PROBUS.
HALS.
The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
St. Probus is situate in the hundred of Powder, and is bounded to the west by St. Erme, St. Clement’s, St. Michael Penkivell and Merther, to the north by Ladock and St. Stephen’s, to the east by St. Stephen’s also and Creed, to the south by St. Cuby and Cornelly.
In the year 1291, the 20th of Edward the First, the rectory of this parish was valued at £12, being then appropriated to the college there; the vicarage, il. vis. viiid.; and the prebends,
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Porcio Mag’ri Thome de Ainton (or Bucton) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Porcio Joh’is de Bristo | 2 | 10 | 0 |
| Porcio Gilb’ti de Frendon | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Porcio Mag’ri de Hendre | 2 | 0 | 0 |
In Wolsey’s valuation, the vicarage of this parish with Cornelly, and under the denomination of Probus Groguth, are valued at £13. 6s. 8d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. The sheaf held partly by impropriation, and partly by lease from the Bishop of Exeter, by Philip Hawkins, esq. The incumbent is Mr. Reynolds.
That part of the parish which joins with St. Clement’s is held from the great Duchy manor of Moresk.
The barton of Trehane, which signifies the Old Town, gave name to an ancient family who flourished a long time in this place, and gave for their arms, Argent,
three bars Sable, charged with nine martlets of the First.
—— Scawen, gent. sold this barton in the early part of the 17th century, to John Williams of Carvean, esq. only brother to William Williams of Trewithgy, esq. Mr. Williams built a large brick house here, but died very soon after that he got into it, leaving three daughters by his wife, the only daughter and heir of John Courtenay of Tregelles, gent. who died a few days before him in childbed; for grief of which, it is said, he broke his heart: he left three daughters, Mary, Ann, and Catherine, all very young, and up to this time all unmarried (about 1730). But that his estate might not be divided, he gave it solely to his eldest daughter Mary, who now possesses it, with a considerable estate of the duchy adjoining. The arms are the same with Williams of Trevorva.
Not far from Trehane is Carvean, or the Little Town, which was the seat in lease (it belonging to the manor of Gowlden) to the above mentioned John Williams, esq. on whose death it fell into the lord’s hand, who granted a new lease of it to William Hobbs, gent.
Joining with Carvean, there being nothing between them but a road, is Trewother, which was for several generations the seat in lease of the family of Huddy, the freehold being in the Trevanions of Carhays.
I next come to the manor of Trelowthes, which I take to be the same which is called by Mr. Carew Trelowith, which means the town place of trees.
Next is the manor of Trewithgy, alias Trenowith, alias Treworgy; but as I take the first to be the right name, I give its interpretation, which doth signify a town of trees by the river.
Francis Tregian, pronounced Trudgean, forfeited this with his other estates.
Trevorva, which may mean Trevor and va, for da, the dwelling on the good road, but called so, I suppose, by the rule of contraries, the road being one of the deepest and
worst in the whole country; but which according to the old proverb is
Bad for the rider, but good for the bider—
making amends by the richness of its soil.
This barton, which is of a very good yearly value, was once the dwelling of a family bearing the same name; the last of which family had an only daughter and heir, who married —— Williams of Herringstone in the county of Dorset, which match was the first settling of that family in Cornwall.
The arms of Williams are, Argent, a greyhound current between three Cornish choughs Proper, within a plain border Gules, charged with six crosses formee Or and as many Bezants.
The present Mr. Williams, owner of this barton, lives at a place adjoining called Trewithan, where the family removed, probably disliking the dirty situation of Trevorva.
TREWITHAN, THE TOWN OR DWELLING OF TREES.
This place lies high and very pleasantly.
After the Williams’s had flourished for some time at Trewithan, Courtenay Williams, when he had foolishly squandered away a pretty estate, and a good fortune too, which he had with his wife Elizabeth, the eldest daughter and coheir of the Rev. —— May, also M.D. sold this barton for £2700 to Philip Hawkins, esq. brother to the Rev. Dr. Hawkins of Pennance, and a member in this present Parliament (1730) for Granpont. He now resides here, has very much improved this seat, new built a great part of the house, made good gardens, &c.
THE MANOR OF WALVEDEN, GULDEN, OR GOLDEN.
