Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: St. Breward and Blisland: Helland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell: Cornish Names: Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word in Farewell.
Brown Willy and Row Tor
Dozmaré Pool is only a short distance from the main road on the further side of which lie the chief heights of this moorland district, Row Tor (1296 ft.) and Brown Willy (1375 ft.). From Tintagel these hills look like gently rounded brown masses on the skyline, but on nearer approach the scene changes from cultivation to a waste of rock and bog and heath. Rowtor, which is the northernmost of the two peaks, is covered with masses of granite which have been weathered into fantastic shapes. It was looked upon by the ancients as a sacred hill, probably on this account, and there are remains of a stone circle on the slope and of other prehistoric monuments. In 1371 Sir Hugh Peverell had licence for a chapel of St. Michael at "Rogh-torre," of which the foundations can be traced, while the stone arch of the doorway is to be seen built into the Britannia Inn, near Camelford. This chapel was probably built on the site of an earlier edifice not necessarily Christian.
Brown Willy (Cornish, bron welli, the highest hill) is a beautiful conical hill rising from the Bodmin mass of granite. The beacon of loose stones on the summit was raised by the ordnance surveyors, and it is said that on a fine day the peak of Snowdon can be seen through field glasses. The Fowey rises at the foot of this hill and flowing through the moorlands between St. Cleer and St. Neot is, in spite of its beauty, most unkindly called the Dranes.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Brown Willy and Row Tor are several other tors and heights; Brê Down, to the north, 1125 ft.; Garrah, south of Brown Willy, 1086 ft., with hut-circles and other prehistoric remains. Not far from it is King Arthur's Hall (see page 41). Catshole Tor is 1133 ft. and Toborough 1143 ft., while the beacon above Tresilon rises to 1174 ft.
Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn
To westward of these hills, on a good road leading down to Bodmin, are the parishes of Michaelstow, St. Tudy, and St. Mabyn, each of which possesses some interesting church silver, the last mentioned having, in particular, a standing vessel dated 1576, which is surmounted by a statuette and now used as a communion cup. This little place is situated amid romantic sylvan and river scenery, while its church on the top of a hill serves as a waymark. At Michaelstow, on the north of the church, are traces of a lean-to building with an opening into the chancel, and it has been suggested that this was an anchor hold. Near by is Helsbury Beacon, 700 ft. above sea-level, and crowned with a fine circular earthwork which has a barbican on the east.
St. Breward and Blisland
Over St. Breward Church antiquarians are in dispute, for some of them think it shows traces of an original cruciform Saxon church altered by a Norman arcade. It is not otherwise interesting; while Blisland, to the south, has a beautiful modern screen, some fine slate monuments, and good woodwork. To reach it the traveller passes Pendrief, a logan-stone, once so finely balanced that it was rocked by the wind. It is now immovable. The royal arms and the arms of Cornwall were engraved on it to commemorate the jubilee of George III. This neighbourhood is particularly rich in that puzzling antiquity, the stone circle. At Carwen there is not only one—and it might have been thought one would have been enough for a place—but several, also others at Kerrowe Down, Challowater, and on Hawks Tor, the last-named example being 152 ft. in diameter.