THE EDITOR.
The church and tower of this parish, rival in their position and in their general appearance those of St. Stephen’s near Launceston. Within the church are several monuments to the Bullers and other ancient inhabitants. Among them is one to Jane, the wife of William Bond of Earth, esq. who died in the year 1640. But the great curiosity of this parish is Trematon Castle, one of the fortified residences of the Earls of Cornwall, while they exercised feudal sovereignty within their dominions.
Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin have given histories rather of the earls and of their adventures, than of the castle itself
and descriptions of its present appearance may be found in all the various writers on Cornwall: these have therefore been omitted.
Mr. Edward King in his celebrated work, Munimenta Antiqua, or Observations on Antient Castles, vol. III. after ascribing the most remote antiquity to Launceston Castle, which, for various reasons, he carries back beyond the Roman Invasion, especially indicates various points of distinction between the general construction of that fortress, and those of the Saxons and Normans. He then says,
“Trematon Castle, in the very same county of Cornwall, which may with good reason be concluded to have been built by Robert Earl of Moreton, is a true Norman structure. And there cannot be a greater contrast than there is between it and Launceston. Like Tunbridge Castle, it is placed, not on a high natural rock, but on an artificial mount, and is no less than sixty feet in diameter on the inside.” See the views of it in Borlase’s Antiquities, Second Edition, p. 354, Plate 31, and in Grose’s Supplement to his Antiquities.
There does not appear to be any real military history connected with this fortress. It proved an insecure place of refuge during the insurrection of 1549, raised by Humphry Arundell and others in favour of the old religion.
The castle was for some time occupied as subfeudatories by the Barons de Valletorta, so called, it is said, from the narrow winding valley, which descends from the castle wall towards the south.
Roger de Valletort, Reginald, Ralph, Reginald, and Roger, appear to have possessed or occupied Trematon from about the year 1180, through nearly the whole of the next century.
This fine ruin has within a few years received a most material injury, at least in the opinion of all antiquaries, by the building of a modern house in its Basse Court.