# The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/St Cleer

ST. CLEER.
HALS.
St. Cleer is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north, Altarnun; south, Liskeard; east, St. Tew; west, St. Neot. The modern name of this parish was not extant at the time of the Norman Conquest, but probably then passed in the Domesday tax under the titles of Trelven, Niveton, or Trethac. At the time of the Pope's inquisition into the value of Cornish benefices, in order to his Annats, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto Claro, in Decanatu de Westwellshire, was charged ten marks; Vicar ejusdem 40s. In Wolsey's Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, 19l. 16s. 8d. and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 241l. 17s.
The name of this parish is taken from the church, and the church's name from the titular guardianess thereof, to whom the same is dedicated, viz. St. Clare ​or Cleer; whose name is derived from the Latin word claro, i.e. clear, bright, shining, transparent; and she herself was born of an honourable lineage at the city of Assisum in Italy.
[Mr. Hals here gives a long history of St. Clare, much more in detail than is suited to a parochial history.
It may be sufficient to add, she was the daughter of Phavorino Sciffo, a noble knight, and of Hortulana, his most virtuous wife, and born in the year 1193. St. Francis was then alive and at the height of his fame. St. Dominic and St. Francis, as is well known, instituted the two great orders of begging monks or friars. Those who entered into any of the previously existing monastic establishments, underwent what was termed a civil death, renounced all individual property, bestowing what was at their own disposal in any way most agreeable to themselves, and suffering what was inalienable to descend to their heirs. Hence has originated the expression natural life, as opposed to civil life, still used in legal proceedings. But St. Dominic and St. Francis, not content with this individual poverty, extended it to their orders; so that with the exception of a dwelling, some furniture, and necessary raiment, their friars were to live, as the cynics had done of old, upon the accidental charity of victuals given in kind and from day to day; for a broad and impassable boundary was drawn between receiving bread from the donor's hand, and a piece of metal for which that bread might be procured; in the same manner as any portion of the increase arising from flocks or herds might lawfully be given; whilst anathemas were thundered against him who accepted the least return for valuable commodity, in exchange for which similar flocks or herds could easily and freely be procured.
As impassioned harangues were obviously the most efficient agents for eliciting or extorting these daily ​alms, they were incessantly employed; so that the mendicants soon acquired the distinctive appellation of preaching friars; and the whole institution being suited to the genius, the spirit, and the prejudices of the rude age in which it arose, the Dominicans and Franciscans acquired and maintained, during some centuries, almost the temporal sovereignty of Europe; till their dissentions, the scandalous immorality growing out of their vagrant lives, and the diffusion of knowledge, dissolved the charm.
This contagion readily extended itself to females, so that, with some indispensible modifications, societies soon arose of women bound by the same rule of individual and collective poverty. St. Clare appears to have been the first female disciple of St. Francis, or at least the first raised by him to eminence and power, acquisitions far more captivating to the human mind, than wealth with all its passive luxuries and enjoyments.
St. Clare had the gratification of eloping from her parents to receive the veil and the tonsure from the hands of St. Francis, who placed her at first in a monastery of Benedictine Nuns; but the young saint soon found herself in the situation of an abbess, with her mother and two sisters members of the community, submitted to her sway. From this station she advanced to be the founder of an order, having numerous houses established under her supreme authority, exercised according to rules dictated by St. Francis; and the poor Clares constitute a principal branch of the female monastic establishments existing in all Catholic countries up to the present times.
Pope Innocent IV. made a journey on purpose to visit Clare, not long before her death in 1253, and again to assist at her funeral. His successor, Pope Alexander IV. two years afterwards, inscribed her name in the celestial canon. Mr. Hals then proceeds to particulars.]
​In this parish is yet to be seen a famous chapel Well, dedicated to St. Clare, a work of great skill, labour, and cost, though now much decayed, which formerly pertained to some nunnery of those sort of religious women extant here or at Leskeard. (See Truro and Kenwyn, for Clares.) From this parish was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen, surnamed de St. Cleare, from whence are descended the St. Clears of Tudwell, in Devon, who, suitable to their name, give for their arms, in a field Azure the sun in its glory shining or transparent; of which tribe was that Robertus de Sancto Claro, qui tenet decem libratas terrae, in hundredo de Mertock, in comit. Somerset, de domine rege in capite, perservicium inveniendi unum servientem armatum cum uno equo in exercitu domini regis in Wallia per xl. dies sumptibus suis propriis. (Pleas of the Crown in Scaccario, 8 Edward I.)
In this parish is Tre-worg-y, the mansion of John Conock, Esq., that married Burgoigne; his father Heale and Courtney; and giveth for his arms, Argent, a fess dancette between three spread eagles Gules.
