The said Richard Bluet and Elizabeth his wife, soon after, viz. 30 Maii, 1650, sold the half of this manor, and what remained indisposed of, which was only one half of Millinoweth, alias Vellonnoweth [the New Mill], and Nampetha, with Goynlase in St. Agnes, and a small part in Fenton Vease [the outward well] and Collrun in this parish, with a few high rents, unto Walter Vincent of Trigowethan, esq.; which, as the rest of the Vincent’s estates, is gone (as you may see in Mevagissey) to John Knight, who, Sir John St. Aubin, and Thomas Scawen, esq. are the present lords of this manor.
In the commons belonging to the town of Lambourn, is a Barrow, called Creeg Mear, the Great Burrow, which one Christopher Michell digging into some years since, whilst I lived at Lambrigan, in hopes to find stones for an adjoining hedge of his, came to an hollow place (as usual in such), and found nine urns full of ashes; which, being disappointed of what he sought for, for the barrow was all of earth, except three or four rough stones which formed the hollow, he brutally broke immediately to pieces; and when I expostulated with him about it, and told him I would have paid him his charges, his reply was, that whenever he met with any more, he would bring them to me, but these were a parcel of old pitchers good for nothing. That these were Danish, I believe there is no doubt. [They were British, as appears at once, from the Kist Vaen discovered within, and from the hinted badness of the pottery.] But they were, I suppose, the ashes of some chief commanders slain in battle, (for which the place is very fit, it being a large open down) from the great number of them. [One barrow cannot mark a battle.] And on a small hill just under this barrow, [and, as under the barrow, bearing probably no relation to it,] is a Danish encampment, called Castle Caer Dane, vulgo Castle Caer Don, i. e. the Danes’ Camp, consisting of three intrenchments finished, and another begun with an intent to surround the inner three, but not completed; the whole containing
about —— acres. And opposite to this, about a bowshot, the river only running between, on another hill, is another camp or castle, called Castle Kaerkief, castrum simile, from Kyfel, similis, alike, alluding to Castle Caerdane. But this is but just begun, and not finished in any part; from whence I guess, that there were too different parties, of which the first attacked the other, before they could finish their intrenchments: or perhaps these attacked the first, having only thrown up a few intrenchments for the present, on which a battle ensuing, these were the ashes of the chief men that fell in it. And this being called Creeg Mear, the Great Barrow, seems to carry a more special regard with it. This Castle Caerkief is on the estate which the forementioned Sir John de Lambron gave to the church at Exeter, and no doubt had its name from this fortification.
[These opposed camps have no other pretence to a Danish origin, than what a Cornish critic should be ashamed to own, the mere coincidence in sound of Din or Dines with Danish. This is the sole foundation for all the Danish camps, with which the antiquarian oscitancy of Cornwall has replenished the county. All built upon hills, they naturally take the name of Din, Dinas, or Don, in Cornish, to denote their site; and while the common people, unseduced by the surmises of literature, still retain the name in its original purity, the scholars come forward and mould it to their own follies. We see this very livelily in the name of the former of these two camps, which the common people call Caer Don, but the critic writes it Caer Dane, and then interprets into the Danes’ camp, but it signifies only the hill fortress. Opposed to this, on another hill, and beyond a rivulet, is another camp, which is called Caerkief, the companion or mate of the other. Kyfel, says Mr. Tonkin, signifying similar or like in Cornish, Kyvedk (C.) being a fellow, or colleague, Kyvadhas (C.) a companion, and Kuf (C.) a wife, Cyfaill, Cyfailt (W.) a friend, a companion, and Cyfalle, (W.) a husband or wife, a partner,
a fit match. The very opposition of the camps is thus denoted in the name. But then Caer Don is considered as the principal, and Caer Kief has its appellation from its relation to that. They are a British and a Roman camp. The Roman appears from the smallness, lying “on a small hill,” from the finished state of its intrenchments, from its having no less than three, and from its having even a fourth begun, to encircle all. These marks of military attention and of patient industry, all unite to point it out decisively for a Roman one. Nor has the other a signature less lively of its British origin; it is “but just begun, and not finished in any part.” The Romans, probably seeing the Britons begin to fortify their ground, desisted from their fourth work, marched out of their own camp, and attacked the Britons in theirs, before they could form it; and in this view of the camps, the barrow, which is over the Roman, and not between it and the British, could have no reference to either, and was only the tomb of some family residing in the vale below. Whitaker.]
Next to Lambourne, and within the manor, which extends itself over several parishes, (Treluddro in Newlyn being held from it) is a great village called Callestock Veor, or the Great Callestock, to distinguish it from another in this parish, which is by interpretation hard broad oak, (though stock properly signifies the stem or stock of a tree,) which formerly grew here in great abundance, though there are now but few remaining. Here lately lived a younger branch of the Tebbots, vulgo Tippets, of St. Wen; the last of which, John Tippet, had an estate of £100 per annum, partly fee, partly lease, which he chiefly spent in law, and was in his old age, more than 90, maintained by the parish: he died about 1712. As likewise, as appears by the confirmed rate 1612, one Mr. Torr; but I can at present say no more of him for want of better information.
There are in the commons of this village some remaining intrenchments, but not worthy of notice. But at a place, also within this manor, about three quarters of a mile from it,
called Tresawsen, alias Bosawsen, i. e. the English town or dwelling, on the top of the hill to the south of the village, is a double Danish intrenchment, of which the outer one has been almost filled up by often ploughing, but the inner one is very entire, and they both contain about an acre of land. It hath no particular name that I know of, but is within sight of Castle Caer Dane, from which it is distant about two miles. And from this you see another in St. Allen, about the same distance from this; vide St. Allen. [Tresawen, alias Bosawsen, from Tre and Boss (C.) a house, and Saisson, Saxon, or English, is evidently from its name, not Danish, but Saxon. It is a Saxon fort, constructed on the reduction of the West of Cornwall by Athelstan, and maintained as a bridle and a curb upon the natives; and it seems to mark the advance of the Saxon arms from Camelford, where Egbert gained his great victory over the Cornish, to St. Burien’s, from which Athelstan probably embarked for, and at which he certainly landed on his return from reducing the Scilly Isles.]
Having taken notice of the most remarkable things in this manor (for I have spoken of the three barrows and four barrows in Kenwin, only I forgot to mention, that in the middle of Callestock stood a chapel, of which the very ruins are now scarce visible; and that in Caerkief, near the highway to Mitchell, is a fair arched well called Fenton Berran, i. e. St. Piran’s Well,) I come next to
The Manor of Fenton Gymps, which takes its name from its capital place, Fenton Gymps Veor, or the Great Fenton Gymps; which adjunct, Gymps, is a contraction of Thesympes, not intermitting, [and means] the well that always flows, as not freezing in winter, or dying [drying] in the summer. And such a one there is in the town place of the manor house. [The aim of the etymon is very right here, I believe; but the manner in which it is directed is wrong. Adjoined to the word Fenton, and explained by the existing reality, Gymps assuredly means what Mr. Tonkin says, not intermitting, but always flowing. But