These hills used to be famous for their tin, hence the saying:
"Hingston Down well wrought
Is worth London Town, dear bought."
In 835 the Cornish were defeated by the men of Devon on this open ground, and some centuries later Charles I. crossed it on his way to try conclusions with Lord Essex. A little beyond Callington is St. Ive, one of the most lovely churches in the duchy. The east end and north side are fourteenth-century work of great merit, and the remainder is fifteenth century. The beautiful tower has clustered pinnacles, but the chief interest lies in the chancel window with its fine tracery, and the ogee-headed niches in the jambs of the scoinson arch, while some of the glass in the east window is of the same date as the tracery.
The river no longer curves in upon itself so frequently, but the landscape, deeply wooded and with the fine Carthamartha Rocks above the junction of the Inny with the Tamar, is softly beautiful. Greston Bridge crosses the river between Lezant and Lawhitton, and at Trecarrel House in the former, Charles I., with his army sleeping round him in the fields, lay on the night of August 1, 1644. At Lewannick, west of Lezant, a cresset stone has been preserved. This structure resembles a font, but with the top hollowed out into a number of bowls to contain oil and floating wicks. Before the days of matches, a light was kept perpetually burning in the church in order that the parishioners might resort to it, if by any chance their hearth-fires, always carefully sodded up, should be extinguished. Cresset stones are now rare. The one at Calder Abbey has sixteen bowls, but that at Furness resembles the one at Lewannick in having only five.
Polyfant
In this parish, at a little distance from the church town, is the famous stone quarry of Polyfant. The greater number of the Norman arches in this part of the county are made from this stone, the quarry having been worked for over a thousand years. There are three old crosses in this neighbourhood, the one at Holloway being of unusual design, while the "four-holed" cross at Trelaske has projections at the neck. Trelaske is a well-wooded and picturesque country-place, and contains the remains of an encampment, while the view from Trelaske Beacon is extensive. A couple of miles above Greston Bridge the river takes a bend almost at right angles to its former course, and runs east and west until it reaches Poulston Bridge, across which Charles I. led his army that never-to-be-forgotten August and marched on Launceston.