The name Conock or Connock signifies rich, prosperous, thriving, successful, of which name and family those in Cornwall are descended from the Conocks of Wiltshire, and the first propagator of this tribe in those parts was one Mr. Conock, who in the time of Queen Elizabeth came to Leskeard town a tanner, and in that occupation got much riches, and laid the foundation of his estate, as Mr. Thomas River, of Liskeard, informed me.
Tre-mabe, in this parish, id est, the son's town, viz. a place in former ages by some father given as the dwelling to his son, was formerly the lands of Samuel Langford, Gent, that married Gary of Clovelly. Tre-wor-oc, also Tre-wor-ock, the town on a lake, was formerly the lands of Trubody, who sold the same to ​Jackman, now in possession thereof. In the church on seats or pews, pertaining to those Trubodys, I have seen this inscription, Nati honoris; in what sense to be construed is mystery to me, since I have not understood that any of this tribe was either a son nobly born, or inherited to any kind of honour, dignity, or promotion.
At Pennant in this parish, id est, the head of the valley, or the valley head, in the open downs by the high road or street-way, formerly stood a large flat moor-stone, about eight feet long, in perpendicular manner, described by Mr. Carew and Mr. Camden, wherein is still to be seen on the one side thereof this inscription, in Roman Saxon letters, then in use when it was set up, containing these words: ꝺonieꞅꞇ ꞅoᵹauiꞇ pꞅo anima.
[Instead of the long and uninteresting account given by Mr. Hals of this monument, I will take the liberty of substituting an extract from Mr. Bond's Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, printed by J. Nichols and Son, Parliament Street, in 1823, which will be found of a very different description.
"Not far from Dosmery Pool may be seen a curious heap of rocks, called Wring Cheese or Cheese Wring; and, at a short distance therefrom, an artificial curiosity called the Hurlers, and another called the Other-halfstone.
"Camden, in his Britannia, speaking of St. Neot's parish, says, 'Near unto this, as I have heard, within the parish of St. Cleer, there are to be seen, in a place called Pennant, that is, the head of the vale, two monuments of stone; of which the one in the upper part is wrought hollow, in manner of a chair; the other, named Other-halfe-stone, hath an inscription of barbarous characters, now in a manner worn out.' which he thinks should be read thus: doniert rogavit pro ​anima. As for this Doniert, Camden thinks he was that prince of Cornwall whom the chroniclers name Dungerth, and record that he was drowned in the year of our salvation 872. Camden also says, 'Hard by there is a number of good big rockes heaped up together; and under them one stone of a lesser size, fashioned naturally in form of a cheese, so as it seemeth to be pressed like a cheese; whereupon it is named Wring Cheese. Many other stones besides, in some sort four-square, are to be seen upon the plain adjoining; of which seven or eight are pitched upright of equal distances asunder. The neighbouring inhabitants term them Hurlers, as being by a devout and godly error persuaded, they had been men sometime transformed into stones, for profaning the Lord's day with hurling the ball. Others would have it to be a trophy (as it were) or a monument in memorial of some battle. And some think verily they were set as mere stones or landmarks; as having read in those authors that wrote on limits, that stones were gathered together of both parties, and the same erected for bounders. In this coast the river Loo maketh way and runneth into the sea, and in his very mouth giveth name to two little towns joined with a bridge together.'
"On the 6th August, 1802, I went with a party of friends to see these natural and artificial curiosities, mentioned by Camden. I first got the party to Redgate, in St. Cleer parish, about four miles from Liskeard, in order to find out Doniert or Dungerth's monument, which I understood was somewhere near to it. I made inquiry at the house at Red-gate after this monument, but could get no account of it for some time, ​though I questioned in a variety of ways; at last, however, we got information where it was situated. It is about a quarter of a mile off from Red-gate, eastward, in a field next the high road. We got into this field, and seeing an erect stone went towards it, and found it to be the monument we sought. One moorstone stands erect, and the other with the inscription on it, lies in a pit close by. The figures of these stones in Borlase's History are most like them of any I have seen. I made out and copied the inscription very perfectly, by rubbing a soft stone which left its mark in the letters.
"This stone by recollection is about two feet wide at top, and about five or six feet in length. And the other stone, which still stands erect, and ornamented with cross lines, &c. is about the same in height. ​"The west front is quite plain; the top has the remains of a kind of mortice, left hand corner broken off. The east front is dotted over, but has no letters.