There flourished for a long series of years a family of the
same name, the last of which, John Walveden, esq. had only two daughters and coheirs, of whom the eldest having married —— Tregion, esq. brought to her husband this and several other fair estates. The other sister, Catherine, married Nicholas Carminow, esq. of Trenouth in this parish. On the decease of his father-in-law, which happened in the year 1514, Mr. Tregian settled himself here, and lived in great splendour. Leland mentions the house as building, and Carew says, Walvedon, alias Golden, fell into Tregion, by match with the inheritrix thereof.
Their son married an Arundell of Lanherne. Their grandson with the Lord Stourton’s daughter.
The arms of Tregion are Ermine, on a chief Sable, three birds Or, beaked and legged Argent.
But Mr. Carew, though it happened in his time, does not mention the great misfortune which befel their grandchild, Francis Tregian, esq. though it was not long before (twenty-five years) and ended in the total ruin of this wealthy and flourishing family; in giving an account of which I will be as brief as the thing will bear. Mr. Camden has touched on it in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth, (A. D. 1577, Reg. 19): “Hactenus serena tranquillitas Pontificiis in Angliâ affulsit, qui quâdam misericordi conniventiâ sua sacra inter privatos parietes, licet illa legibus interdicta, pecuniariâ mulctâ inflictâ, quodam modo impune celebrarant, nec Regina vim conscientiæ afferendam censuit. Verùm postquam illud fulmen excommunicationis Romæ in Reginam fuisset ejaculatum, in nubes et tempestates serenitas illa paulatim abiit, legemque elicuit anno 1571, contra eos, qui ejusmodi Bullas, Agnos Dei, et grana benedicta, papalis obsequii tesseras, in regnum intulerint, aut aliquum Romanæ ecclesiæ reconciliarint, ut diximus. Primus hâc lege tenebatur Cuthbertus Mainus sacerdos, qui Pontificiæ contra Principem potentiæ assertor pervicax,” without any overt act, as far as appears here, against the new law, by bringing in any bulls, &c. or by reconciling any to
the Church of Rome, “ad fanum Stephani (Launston vulgo vocant) in Cornwalliâ supplicio affectus, et Trugionis nobilis qui eum hospitio acceperat” [only had entertained him in his house], “fortunas eversus perpetuoque carceri adjudicatus.” And that you may see what a noble fortune he lost, it being his hard hap to be the first, as Cuthbert Maine to suffer death, so he to lose his estate and liberty by this severe law; and being besides myself descended from this gentleman’s sister, Jane Tregian, married to Thomas Tonkin of Trevaunance, I shall here set down an abstract of an exemplification of the inquisition taken at Lanceston, 5 Car. I. in the lands, &c. of the said Mr. Tregian, of which I shall give only the substance. Inquisitio indentat. capt. apud Lanceston in com. prædict. on Monday the 1st of March, anno 5 Car. before William Wray, knight, Walter Langden, knight, James Bagg, knight, Nicholas Borlase, esq. Peter Hussey, esq. and William Stowell, gent. Commissioners, &c. on the oaths of Sampson Manington, esq. Robert Dodson, esq. Nicholas Leach, esq. Christopher Pollard, gent. Humfrey Lower, gent. James Hoskins, gent. Richard Bettison, gent. Digory Prouse, gent. John Rawlyn, gent, and Roger Edgcumbe, gent. That the said Francis Trugeon, in the said commission named, was indicted, convicted, and attainted of præmunire, as in the said commission is contained, on the said 20 April, 19 Elizabeth, and also on Monday aforesaid, in the said fourth week in Lent, anno 21 Elizabeth, was seized
But note here that you are not to judge of the real value of Mr. Tregian’s estate by this return, except it be in the manor of Gowlden, where the demesne is valued as well as the rents. I have heard several intelligent people say, that the estate of this family in this county alone, was worth at the least £3000 per annum, besides a large sum they were possessed of in ready money, which enabled them to build such a noble house here, of which the remains are still magnificent; and among these, under an old tower, they still show the place where Cuthbert Mayne the priest was found concealed.
