RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 211 



We will now refer to these finds and to recent discoveries 

 in connection with some of them : — 



TREGAER CAMP, NANSTALLON. 

 This Roman intrenchment, situate about 2£ miles west of 

 the town of Bodmin, must have been constructed in the first 

 century of the Christian era, if it be contemporaneous with the 

 coins found in or near it ; — they being of Roman Emperors 

 whose reigns commenced in A.D. 70 and 98. 



It stands, according to Mac Lauchlan's description, on a 

 gentle declivity about 450 yards south of the river Alan. It 

 overlooks Nanstallon and commands what was the ford of the 

 river below, which is now crossed by a bridge. 



liaised between two small streams, and with the river in 

 front, it looks towards the north ; its entrance being in the 

 middle of the south rampart or rear. There were tumuli around 

 it. Near it, on the west and north, runs *Bury Lane. 



In form, this camp originally agreed with other well-known 

 Roman military intrenchments. The four straight sides would 

 have enclosed a complete rectangular parallelogram had not 

 the angles been, as usual, rounded off. 



The embankments which compose it are said to be about 330 

 feet long from north to south, and about 260 from east to west. 



Its ditch or fosse had been, in course of time, filled up, 

 consequently its existence as a camp had been forgotten, till in 

 or about the year 1817 ; when its true character seems to have 

 been again recognized. t In 1831 and perhaps earlier, the late 



*The names Bury, Gaer or Caer (pi. Carrow) ; also Cledh or Kledh, and 

 Fos (pi. Possow, Vossa), the last signifying Trench or Wall ; occur frequently in 

 connexion with camps in Cornwall ; likewise the terms Dinas, Castle, Round or 

 Rounds, Rings, &c. 



With reference to the Bury Lane mentioned above, I was amused at its 

 imaginary derivation as given by a Nanstallon woman, who told me she had 

 heard that the camp had been an old war place, and the lane was named after a 

 " General Bury who once commanded the troops there " (!). She added that 

 several " antiquariums " had visited the spot. 



fThe name Tre-gaer (residence by the Camp or War-abode), is applied to the 

 farm house close by. This name should have served to have kept in memory the 

 associations of the locality. There are more than a dozen places so designated 

 in Cornwall. 