"I find in Hals, that the pit in which the stone with the inscription lies, was formed in the latter end of the reign of Charles II. in consequence of his, Hals's, going there at that period with some gentlemen, to view, as he says, the, at that time thought barbarous, inscription; for some tinners in the contiguous country, taking notice of these gentlemen visiting this place, apprehended they came there in quest of some hidden treasure; whereupon, as Hals says, some of them wiser than the rest, lay their heads together, and resolved in council to be before-hand, and accordingly went with pickaxes and shovels, and opened the earth round about the monument, to the depth of about six feet; when they discovered a spacious vault walled about, and arched over with stones, having on the sides thereof two stone seats, not unlike those in churches for auricular confession. The sight of all which struck them with consternation, or a kind of horror, that they incontinently gave over search, and with the utmost hurry and dread, throwing earth and turf to fill up the pit they made, they departed, having neither of them the courage to enter or even to inspect into the further circumstances of the place; which account Hals says, he had from the mouths of some of the very fellows themselves. Some short while after, the loose earth, by reason of some heavy rains which fell, sunk away into the vault, which occasioning also a sort of terræ-motus and concession of the earth adjoining, the said monument was at length so undermined thereby, that it fell to the ground, where it still remains. Would some gentlemen of ability and curiosity, says Hals, and so say I, be at the charge of again opening and cleansing this under-ground chapel, or whatever else it may be denominated, it might probably afford matter of pleasing amusement, if ​not grand speculation to the learned searchers into matters of antiquity.
"This monument formerly went by the name of 'the other half stone.' Some translate the inscription, 'Pray for the soul of Dungerth,' others 'Doniert asked for his soul;' and there seems to be great controversy for what purpose this monument was erected. High stones might originally, in the early ages of Christianity, have been erected near roads in desolate situations, and at short distances from each other, to direct travellers in their journies; and crosses might have been placed on them as a memento for thanksgiving, when the traveller had effected this part of his journey in safety. Now if the inscription on the above monument is meant for 'Pray for the soul of Dungerth,' may we not suppose that it was meant as a request to those who should happen to be praying for themselves, to offer up a prayer also for Dungerth, who probably caused that monument to be erected, or who was buried near the same, perhaps in the chapel before mentioned to have been discovered by the tinners. Or if the inscription is to be read, 'Doniert asked for his soul,' which seems the proper translation; may we not suppose that Doniert (who by all accounts was a very pious prince) erected this stone, and prayed or asked for mercy thereat. Perhaps originally these stones might have been called Ave stones, from the Latin word 'Ave,' all hail! God speed you; God save you, &c. a very appropriate expression in a desolate situation to a wanderer or traveller. And the reference to another Ave stone might signify the one which is a little to the eastward of it, bearing a cross, and by its appearance formerly a legend underneath. This word Ave (pronounced in the same manner it is in Ave-Mary-Lane, London) might be corrupted into Half; so that Ave stone and Half stone might mean one and the same thing. And in Cornwall the F is very frequently pronounced as a V, and the V as an F, at this ​present time. If this does not meet approbation, I will add another conjecture. As the circle of stones called the Hurlers, are at a short distance from this monument and the cross before-mentioned, might not the monument and the cross be called the 'one heave stone,' and the other, 'the other or outer heave stone,' places from, whence the ball during the game of hurling was thrown. The traditionary story of the stones called the hurlers, being once men turned into stone for profaning the Sabbath, will give some slight sanction to this conjecture; and in addition, even at this time the high-cross is vulgarly believed to have been the man who ran off with the ball.
"With respect to the stones called the Hurlers being once men, I will say with Hals, 'Did but the ball which these Hurlers used when flesh and blood, appear directly over them immoveably pendant in the air, one might be apt to credit some little of the tale;' but as this is not the case, I must add my belief of their being erected by the Druids for some purpose or other, probably a court of justice; long subsequent to which erection, however, they may have served as the goal for hurl players. And indeed a finer spot for such a game could not be fixed on perhaps any where. But I believe the Hurlers took their names from some other source than that of the game of hurling the ball being used there.
​"After sufficiently viewing Dungerth's monument, we directed our course towards Cheese-wring, and soon came to the Hurlers, but first we rode up to the High Cross before mentioned, which at a distance looked somewhat like a man. Under its cross it has an oblong square, as if the border of an inscription, but at present there is not the least vestige of a letter on it. Soon after we came to the Hurlers, which we found to be moorstones of about five or six feet high, forming two circles one without the other (not as represented in Hals' Parochial History, but like that in Borlase), the circle nearest Cheese-wring less than that of the other. Some of the stones are fallen down, and remain where they fell, and others have probably been carried off for gate posts and other purposes. The areas of the circles are not level, there being many pits in them, as if the earth had sunk over large graves. I confess I was not much struck with the appearance of these famous stones, not having faith to believe they once were men. Near this place we fell in with a man going to Cheese-wring, and were glad to follow him as a guide. Among other questions, I asked him, as we passed along, whether he could tell me the name of the tenement on which Dungerth's monument was; he answered Pennant. I also asked him whether he knew where the source of the Looe river was; he said in a field next below Dungerth's monument. I was sorry to hear this, as we could not conveniently return to see it, but I learned from him it was a mere spring of water uninclosed.