Norden says, that Mr. Tregion remained in prison full twenty years, but that he was released by an order of Queen Elizabeth herself about 1597, and that he afterwards lived near London, supported, as was believed, by the bounty of his friends. Francis Tregion the son, having repossessed himself by purchase and by favour of some part of the property taken from his father, found that he could not stem the tide raised against him by persons envious of his returning prosperity, or eager to obtain the plunder of his possessions, as had been done by his father; for in January 1608, this persecuted family suffered in his person a further and second loss of their estates, in some degree owing perhaps to the strong feelings of apprehension
and of resentment occasioned by the Gunpowder Plot of November the 5th, three years before.
Mr. Tregion, resolving to do the best that he could, received some money by compounding with various parties to confirm their titles, and thus embarked for Spain, where, as it is said, he was very well received on account of his own and his father’s sufferings for religion, and that he was made a grandee of that Kingdom; and that his posterity still flourish there with the title of Marquis of St. Angelo. Whether this be true or not I cannot affirm, having it only by tradition; however, we hear no more of him in this country.
The next that we find in possession of this barton, and living there, was Ezekiel Grose: he died here, and left it to his only daughter and heir, married to —— Buller, esq. of Shillingham, with a great estate in other parishes, in whose posterity it continued till the year 1710, when James Buller, esq. the last of that branch, dying without issue, gave the whole by will to his great-uncle, who had acquired Morval through a marriage with the heiress of Coode.
Talbot, which is an abbreviation of Haleboat, says Norden, p. 61, is a rock called Ha-le-boate rock, wherein to this day are seen many great iron rings, whereunto boats have been tied, although there is now no show of an haven, but only a little brook running through the valley into a branch of the River Fall.
To the north-east of Gowlden lies Tredenham, a small manor which the late Sir Joseph Tredenham believed to be Denhamstown, and derived himself from a younger branch of the family which formerly resided there, which he also testified by his arms, Argent, a bend lozengy Gules, by way of distinction, as was usual in former times, from the parent stock, which gave Gules, three lozenges in fess Ermine. But however that may be, this was the seat of the Tredenhams for many generations, till they removed, first to Kellion in Cornelly, and then to Tregonnan in St. Ewe.
This small manor, from which some estates are held, particularly Corvith in St. Cuby, was sold with the greater part of the Tredenham property in 1727, to Doctor John Hawkins of Pennance, who is the present lord of it.
CURVOZA.
That is the walled or fortified town, so called from an intrenchment, for voza properly signifies a trench or place cast up. This trench was measured for me by Mr. Joseph Webber, steward to Miss Mary Williams of Trehane, the proprietor; and it proved to be two hundred and ten paces in circumference.
[Car or Cair is a fort, and voza and voran are the plural of voz or vore, a ditch (see Pryce’s Vocabulary). Corvoza would therefore be the entrenched fort. Ed.]
THE EDITOR.
The church at Probus is large, but not remarkable for any thing beyond other churches in the neighbourhood. In it are some monuments, and especially one to Mr. Thomas Hawkins of Trewithon, sometime member for Grampound, who died in 1766. This gentleman not having passed the small-pox, and resolving on being inoculated, thought it was his duty to extend the same benefit to all his neighbours in the parish. Several scores had in consequence this dreadful disease communicated to them in its mitigated form, and all recovered except the benevolent individual himself, who thus extensively introduced inoculation, at that time a novelty in Cornwall among the great mass of the people. He is supposed to have carried too far the asthenic system for counteracting fever, and perhaps to have taken the contagion, in what is termed the natural way, previously to the artificial communication.
Although the church is not superior to others around it, the tower is on the whole more magnificent than any other
in the county. The tower at Weck St. Mary, near Stratton, is said to be somewhat more lofty; and several exceed that at Probus in elegance and lightness of proportions, but this combines massiveness, altitude, and elaborate decoration; moreover, it has been built since the Reformation, and according to tradition, by the voluntary contributions of the unmarried inhabitants of the parish; but the same is said of a lofty tower at Derby; and of the windows of St. Neot’s Church, one is given by the unmarried men, and another by the single women of that parish.
