Just above the houses (the intermediate space filled up with gardens
and orchards) is a common or down, called West Looe Down, of near a
hundred acres, on which are the remains of a mound of earth that runs
many miles across the country, and is noticed by Borlase, who, from
its extent and other circumstances, supposed it to be a Roman work.
His account of it as follows: “That the Romans had ways in the eastern
parts of the county about Loo and Lostwithiel, the following antient
work, shewn me by the Rev. Mr. Howell, Rector of Lanreath (June 25 and
26, 1756), will abundantly confirm. It is called the Giant’s Hedge, a
large mound, which reaches from the valley in which the Boroughs of
East and West Looe are situated, to Leryn, on the river Fowey. It is
first visible on West Looe Down, about two hundred paces above the
Mills; whence it runs to Kilminarth Woods; from and through them to
Trelawn Wood, about three hundred paces above Trelawn Mill; then
through Little Larnick to the barton of Hall, in which there are two
circular encampments, about four hundred paces to the north of it;
thence quite through the said barton, making the northern boundary of
fields to the glebe of Pelynt Vicarage, called Furze Park; then cross
the barton of Tregarrick; and thence, through the north grounds of
Tresassen and Polventon, to the glebe lands of the rectory of
Lanreath, where I measured it seven feet high and twenty feet wide at
a medium; thence it stretches through the tenement of Wyllacombe to
Trebant Water; whence it proceeds, through the barton of Longunnet and
some small tenements, to Leryn; from which there is a fair dry down,
called St. Winnow Down, leading north along to Lostwithiel. This
risbank, or mound, ranges up hill and down hill indifferently; has
no visible ditch continued on any brow of a hill, as intrenchments
always have; there is no hollow, or foss, on one side more than the
other; it is about seven miles long, and tends straight from Looe to
Leryn Creek, in the direct line from Looe to Lostwithiel. By all these
properties, its height and breadth, in wanting the fosses of
fortification, its straightness and length, the grandeur of the
design, and the labour of execution, I judge that it can be nothing
less than a Roman work. In this supposition I am the more confirmed,
first, because several Roman coins have been found on the banks of
Fowey river (as see “Antiquities of Cornwall,” p. 282), and, as I have
been informed, also in the run of this notable work; secondly, by its
tendency to the first ford over the navigable river of Fowey; for it
must be observed that the Romans, thoroughly sensible of the delays
and hazards of crossing friths and arms of the sea, and the danger of
bridges getting into the possession of the natives, were equally
averse both to bridges and passing large rivers; they had therefore in
constant view the nearest and most commodious fords of rivers, and
directed their roads accordingly. Now near Leryn Creek, where the work
ends, there is a ford, and no where below is the river Fowey fordable;
which plainly accounts for their conveying this road so high up the
country, that it might at once convey their troops towards their
station at Lostwithiel, and afford them a safe passage over the river
Fowey into the western parts, through Grampont and Truro.”
Borlase also, in his Natural History, says, “There are the remains of
a causey between Liskeard and Looe, near Polgover, the seat of Mr.
Mayow, which, as well as the cross road from Dulo to Hessenford,
vulgar tradition makes to be Roman.” This causey I have never been
able to find out.
The above-mentioned mound is first visible directly above Looe bridge;
so that, if a line was drawn west, as the bridge tends, it would come
to it at the head of a field called Bridgend meadow, where a small
orchard is planted. There is a very visible ditch all along West Looe
Down to the north of the rampart. On the barton of Hall, however, the
ditch is to the south of the rampart. This rampart on the barton of
Hall is at least fifteen feet high and about twenty feet thick at the
base. About four hundred paces north of it, as Borlase says, there are
two apparently (though not perfectly, as I was informed by Captain
Dawson, who assisted in taking the Trigonometrical Survey, under
Colonel Mudge) circular encampments, situated in a field called Berry
Park. Berry Park contains about eighteen acres, and may be termed a
tongue of land. It has a valley on each side, and also at the bottom.
