THE AJ^^N^TAL EXCURSION. 89 



of the Eoyal Institution of Cornwall, who, with the Earl of 

 Mount Edgcumbe, had been paying a visit to the Mount Edg- 

 curabe Training-ship, near the Eoyal Albert Bridge, at Saltash. 

 They immediately got on board the Eleanor, the band of the 

 industrial ship, under Mr. Battishill, who has so capitally 

 trained the boys, coming with them. Captain Knevitt, who has 

 command of the Mount Edgcumbe, also made one of the party. 

 The Eleanor then made straight for Cotehele, and when the 

 party had landed the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe led through the 

 wood, in order that a visit might be paid to the chapel, which is 

 built upon the site where Sir Richard Edgcumbe, in the 

 troublous times of Henry VII., hid from his enemies, and 

 deceived them by throwing his cap into the river below. The 

 road ascends the wooded acclivity upon which the house stands. 

 The peeps of the river as it winds past Calstock, and the sur- 

 rounding country, and the cool shade of the green woods are 

 very much to be admired on such a day. When the 

 site of the house was gained the company was joined by the 

 Eev. Canon Buck and his son, the Rev. R. S. S. Buck, respec- 

 tively the rector and curate of St. Dominic, the parish in which 

 Cotehele is situated. Entering through the terraced gardens 

 on the east of the house, the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe led the 

 way to the main entrance of the quadrangle on the south side. 

 His lordship himself imparted to the company the following 

 information, pointing out the parts of the building 

 alluded to : — 



The principal part of the house as it now exists was built in 

 the last twenty years of the 15th century, but there is evidence 

 of some of the earlier building remaining. In the south front 

 the gateway tower is of granite ashlar work, and seems to have 

 been added to rubble masonry of an earlier date. The windows 

 in the rubble masonry are of a simpler type. One of these small 

 windows on the upper floor communicates, not with the room 

 upon that floor, but it gives light through a chimney-like 

 shaft into a dungeon, or place of concealment, on the ground 

 floor. This entrance is through a granite archway, with a quaint 

 ribbed roof, and a porter's lodge, and leads into a qviadrangle, 

 surrounded by the building on all four sides. The different 

 dates of the building are here seen by the surrounding walls. 

 On the west side are two doors and four small windows evidently 



