THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
49 
These remarks by Mr. Borlase apply so closely to the general 
conditions of time under which Koman coins are found in Devon 
(outside Exeter) Poughill being the only noteworthy exception, as 
to suggest nearly allied conditions, though so far as the West of 
Cornwall — the Land's End district — is concerned, the finds re- 
corded are far more numerous than those of the richest locality 
in the sister county. Cornwall has also furnished more important 
hoards. Thus near Malpas 20 lbs. weight were found (a.d. 
259-284) ; at Pennance, near Falmouth, about a thousand, which 
appear to have been buried in the reign of Constantine the Great ; 
and at Condora, on the Helford river, in 1735, twenty-four 
gallons, third brass of the Constantine family. There are also 
smaller hoards recorded from Cam Brea, Treryn, St. Just, Tywar- 
dreath, Hayle, and Carhayes. 1 The distribution of these hoards, in 
the extreme west and along the southern coast, seems to point to a 
very considerable exterior Roman intercourse in the latter part of 
the third and earlier part of the fourth centuries with the tin 
mining districts. 
It is impossible, however, to build up a theory of Roman occupa- 
tion, still less conquest, on the sole evidence of the presence of 
Roman coins. These can prove intercourse ; perhaps, in the case 
of hoards, individual settlement, but nothing more. 2 
But is there not more certain testimony of Roman sway and 
residence 1 Much has been written concerning the so-called Roman 
roads, which have been not only traced to Exeter — to which city 
the Romans undoubtedly had direct and improved means of com- 
munication — but have been assumed to extend thence in two 
branches (one traversing the northern and central parts of the 
peninsula, and the other following the south coast), with sundry 
ramifications, to the Land's End. That some such roads or track- 
ways did exist, and may yet in part be identified, is beyond all 
reasonable controversy ; but we seek in vain for proof of their 
Roman origin, while we know that the roadwork done by the 
Romans in this country was less the making of new ways than the 
1 N. Whitley, "Roman Occupation of Cornwall," Jour. R. I. Corn. 
xvii. pp. 199-205. 
2 It has been suggested that the Condora hoard was the remains of a 
military chest. May it not with equal likelihood have been the capital of a 
mercantile settlement ? 
