40 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
great epoch in the history of man a definite chronological status, it 
is Cornwall that gives to our enquiry the most remarkable reply, by 
proving that tin-streaming was carried on at Cam on and Pentuan, 
" at a time when the Mammoth either still existed in the West of 
England, or had not long disappeared, and when the general level 
of Devon and Cornwall was at the least thirty feet higher than it 
is now." 1 Within the historic period no such change has taken 
place. 
Considerations of this kind led Dr. Wibel to conclude that the 
civilization of the Bronze Age originated in this part of England, 2 
while M. Furnet suggested a European civilization contemporary 
with that of the East, dealing with minerals before the arrival of 
the Kelts and their intervention in metallurgy. 3 
I do not think the second suggestion unworthy of consideration ; 
the first is nattering, but hardly probable. There is excellent 
evidence in the character of the early bronze weapons that they 
were made for a small-limbed people, the grip of the swords, for 
example, being far too small for hands of ordinary size. And here 
we seem to have a link connecting our enquiry with the earliest 
tradition of the British race — the myth of " Brutus the Trojan," 
as told first in the Chronicle which bears the name of Nennius, 4 
repeated in fuller form in certain of the Welsh Bruts, and ampli- 
fied into fullest detail in the History of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 5 
No one in the present day accepts the chronicle of Geoffrey of 
Monmouth as sober history j but there is really no reason to 
question his honesty when he says that he is reproducing an ancient 
record brought from Brittany. That he did not invent the story of 
Brutus proof is plain, though it must always be open to question 
how far his history represents the accretions of Armorican tradition 
or his own glosses. That he was not remarkable for the critical 
faculty we must perforce allow — his was a receptive age ; but he has 
had hard measure dealt him, 6 and even from his ponderous pile of 
1 "Antiquity of Mining in the West of England." — Trans. Plym. Inst. 
vol. v. p. 140. 
2 Cited by Sir J. Lubbock, Pre-Historic Times, p. 57. 
3 Du Mineur, son role et son influence sur le progres de la civilization. 
4 Variously placed in the ninth and tenth centuries. 5 Circa 1140. 
6 Partly because he was an ecclesiastic ; but in what respect are the marvels 
of his history more headstrong than the miracles of Bede ? The good faith of 
the monk of Jarrow is never questioned, and no one denies that his writings 
have a very real historic value. 