Across the isthmus, if I may so term it, of this tongue of land, runs
the mound, protecting that part of the field which the valleys do not
extend to. The circles (or rings, as they are now called by the
tenant) consist of one entire circle of about 122 paces diameter,
surrounded with a rampart, ditch, and breast-work; the height of which
rampart, from the bottom of the ditch, is, I imagine, upwards of
fifteen feet, and must originally have been much higher. This circle
has but one gateway into it, which is guarded by mounds without
ditches, running upwards of fifty feet into the circle. The part of
this circle where the gateway is, is surrounded by about three fourths
of another circle, whose sweep, had it been continued, would have
intersected the inner circle; but the southern part of this outermost
circle, when it comes within twenty or thirty feet of the inner, falls
into the segment of another circle, which runs parallel to the inner
circle, leaving a platform of about fifty feet breadth between the two
ditches, and surrounding about a third part of the inner circle. From
the gateway of the inner to the opposite point of the outward circle,
is about 144 paces, which may be about three fourths of the diameter.
The outer circle has a similar rampart, ditch, and breast-work with
the inner circle, and one gateway, which is not quite opposite that
of the former. These circles command very fine prospects both of land
and sea. Rame Head and the entrance into Plymouth are visible from
Berry Park. You can see these circles from Bindown Hill with the naked
eye; and from the elevation of that hill you look down on them so as
to see their areas.
In a field a short distance south-west of Pelynt church-town, and
about half a mile in a direct line from the said circles, are many
barrows. The field in which they are, is I believe, called the The
Five Barrows. At the bottom of this field is a highway, leading from
Pelynt Church-town to the Fowey road. In this highway, just at the
bottom of the said field, a few years since, a grave was discovered by
some men mending the highway. It was formed by four stones on their
edges, and a covering stone. In this kestvaen was an urn, with burnt
ashes in it; and round the urn were piled, in a regular manner, the
unburnt remains of human bones. I went to Pelynt purposely to see this
curiosity, but found the grave had been filled up, and its contents
buried. The urn was described to me by a man who saw it as having
ornaments of flowers and leaves on its outside, and that it fell into
sheards when touched. I could not learn that any coin or other thing
was found in the urn or grave; indeed, I fancy there was a lack of
curiosity in all concerned.
Part of the mound on West Looe Down has been from time to time dug
down, to obtain earth for building and plastering. I have several
times desired the labourers, in case of their finding any coin or
other thing curious, to preserve it; but have never heard of any thing
being found of late years. A celt (commonly called in this
neighbourhood a thunderbolt[2]) was some years ago found on this Down;
and it was given by the late Mr. Bawden, of Looe, to Mr. James, of
St. Kevern. I have a celt, made of a hard black stone, which was found
in pulling down an old house at East Looe a few years since; it is
between six and seven inches long, and very perfect. I lately saw some
like it in shape and stone, but not so large, in the British Museum.
I also remember seeing a celt that was found, about thirty years ago,
at Kilminarth, near the ruin of the said mound: about which time a
gold chain and several instruments of brass were found in a decayed
hedge, or side of a highway, near Little Larnic, by an apprentice
girl. Her mistress described them to me as being somewhat like
hatchets, and said “she believed they were things which the warriors
used in antient times.” I applied to the mistress, in hopes of getting
a sight of them; but her apprentice had sold them to a buyer of old
brass. The hedge formed one side of the high road, not far from the
said mound. The apprentice told me that the gold chain was about a
foot and a half in length――that when she found it, not thinking it was
gold, she tied it to the end of a stick, and made a sort of whip of it
to drive home the cows. She some time after discovered that it was
gold, and kept it by her for several years, when she gave it to her
brother, who sold it to a Mr. Patrick, a jeweller at Dock, for three
pounds. The brother told me that Mr. Patrick said it was Corsican
gold; and he (the brother) also told me that he well remembered the
brass instruments, and that some of them were like the tops of
spontoons.