Page:Cornwall; Cambridge county geographies.djvu/127

 ANTIQUITIES 111 same period of the early bronze, but may. have been used by later peoples. They are of two descriptions, the cliff castles, where a headland is protected by banks and dykes on the side of the mainland, and circular or oval camps crowning heights, with concentric rings of circumvallation. Where the hill top does not admit of the circular form the earthworks adapt themselves to the contour of the hill. Roman remains are conspicuously rare in Cornwall. Some fragments of Samian ware, coins, and a bronze and silver metal vessel have been found in Bossens, a camp in St Erth, and the head of an ensign at St Just. A second Roman camp is Tregeare, near Bodmin. An inscribed milestone of the time of Constantine the Great is in the churchyard of St Hilary. The metal bowl at Bossens was inscribed by Aelius Modestus to the god Mars. Of the Celtic period, gold lunettes have been found at Harlyn ; a gold cup near the Cheesewring in a cairn along with a corroded iron weapon ; a portion of a gold armlet at Penzance and of a brooch at the Lizard. Of Saxon remains the principal are the hoard at Trewhiddle, a silver chalice, finger-ring, pins, etc. Coins have been found ; among them one of Ethelred, struck at Launceston. On the altar slab formerly at Treslothan, now supporting a sundial at Pendarves, is inscribed the Saxon name of ^Egured ; and an old bell at Lanhydrock has on it u ^Ethelstan sumpta an[ima] sua." These are scanty remains, fewer even than the Roman. Cornwall is, however, rich in Romano-British inscribed stones, dating from the eighth century down. At St Cleer is the memorial stone to Doniert (Dungarth) son of