256 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 



Solstice" we read* "lias been celebrated in Newlyn by children 

 dancing round candles stuck in a basket of sand ;" and it was the 

 custom on Christmas Eve, when the weather allowed, to light 50 

 or 60 candles on the summit of Paul Tower. Other parishes 

 also kept up customs of apparently heathen origin.f 



Before describing my examination of the two Imperial stones 

 of Constantino and Licinius, I will refer to the Eoman Station 

 which existed on the north coast of Cornwall, at Padstow. 



ROMAN STATION BY PADSTOW. 



"We have already noted that Eoman pottery is said to have 

 been found at Padstow (see preceding remarks on the early 

 Christian monogram). On the opposite side of the harbour an 

 important station seems to have been established. 



Sir John Maclean describes this and remarks " the energetic 

 Eoman people were no strangers to Cornwall. They had a small 

 settlement, of some duration, on thej side of Padstow harbour. 

 Discoveries have from time to time been made upon the site, and 

 it is probable that, were it not for the sand which has buried the 

 whole area many feet deep, further evidences of their residence 

 here would appear ; for it is remarkable that no vestige of a 

 Eoman building has been brought to light." At this spot, in 

 St. Minver, he adds, Eoman remains have been found in abund- 

 ance, also at Trevone on the opposite side of Padstow Harbour. 



His description of its position is made clearer by his having 

 had the spot marked in his inch- mile map of the district. He 

 shews it as being at the head of a little stream between St. 

 Enodock Church, the high ground at Eock and the tumuli on 

 Bray Hill. 



The stream flows from the Penmaine valley along the inner 

 side of Bray Hill and out through a submarine forest-bed 

 through the sands of the Dum-bar into Hell or Hayle Bay. 



The station itself is 3 miles from the portion of northern 

 coast road called Plain Street, mentioned in a former paper. 



*Remarks by Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma, in Journal Brit. Arch. Assoc, Vol. 

 33, p. 204. 



fMayhew's Baal-Worship, &c, idem, p. 203. 



$ In his account the word western (for eastern) is here by error inserted. 

 Hist, of Trigg Minor Deanery, Vol. 3, p. 7. 