It is quite clear that this church was collegiate, having a dean and a certain number of prebendaries, founded in very early times before the Norman Conquest, and probably by St. Edward. The Deanery became attached with its share of the endowments to the Church of Exeter, but in a way which Mr. Whitaker himself has not succeeded in clearly making out. The prebendaries or some of them remained till the general dissolution, when the prebends were given or sold, and have passed through the Williams’s, by purchase to the Hawkins family, with some fairs. One fair, however, is the grant of King Charles the Second. Few gentlemen’s houses in the west of Cornwall were without the honour of receiving Prince Charles during his residence in Cornwall, about the middle part of the civil wars; and he is said to have remained for a time longer than usual with Mr. Williams, who, after the Restoration, waited on the King with congratulations from the parish; and on being complimented by him with the question whether he could do any thing for his friends, answered that the parish would esteem themselves highly honoured and distinguished by the grant of a fair, which was accordingly done for the 17th of September; this fair coming the last in succession after three others, has acquired for itself a curious appellation derived from the two patron saints, and from the peculiar pronunciation in that neighbourhood of the word last, somewhat like laest:—
Saint Probus and Grace,
Not the first but the last,
—and from this distinction it is usually called Probus and Grace fair.
It is utterly impossible now to give any account of these two personages, except that they were in all probability missionaries from Ireland. Nor is the Roman name of Probus any objection against this supposition, since such names were frequently assumed. The apostle of Ireland has a Roman name, and many of the religious must have been foreigners.
On repairing the east wall of the chancel some few years since, two skeletons were found in different niches, and one of these was declared by anatomists to have been a female. These were supposed to be the relics of St. Probus and of St. Grace, which may have been true, although the present church cannot be less than eight hundred or a thousand years later than their time.
No obvious indication can be discovered of the ancient college; perhaps the prebendaries ceased to reside after the deanery became absorbed at Exeter.
Mr. Whitaker has left several pages of memoranda on this parish, evidently notes made at the time of his visit there, and not arranged in any order. The Editor thinks it therefore most expedient to adopt such parts only as seem to explain the etymologies, or to give information respecting facts.
Mr. Whitaker observes, that, although the dedication of this parish is to St. Probus alone, yet assuredly St. Grace should be adopted also as a patron saint. The parish feast kept in the early part of July, is always designated by their joint names. No notice is taken of either in Bede.
On Carvean, Mr. Whitaker says, that it means the Little Marsh, as cars is a bay, a marsh, or a moor, corsen a reed, cors-hwyad in Welsh, is a fen-duck, a moorhen.
On Trewithgy.—In English a house surrounded by trees, and lying in the water. Trewithgy, Trenowith, and Treworgy, are different parts of the same manor. Trenowith signifies the New Town, and Treworgy a local name, remarkably common, as it is sure to be from its signification, being the town upon the water, or rather perhaps, upon the running stream.
Mr. Whitaker says, the manor of Probus appears from Domesday Book to have been possessed by St. Edward the Confessor; it was therefore one of the demesnes of the Crown at that time, and probably one of those belonging to the sovereigns of Cornwall previously to the conquest by the Saxons. Then I presume that an English family settled on those lands, and held them of the Crown; probably the Walvedons, who held them with Gowlden.
On this barton is an angular fort, says Borlase, p. 313 of his Antiquities, second edition, “on the barton of Wolvedon, alias Golden, in the parish of Probus, which has a wide deep ditch, the entire edge or counterscarp of which was faced upwards with masonry of thin stones in cement, which had round turrets or buttresses (such as neither Saxons, Danes, nor Britons had, as far as ever I can find) of the same masonry, interspersed with the straight lines of the ditch. This is very singular in our county, where most of our ancient fortifications are of a circular plan, without any projections (angular or circular) from the master line. I can judge this, therefore, neither to be British, Saxon, nor Danish, as being like no other work of these people, and from the artful fence of this ditch, as well as from the polygon which the whole forms, I guess it to be a Roman work. There is a large avenue or way from the north, rising from an adjoining valley.
