“An ancient story I’ll tell you anon,
Which is older by far than the days of King John;
But this you should know, that that red-robed sinner
Robbed the Jew of the gold he had made as a tinner.”
Old Cornish Song.
There is scarcely a spot in Cornwall where tin is at present found, that has not been worked over by the “old men,” as the ancient miners are always called.
Every valley has been “streamed”—that is, the deposits have been washed for tin; over every hill where now a tin mine appears, there are evidences, many of them most extensive, of actual mining operations having been carried on to as great a depth as was possible in the days when the appliances of science were unknown.
Wherever the “streamer” has been, upon whatever spot the old miner has worked, there we are told the “Finician” (Phœnician) has been, or the Jew has mined.[45]