"When we reached Cheese-wring, we discovered a man and woman on the top of the mount (on the declivity of which Cheese-wring stands), who, we afterwards found, were cutting turfs for fuel. Our guide first led us to the house of the late Daniel Gumb (a stone-cutter), cut by him out of a solid rock of granite (the rocks all around this place are granite, or moorstone as commonly called in Cornwall, and of the finest quality). This artificial ​cavern may be about twelve feet deep and not quite so broad; the roof consists of one flat stone of many tons weight, supported by the natural rock on one side, and by pillars of small stones on the other. How Gumb formed this last support is not easily conceived. We entered with hesitation lest the covering should be our grave-stone. On the right-hand side of the door is 'D. Gumb,' with a date engraved 1735 (or 3). On the upper part of the covering stone, channels are cut to carry off the rain, or probably to cause it to fall into a bucket for his use; there is also engraved on it some geometrical device formed by Gumb, as our guide told us, who also said that Gumb was accounted a pretty sensible man. I have no hesitation in saying he must have been a pretty eccentric character to have fixed on this place for his habitation; but here he dwelt for several years with his wife and children, several of whom were born and died here. His calling was that of a stone-cutter, and he fixed himself on a spot where materials could be met with to employ a thousand men for a thousand years.
"After quitting this house, we ascended a few paces to the pile of rocks called Cheese-wring, the resemblance of which is well expressed by the print in Borlase's Nat. Hist. We were all struck with astonishment at this wonderful work of nature; we surveyed it over and over again, went round it several times, and viewed it from every part. It is about thirty-two feet high. The uppermost stone I have no doubt has Druidical basons formed in it. One of them shows itself by the edge of the stone having fallen away. After spending some time in viewing this tremendously awful pile of rocks, we ascended to the summit of the mount on the side of which it stands. This summit is surrounded by an artificial rampart of loose stones, not piled up; possibly they might have formed a wall, or have been carried there for building one; for if they were placed as they ​now are with an intention so to remain, they could no have been very defensive to this mount. Possibly the name of Cheese-wring may be derived from this ring of stones, and not from the vulgar idea of the Cheese-wring rocks being like a cheese-press.
"The area within the rampart may be about half an acre of ground, and has rocks scattered all over it; but in some places verdure even in this rude region makes its appearance. We found a man and a woman within the area cutting turfs between the rocks for fuel. Among other questions, I asked the man to whom the spot belonged; his answer was, 'he believed to nobody.'
"Several curious piles of rocks, some forming cromlechs, and others of various forms and positions, are here also to be seen, and several of them have Druidical basons on them. The rocks having these basons are the most lofty or most remarkable for shape or situation. On some rocks there are two or three basons; and where there are more basons than one, they generally communicate by a channel. The basons here are of different sizes, though all of them are of the same shape, which is circular. Some of them are about a foot and a half in diameter, and six or eight inches deep; others not so large or deep. Never having seen any Druidical basons before, and having had my doubts till this time, whether they might not be natural productions caused by rain, lightning, &c. I was led to examine other rocks, whether they had (though equally exposed to the weather) similar formations, but could not find a bason on any rock that was not singular either for its shape or situation. I therefore concluded that these basons were the work of art, and not of nature; and I think they were not intended for the purpose of receiving the rain for common uses, for if so, why were they not made on rocks of easy access? It is possible, however, that rain being held in a natural hollow of a rock, may decompose that part of the rock on which it rests, and being whirled about by the wind from time to ​time, may form these basons which we attribute to art; and if this is the case, they must continue increasing in size and depth. Have such basons ever been seen but on granite rocks? if not, probably water dissolves the feltspar and disunites the quartz and mica; and the winds driving round the water with particles of quartz at the bottom of the bason, must consequently fret away the rock and enlarge the bason. A rock of white marble lies on the sea-beach near Looe, completely covered with hollows like what are termed Druidical basons; these hollows in this rock I have no doubt have been formed by the sea; it lies near an insulated high rock under Sanders Lane, and is every tide covered with the sea, and is very frequently covered with sand. A person fancying the basons on this rock of marble to be an artificial work, might also fancy that it once was placed on top of the elevated rock near it; the contrast of the white marble on top of the elevated rock, which is of a very dark colour, would give a singular appearance. When this high rock is shown to strangers, they are generally told, with a serious face, that when it hears a cock crowing at Hay (which is a farm just above it) it turns round three times!