This fortified ground I examined in August 1792. It is an earthwork denominated Warren, containing six Cornish acres, as the farmer told me, or about seven statute acres. It has a high and broad rampart twelve or fourteen feet high, and a deep ditch fourteen or sixteen feet wide. The
whole forms a long square, the greatest length from east to west. It has two gateways on the north, and two on the south, one on the east, and one on the west, each answering to the other, and having a raised avenue across the ditch. I therefore conclude it to be a Roman camp, made at the period when that people subdued Cornwall, and calculated for the reception of a large detachment. The revetments mentioned by Dr. Borlase do not appear, nor the projecting turrets. About a mile to the north of this, beyond a deep gully, may be found what is noticed by Mr. Tonkin as Caer Voza, and noticed by Doctor Borlase in his Natural History, p. 324, as Caerfos or Caerfosou. This is an estate, called so from a field close to the house, which has a strong and lofty rampart upon the north side, and a large deep ditch upon the north of that. These continue all along the northern side of the field, and have a slight return on the east and west towards the south; but then they cease, nor can any traces be found of them afterwards. Perhaps this imperfect work may have been a camp of the Britons opposed to that of the Romans, or one commenced at least for that purpose.
Thus far Mr. Whitaker.
Trehane, with a considerable property around it, were given, as Mr. Tonkin has stated, by the last Mr. Williams of that place, to his eldest daughter Mary, who married the Rev. William Stackhouse, D.D. Rector of St. Erme, the adjoining parish. Doctor Stackhouse was from the county of Durham, a brother of the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, Vicar of Beenham, Berks, well known by his learned works.
A complete body of Divinity—A fair statement of the controversy between Mr. Woolston and his adversaries,—and various others; but above all by an History of the Bible from the beginning of the World to the establishment of Christianity, in two volumes folio, first printed in 1732, a work that has gone through various editions, and may be found in every good library.
Doctor Stackhouse left two sons, William and John. His eldest son William, married one of the Miss Rashleighs of Menabilly, and settled at Trehane, where he lived universally esteemed and respected till June 1830, when he departed this life in his 90th year, leaving Trehane to his eldest son, who resides there at present. Mr. John Stackhouse, whose son Edward William Wynne Pendarves represents the county in Parliament, is noticed under Cambourne.
TREWITHAN.
This place ranks among the principal seats in Cornwall. It stands on a commanding situation, possesses extensive plantations, and looks over those to the south and east into vallies highly cultivated and rendered beautiful by wood and water, the two most pleasing ingredients in rural landscapes. The house was in part built by Mr. Courtenay Williams, who is said to have dissipated a handsome fortune by indulging himself in low pursuits and in low company, and especially by maintaining a set of people to accompany him from parish to parish, for (what seems quite ludicrous in present times) the purpose of ringing the bells; yet about the middle of the last century a new peal of bells was procured for Kenwyn Church, to accommodate the principal inhabitants of Truro with that exercise and amusement.
After the purchase of this place, together with the manor of Probus, the appropriated share of the great tithes, the lease under the Church of Exeter conveying the remainder part for lives, &c. Mr. Philip Hawkins made Trewithan his residence, and represented Grampound in three or four Parliaments in the Reign of George the Second; but not having any family himself, nor his brothers, almost the whole of their landed properties were devised to their eldest sister Mary, who had married her distant relation, Mr. Christopher Hawkins of Helston, and of Trewinnard in St. Erth.
Their only son Mr. Thomas Hawkins, succeeded his uncle at Trewithan, and also represented Grampound: he married Ann, daughter of James Heywood, esq. of London; but being unfortunately taken out of this life while he endeavoured to introduce the most important discovery ever made in medicine, for the benefit of others as well as of himself, he left five children minors, Philip, Christopher, Thomas, John, and a daughter. Philip and Thomas died in early life; the estate, therefore, devolved on Christopher, who having never married, died in May 1829, and in consideration probably of the large fortune possessed by his brother, devised the whole of his real property to Henry Hawkins, his brother’s younger son, then about eight years old, to whom it now belongs.
But the affair which most peculiarly distinguishes this parish is the persecution of Mr. Tregion.
