OF CORNWALL. 217 
difpofed in fuch particular didridls as it plealed God (who divides 
his different blefiings among the different parts of his world ) to di- 
ftribute them, and in fuch parts of thefe didridts they are found 
as they were either originally lodged in, or have been transferred to, 
accumulated, and depoiited in by after-movements ; and we find 
in Cornwall (where we have no hills which deferve the name of 
Mountains) our lodes, in low as well as rifing grounds, ftored with 
metals, without any regard to the height of the one, or depreflion 
of the other : It is true, hills and mountains facilitate the difcovery 
and raifing of metals, but cannot increafe them where they are, 
more than the lowed: valleys, (the inward ftrudture of the fir at a 
being nearly alike) much lefs generate them where they are not. 
If there be any fuperiority with relpedt to metals, it mud in all 
reafon be to the advantage of the lower grounds ; for where- ever 
the waters percolate, they may tranflate in fome degree the metallic 
particles, and it muff be from the higher to the lower, not from 
the lower to the higher parts of the ftrata. 
CHAP. XX. 
Vegetables of the Land and Sea. 
T HE oak, afh, and elm, and other foreft trees in Cornwall, sect. 1. 
are modly fituated round the dwellings of the inhabitants ; State of ^ 
in other counties, the willows in the vale, and the beech and other general in 
tall trees upon the hills, adorn the whole county : it is otherwife in porefTtrees. 
Cornwall ; but this deficiency is not owing to any incapacity of 
foil, or fournefs of climate, but to this ; that hulbandry and plant- 
ing, which feparates counties into fields and inclofures, came late 
into ufe here in Cornwall, and have not yet prevailed upon the 
planter, at lead in the wedernmod parts, to furround his meadows 
with poplar, willow, or alder, or edge his hills with elm, oak, and 
beech. There are fome other reafons why we have few large plan- 
tations in Cornwall. All the Duke of Cornwall’s ancient parks* in 
which there was (according to the old manner) a great number of 
fored-trees, and much copfe, being difparked by Henry VIII. upon 
a fuppofition that the ground would turn to better account in til- 
lage, the wood was dedroyed ; but, by fome mifmanagements, the 
royal intent was never anfwered. Another reafon of the fcarcity of 
woods is, that blowing of tin (that is, melting it with wood fire n ), 
has much diminifhed and confumed our wood by charking ; the 
manner of fmelting tin-ore with pit-coal having not been pradfifed 
* Nine, I think, in number. 
Kkk 
* See page 182. 
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