"SHARPY TORRY.
"After leaving the area before-mentioned, we mounted our horses, and went towards another very considerable rocky eminence, about half a mile north-east; the road to which over the Down is full of rocks and stones, so as to prevent a horse from going other than step and step at times. On our way we passed a small circle of stones, the remains I rather think of an ancient Barrow, whose earth had been washed away by the rains. We shortly after passed another pretty large circle of stones, just about the diameter to appearance of the lesser circle of the Hurlers; at length we arrived at the pile of rocks, called by our guide Sharpy-torry (Sharp-torr, from ​its conical shape). We alighted from our horses and ascended. On the north or north-west side of it there appears a hollow, more like a large chimney than any other thing I can compare it to; the outside of which seems to have given way, and the steep hill below is strewed with an immense quantity of rocks and large stones, as if carried down or poured out from this hollow. Whether this was caused by the operation of fire or water bursting from this hollow or crater, if I may use the expression, I will not take upon me to say; but that one or other of these agents burst from this mount appears to be extremely probable, for the rocks and stones seem exactly as if they had been tumbled or thrown out of this crater by a current of some kind. We could not, however, discover lava; therefore it is probable water might have burst out, unless the lava has been decomposed. The views from this place are truly sublime. The spot is nearly the centre of the broadest part of the county; from it we saw both seas, north and south, and consequently the intervening land; and I believe it is the only eminence (except perhaps Brownwilly) in the eastern part of Cornwall, from whence both seas may be seen. We also saw in the North Sea a very high land, which we concluded must be Lundy Island; but the horizon to the north being rather hazy, I will not take upon me to say positively that it was that island, though it is probable to have been so. The prospect was equally extensive east and west, and as I took a pocket spying-glass with me, we viewed therewith the vast extent we commanded. We discovered Launceston Castle with the naked eye; through the glass it became very visible. We were much struck with the beautiful and highly-cultivated lands to the east of us, terminated in part by the high land of Dartmoor. To the westward, nothing was to be seen but a vast continuance of moor land, without a hedge, without a tree, for a stretch of many miles. The cultivated land commenced ​just below our feet to the eastward, and the uncultivated from where we stood westward; the contrast on turning from west to east, or vice versa, was astonishing. Our station seemed to be amidst the wreck of mountains of granite, rocks piled on rocks were strewed around in awful grandeur. The extreme point of our western view, dimmed by distance, showed us that elevated rock called Roach Rock, and we also saw Dosmerry Pool about four or five miles off; our south view commanded Plymouth Sound, and a long extent of coast and sea; the northward in one part was terminated by the sea. The views brought to my mind the beautiful lines in Ovid:
"Turn freta diffundi, rapidisque tumescere ventis Jussit, et ambitæ circumdare littora terræ. Addidit et fontes, immensaque stagna lacusque. Jussit et extendi campos, subsidere valles, Fronde tegi silvas, lapidosos surgere montes."
"Then he ordered the seas to poured abroad, and to swell with furious winds, and to draw a shore quite round the inclosed earth. He likewise added springs, and immense pools and lakes. He ordered likewise plains to be extended, and valleys to sink; the woods to be covered with green leaves, and the rocky mountains to rise."
"From this elevated spot (Sharp Tor) Kingston Hill appeared considerably beneath us. After spending some time on Sharp Tor, we reluctantly descended and went towards another range of rocks, called Killmarth Hill (which signifies the Holy Hill or Land, or perhaps Holy Grove), about three-quarters of a mile off. This range of rocks looks from Sharp Tor, like an immense wall of artificial masonry, with here and there turrets ascending, and it brought to my mind Sir George Staunton's account of the Chinese wall. When we arrived at its base, we alighted from our horses, and ascended. This natural wall-looking range is composed of granite rocks of, I should suppose some of them, a thousand tons weight. We traversed along the ridge, with some difficulty, towards the first turret, and from ​that to the next and so on, but the highest, which at distance looked somewhat like Wringcheese, was yet to be explored; at length we arrived at it, and found it, if possible, more curious than Cheese-wring itself. It consists of immense rocks piled one on the other, to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and it leans so much, that a perpendicular dropped from its top would, I may venture to say, reach the bottom fifteen or more feet from its base; and from where we stood on the ridge, its support at the base appeared so slight as if a man could shove the whole mass over the precipice. Some of the uppermost stones of this pile are, I should think, from fifteen to twenty feet over, and the base of the whole fabric appeared so slight, that I imagined the handle of my whip would have exceeded its thickness. Upon descending to take another view of this astonishing structure, we found that the rocks were considerably thicker on one side than the other; so that the thick parts formed a counterpoise to the overhanging parts; but this not being apparent from the spot on which we first stood, was the cause of our great astonishment. However, though our astonishment was somewhat lessened, yet much remained at this stupendous pile. This is the most western turret.
