeleton was deposited. 



Rock-Markings at Cheesewring. Dr. Jago read a Memo- 

 randum from Mr. Thomas Cornish, of Penzance, on some markings 

 of stones of the Cheesewring Carn. They are found on the upper 

 surface of the top-most stone of the central carn, and on the upper 

 surface of the large overhanging covering stone which forms the 

 south-east point of the carn, passing out through the wall of the 

 fortified centi^al enclosure. There are more markings on this stone 

 than on the first, and they extend plentifully out to the extreme 

 south-east end of the stone, where it overhangs the ground below 

 it, at the height of about 15 feet. All the markings are circular 

 cups, varying from mere depressions to holes of one inch deep. 

 They are all of the same character ; some appear old, some more 

 recent, but none decidedly new. "The fact that this place was un- 