It appears from Camden’s Annales of Queen Elizabeth, inserted above, and from contemporary historians, that, although enactments were made (they must not be honoured with the name of laws) against Catholics, imposing penalties and disabilities, and prohibiting altogether the celebration of their peculiar rites supposed to conciliate the Divine favour—yet if masses were performed without ostentation, and under a decent veil of secrecy, or if auricular confessions were made and absolutions received in private, little notice was taken of them, nor were priests eagerly sought after, who divested themselves in public of all peculiar and discriminating habits, and abstained from attempting proselytism. But when the Church of Rome thundered its excommunications against the Queen, when plots became more manifest at home, connected also with the individual nearest to the Crown, if the custom of hereditary succession were preserved; measures of great severity were adopted, on the ever doubtful plea of state necessity: so that more victims to religious opinions are said to have suffered death, banishment, or the loss of liberty, under
this reign, than under that of Mary Tudor, whose very name we have all been taught to associate with an epithet denoting the utmost horror: but her persecutions were conducted without disguise, in the name of religion, and to make forced converts, while Elizabeth professed to act from motives of temporal policy; moreover, the religion of one has been deprived of all its endowments, and been proscribed for two centuries; that of the other, most happily for ourselves, has flourished through the whole period.
It seems this Mr. Tregion and his connections were among the first sufferers under this cruel policy. His father married an Arundell, and himself a daughter of Lord Stourton, both families that have continued up to the present times in the profession of the ancient faith. Mr. Tregion had moreover a very large estate, calculated to excite the zeal of a well-known and detested class of men, who from the time of the Cæsars, and doubtlessly from a period long before, have used all means and all pretences, sacred or profane, to advance their own fortunes by the ruin of others.
Mr. Tregion, it appears, was the first or among the first accused under the inflamed passions and the persecuting spirit of those times, and the sheriff came in person to search his house; but the sheriff is stated to have been a personal friend, or at all events as a countryman and a neighbour, to have made a slight examination, and then to have dined, and unfortunately to have drank with the individual accused: when
——Subita incantum Dementia cepit,
Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes,
which induced him, in the pride and confidence inspired by wine, to reproach his guest with the insufficiency of his search, and to conduct him to a part of the house or premises clearly indicative of his temporary imprudence and contempt. The sheriff, probably heated also by wine, immediately renewed his examination, and finally discovered in a secret hole under a turret, a Catholic clergyman, called Cuthbert Mayne.
On this they were both arrested, and subsequently arraigned at the Assizes, and both convicted of those atrocious crimes: Mr. Mayne of being a Catholic Priest, and found in England; and Mr. Tregion of having received into his house a minister of that religion in which he had been bred, of the religion of his forefathers, of the religion of the father and forefathers of the highly talented Female who then mainly directed the affairs of the state, and of the undisputed and sole religion of the whole country about half a century before. And for these ideal offences, (one scruples to stain the paper with so foul a record!) was Mr. Mayne actually hanged, and Mr. Tregion, under the sentence of a premunire, was deprived of his whole property, and suffered an imprisonment of twenty years.
Whether we contemplate the cold-hearted tyranny of Henry the Seventh, the wild despotic sway of Henry the Eighth, the civil dissensions in the nominal reign of his son, the bigotry and unrelenting persecutions of Mary, or the cruelties, however necessary, exercised by Elizabeth, we may indeed rejoice that the great work of the Reformation has been achieved, at any price, by the House of Tudor; but we must join in the exclamation,
Oh! dearest God, forefend
Such times should e’er return.
Probus measures 7349 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 9392 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 902 | 12 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 1013 | in 1811, 1163 | in 1821, 1353 | in 1831, 1350 |
giving an increase of about 33 per cent in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Robert Lampen, collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1828.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The northern part of this parish rests on the porphyritic series, but no where reaches the granite hills: its rocks are very felspathic and metalliferous. The southern part comes
into the calcareous series, and its rocks are like those of Creed, Cuby, and Cornelly; the most interesting of these rocks may be seen on the hill to the westward of Grampound. They appear to afford a most decided example of greywacke, exhibiting large grains, and even nodules of quartz on their fractured surfaces; this however can only be seen on surfaces that have been for some time exposed to the weather; for no such appearance can be observed when the fractures are recent and perfect. These rocks are probably masses of compact felspar, in the bases of which silica so predominated at the time of their formation, as to have given rise to large concretions of quartz.
Since Doctor Boase made the geological examination of Cornwall, an abridgment of which he has had the kindness and the liberality to communicate for this work, the road leading westward from Grampound, has been turned to the north, and thus obviated a steep and even dangerous hill, and in consequence the sections referred to can no longer be seen on the highway.