"From this place one of the party and myself, the others not chusing to accompany us, went to explore the easternmost turret. Upon our arrival at its base we found much difficulty in ascending it; the rocks jutted out, one over the other, in such a manner that, had we slipped but a few inches, we must have dropped over a considerable precipice. I arrived first at the base, and attempted to ascend, but fear pulled me back. Upon my friend's arrival we thought we would exert ourselves to get up, as we conjectured there might be a Druidical basin at top. My friend got up the first rock by creeping at full length under the overhanging rock; and I was under the necessity of several times desiring him, ​in the most energetic manner, to keep as close in as possible; for if the body had gone a few inches further out, it must have slid over the sloping rock which overhung the precipice. It took him a few minutes to drag himself in in this manner. In this creeping state he thought he should have broken his watch to pieces, as he was obliged, as before stated, to crawl at full length, there being no possibility; on account of the overhanging rock, of going on hands and knees. Upon trying to get out his watch, I earnestly entreated him to desist, for fear of losing his centre of gravity; for on the left hand was the precipice, and raising his right side ever so little might have been attended with most serious consequences. He took my advice, and by another exertion got far enough in to raise himself on his hands and knees, and then on his legs. I then followed him in the same manner. We then examined the rocks above us, in order to observe the best mode of ascending them. I first made the ascent, and in the uppermost rock discovered the largest Druidical basin we had met with, and observed it had a lip or channel facing the south. The horrid precipices on each side prevented my getting on the top of this rock, as I felt a slight vertigo. I then got down on a lower rock, and my friend ascended the uppermost one, and not finding himself dizzy, got into the basin itself (where I hope he will never go again), and waved his hat to our companions below. I desired him to measure the circumference of this basin, which he did with his whip, and found it to be about three feet and a half in diameter. We did not take its depth, but I think it must have been about a foot; it was of a circular form. The next thing to be considered was, how we should get down again; which at last, however, we effected nearly in the same manner (only reversing our movements) as we got up; and I believe nothing will ever induce me to pay a second visit to the top of this rock.
​"We had a very fine day for our excursion; the sun being clouded, it was not over warm; and there was but little wind: had there been more wind, we should not have been able to ascend some of the places we did, particularly the last. The air was somewhat hazy over the North and South seas, which was the only thing we had to regret.
"A finer situation for Druidical residence, rites, and ​ceremonies, I think, could not be fixed on anywhere; every thing around is awfully magnificent; probably in ancient days these masses of rocks were surrounded with trees. Our guide indeed informed us that on digging the soil trunks of large trees have been there discovered; and Kil-mar, Kill-mark, Kil-marth signify, in Cornish, the Great, the Horse, or the Wonderful Grove.
Since writing the above, I have been again to see these curiosities (but did not visit the top of the easternmost turret), and went by the way of St. Cleer Churchtown, near which is a curious old well, with a moor-stone cross by it, worth seeing; the stone itself is in form of a cross, and it has a cross in relief cut on its cross. About a mile from St. Cleer Church (on the way to Cheese Wring) stands a most magnificent
CROMLECH,
on a barrow in a field near the high road, on the tenement called Trethevye. A friend who was with me took a rough measurement of the upper or covering stone, and calculated it to be about five tons weight. The stones which form this Cromlech are supposed to have ​been brought some miles from where they stand, as there are none of the same kind near it. That this is a work of art there cannot be a doubt. One can hardly, however, suppose it possible that such immense stones could have been brought from a distance, and erected in the manner they are. What machinery was used baffles all conjecture. The upper or covering stone has a hole in it; for what purpose I have no idea, unless to support a flag-pole. One of the party remarked it might have been made for a chain to drag it by; but I rather thought it too near the edge for that purpose. Mr. Britton, in his "Beauties of England and Wales," has given a vignette of this Cromlech, which is well executed, and like the original. Speaking of this Cromlech, Mr. B. says, he believes it has not been described by any writer, though it is more curious and of greater magnitude than that of Mona, or any other he was acquainted with. He says "it standeth about one mile and a half east of St. Cleer, on an eminence commanding an extensive tract of country, particularly to the east, south, and south-west; and is provincially denominated Trevethey Stone. On the north the high ground of the Moors exalts its swelling outline above it. It is all of granite, and consists of six upright stones, and one large slab covering them in an inclined position. This impost measures sixteen feet in length and ten broad, and is at a medium about fourteen inches thick. It rests on five of the uprights only; and at its other end is perforated by a small circular hole. No tradition exists as to the ​time of its erection; but its name at once designates it being a work of the Britons, and sepulchral; the term Trevedi (Trevethi) signifying, in the British language, the place of the Graves."
