110 AliTCIENT EARTH-WORKS. 



side. Near or within those earthworks which occupy the most 

 important stations, I frequently found raised mounds, probably 

 used for beacon fires by which communication might be made 

 with the neighbouring villages, in the chains of them that ran 

 across and around the county. 



For the building material of their ramparts the old Cornish- 

 men used what came handiest, earth generally, and stones 

 mixed with the earth when they were plentiful and the soil thin, 

 as it is on our moor uplands. 



Standing on Windmill Beacion, above Launceston, let me 

 point out the lines of the old village "rings" and "rounds" 

 radiating from it throughout the Launceston division of the 

 county, the boundary of which varies from ten to twenty-six 

 miles towards the west, north, and south, and also give you an 

 idea of their approximate size. 



First we look towards the west up the Kensey Valley and 

 catch a glimpse of the '■Ring'' on Kestle farm in St. Thomas 

 parish, which I shall more particularly describe later on ; then 

 comes Tregeare Beacon^ in Egloskerry, on the summit of a furze- 

 brake just above Tregeare mansion. It has an inner area of 150 

 by 120 feet; a partially demolished rampart about five feet high, 

 with a ditch outside 8 feet wide, surrounds it. Within the 

 enclosure is a circular banked-up space 20 feet in diameter where 

 beacon fires may have been lighted. From Tregeare we pass 

 over to Warhstow £urroios, one of the best preserved and largest 

 earthworks in Cornwall. It forms a crown for an uncultivated 

 hill above Warbstow churchtown (altitude 807 feet), and stands 

 in the fork of two roads. It has two ramparts, and two entrances. 

 The inner area measures 370 feet by 450 feet, and is defended by 

 a rampart 500 yards in circumference, and a ditch 20 feet wide. 

 Outside this is an annular space, varying from 60 to 150 feet wide, 

 with a second rampart round it 950 yards in circumference, 

 averaging 1 5 feet high with a ditch outside it 1 5 feet wide. In the 

 inner enclosure is a small mound known as "the Giant's grave." 

 This magnificent "encampment" could accommodate from 800 to 

 1000 people and their cattle, and the outer ring would have made a 

 convenient place for the chariot and horse races and sports, in which, 

 no doubt, the inhabitants once indulged. The view fi'om the 

 ramparts takes in the country as far as the Devon and Cornish hills 



