ON THE TRACK OF THE " OLD MEN." 
97 
Very an, a block of tin of a singular form was discovered with a 
Eoman inscription on it. Borlase mentions Eoman coins found 
in ancient stream workings at Wendron and Kara Bre ; and from 
Fowey westward in all directions large quantities have from time 
to time been discovered. 
The largest find mentioned is that of twenty-four gallons of 
Eoman bronze coins, found during the spring of 1735, close to the 
Helford Eiver. 
We are informed that during the Saxon period the production 
of tin was neglected, but that the Eomans worked the deposits to 
their great advantage. Lysons note that there is no mention of 
the Devonshire tin mines in Domesday. But this, as Eowe points 
out, can hardly be wondered at ; for a tract of land like Dartmoor 
was, under no circumstances, likely to find its way into the 
Domesday enumeration ; as the land intended to be included, and 
to which alone the description of hides and carucates can strictly 
apply, was land under tillage, or some other form of profitable 
management, yielding an annual revenue to its owner, and there- 
fore the fit subject of a land-tax. Tin streams and mines appear 
to have been outside the Domesday scope. They contributed 
their share to the revenue of the king by means of rentals paid 
by the individuals who farmed them. In the Pipe Eoll 8 Eichard I. 
(1197), it is recorded that Master Philip de Haukechirche and 
Harveius de Helion render account of £100 from the farm of the 
Stannary of Devonshire, and of 100 marks (£66 13s. 4d.) from 
the farm of the Stannary of Cornwall for this year. 
In 1250, King Henry III. granted a charter of protection to 
the tinners of Devon, commanding all knights and others, of 
whom the tinners of Dartmoor held, that they should not exact 
from them other customs and services than they ought, and had 
been accustomed to do, nor to vex them contrary to the liberties 
they had before enjoyed under charters of the king's predecessors, 
but maintain in the same liberties. 
Matthew Paris says that this monarch extorted money from the 
Jews, and sold them in return for money advanced him by his 
brother Eichard, Earl of Cornwall. The term " Jew's house," by 
which ancient smelting-houses are known in Cornwall, but not in 
Devon, has been supposed to indicate that the Jews were sent as 
slaves by Eichard to work in the western mines ; but, as Max 
Miiller points out, there is no evidence in support of this, Jew's 
VOL. X. H 