King Doniert is said to have been the father of St. Ursula, rendered famous by her unfortunate expedition from Cornwall to the coast of Flanders, but still more famous by the beautiful picture of her embarkation, painted by Claude de Lorraine, where the Saint, accompanied by her eleven thousand virgins, are descending to their ships in a port, decorated with buildings the most superb, and surrounded by a distant landscape, imagined and arranged in the highest style of that celebrated master.
Those ladies, although an exaggeration from eleven to eleven thousand is suspected by some writers, were to have married a Roman emperor and his principal officers; but being attacked on their landing by Pagan Saxons, they defended themselves with a courage worthy of Cornwall, until all were slain with arms in their hands. Yet one hardly sees why these heroic females were honoured among the saints. Their deaths as martyrs are referred to the 20th of October 383, and their tomb is still shown at Cologne, where a monastery has been built to their memory.
THE EDITOR.
Not far from King Doniert's stone monument is another perpendicular moor-stone, on which is still apparent the figure of a cross; and on another, not far distant, is a cross shaped like a T.
Without doubt I think this our King Doniert lived and died in his town and castle of Leskeard, where it was not lawful to bury the bodies of dead men till the year 700. It is moreover to be noted, with regard to the inscription on his monument of stone, that about this time it was customary to pray for departed souls.
​Not very distant from the said monument, in the open downs, are to be seen a great number of moor-stones, some artificially squared, and placed in a perpendicular manner about three feet high. These are commonly called the Hurlers: a Druidical monument having been changed, by the fraud and artifice of the priests, into a supposed monument of God's vengeance against persons for not attending on their masses.
St. Cleer measures 9118 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. 5448 | s. 0 | d. 0 |
| Poor Rates in 1831 | 833 | 3 | 0 |
| Population, $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | in 1801, 774 | in 1811, 780 | in 1821, 985 | in 1831, 982. |
being an increase of about 27 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
About a mile north of the church the granite hills make their appearance, and run across the parish in a curved line. The only variety which this rock presents are coarse and fine grained masses, and a kind of fluor, near Carraton Hill, containing hornblende. Immediately south of the granite, on the side of a barren moor, masses of compact and quartz ore felspar rock protrude, indicating the same formation as at Trewist in Alternun. Near the church hornblende slate prevails, which is said to contain veins of actynolite and asbestos. A little further south, on the ridge of a barren down, massive hornblende rock projects in tiers; and loose blocks of the same stone lie scattered over the side of the hill, and in the adjacent valley.
The whole of the southern part of the parish is composed of varieties of this same rock, several of which are well displayed in the vicinity of Rosecradock.
* ↑ Probably this place took its name not from a gate painted red being there placed, as is generally imagined, but from its being situated just above Fowey river; Rhie-gat signifies River's course. The Fowey river at this place is not above half a mile from the source of Looe river.
* ↑ The following account of these stones is copied from Mr. Polwhele's Cornwall, vol. ii. p. 195. "In the parish of St. Clere, about 200 paces to the eastward of Redgate, are two monumental stones which seem parts of two different crosses. They have no such relation to each other as to warrant the conclusion that they ever contributed to form one monument. One is inscribed; the other, without an inscription, called 'the other half stone,' seems to have been the shaft of a cross, and originally stood upright, but has latterly been thrown down, from an idle curiosity to ascertain whether any concealed treasures were beneath its base. On one of its sides are some ornamental asterisks, but no letters of any kind. Its present length is about eight feet; yet it seems to have been once longer, as the upper part is broken, and displays part of a mortice. The inscribed stone, nearly square, appears to have been a plinth of a monumental cross, having the words 'Doniert rogavit pro anima' inscribed upon it, in similar characters to those used about the ninth century. Doniert is supposed to mean Dungerth, who was king of Cornwall, and accidentally drowned about the year 872. Of the meaning and intention of this monument, see Borlase, pp. 361, 362."
* ↑ I take some credit to myself for this conjecture as to the original meaning of "the other half stone." And I have, long since writing this, accidentally discovered what strongly confirms my opinion. The authors of the Beauties of England and Wales, speaking of inscribed stones at Ebchester, in Durham, say, there is one having the single word "Have" for Ave on it. This stone is supposed by Horsley to be sepulchral. Have Melitina Sanctissima. The custom of thus saluting, as it were, the dead, or taking their last farewell of them, is very well known, and it may seem almost needless to produce any instances of it. Thus Æneas bids eternal adieu to Pallas: Salve æternum mihi, maxime Palla, Æternumque vale.—Æneid, XI. 97. Thus also a passage in Catullus, Ave atque vale.
* ↑ Druid, Druides, or Druidæ.—Some derive this word from the Hebrew Derussim, or Drussim; which they translate Contemplatores. Pliny, Salmasius, Vignierius, and others, derive the name from δρυς, an oak, on account of their inhabiting, or at least frequenting and teaching in forests, or because they sacrificed under the oak. Menage derives the word from the old British "Drus," which signifies "Dæmon" or "Magician;" Borel, from the old British "Dru" or "Deru;" whence he takes δρυς to be derived. Goropius Becanus, lib. i. takes "Druis" to be an old Celtic or German word, formed from "trowis" or "truis," signifying a "Doctor of the Truth and Faith." Father Peyron, in his book of the Original of the Celtic Language, will have both Greek and Latin to come from Celtic; and if so, the Greek word δρυς must come from the Celtic "deru." The groves where they worshipped were called Llwyn; thence, probably, is derived the word "Llan," signifying now, in Welch, a church. These groves were iuclosures of spreading oak, ever surrounding their sacred places; and in these words, "1st. Gorseddan," or Hillocks, where they sat, and from whence they pronounced their decrees, and delivered their orations to the people;" "2nd. Carnedde," or Heaps of Stones, on which they had a peculiar mode of worship; "3rd. Cromlech," or Altars, on which they performed the solemnities of sacrifice. There were several orders of them:—1st. Druids; the chief of these was a sort of Pontifex Maximus, or High Priest; these had the care and direction of matters respecting religion; 2nd. Bards; who were an inferior order to the Druids, and whose business it was to celebrate the praises of their heroes, in songs composed and sung to their harps; 3rd. Eubates; who applied themselves chiefly to the study of Philosophy, and the contemplation of the wonderful works of Nature. There were Women as well as Men Druids; for it was a female Druid who foretold to Dioclesian, when a private soldier, that he would be Emperor of Rome. They taught physics, or natural philosophy; were versed in astronomy and the computation of time; were skilled in arithmetic and mechanics; and appear to have been the grand source from whence the ages in which they lived derived all the knowledge which they possessed. Among the numerous places sacred to Druidical worship many hieroglyphical characters have been discovered, which doubtless were intended for something relative to their opinions of the Deity to whom they paid their adoration. But, in addition to this, they taught their pupils a number of verses, which were only a sort of memorials or annals in use amongst them. Some persons remained twenty years under their instruction, which they did not deem it lawful to commit to writing. They used indeed the Greek alphabet, but not the language, as appears by a note, chap. xiii. lib. VI. of Cæsar's Commentaries de Bell. Gall. This custom, according to Julius Cæsar, seems to have been adopted for two reasons: first, not to expose their doctrines to the common people; and, secondly, lest their scholars, trusting to letters, should be less anxious to remember their precepts, because such assistance commonly diminishes application and weakens the memory. The original manner of writing amongst the ancient Britons was by cutting the letters with a knife upon sticks, which were commonly squared, and sometimes formed with three sides. Their religious ceremonies were but few, and similar to those of the ancient Hebrews. The unity of the Supreme Being was the foundation of their religion; and Origen, in his Commentaries of Ezekiel, inquiring into the reasons of the rapid progress of Christianity in Britain, says, "this island has long been predisposed to it by the doctrine of the Druids, which had ever taught the unity of God the Creator." (Extracted from the Monthly Magazine and Literary Panorama for November 1819.)
* ↑ This author is mistaken. Norden not only speaks of it as follows, but has given a tolerably good plate of it. He says, "Trethevic, called in Latin Casa Gigantis, a little house raysed of mightie stones, standing on a little hill within a field, the form hereunder expressed. This monument standeth in the parish of St. Cleer. The cover being all one stone is from A to B 16 foote in length; the breadth from C to D is 10 foote; the thickness from G to H is 2 foote. E is an artificial hole 8 inches diameter, made thorowe the roofe very rounde, which served, as it seemeth, to put out a staffe, whereof the house itself was not capable. F was the door or entrance."