The northern corner of this parish is situated on granite, resembling that of Gulval in every respect, except as
to one variety abounding in mica. Much of this stone may be seen in the more ancient houses at Penzance. The spot, however, from whence this stone was procured, is no longer known. A difference of opinion is indeed entertained as to whether it was gotten from blocks near the surface, or from a bed that has been exhausted; but all are agreed as to the district from whence it came; and it is universally known by the name of Ludgvan stone. The property of cleaving evenly into regular blocks, eminently possessed by this species of granite, makes it valuable for building purposes; and this property is clearly derived from the even arrangement of the scale of mica in which it abounds.
Between the granite and the sea-shore a considerable portion of the schistose rocks is covered by a marsh, and by banks of sand. These rocks are made up of compact felspar, sometimes nearly pure, at others intimately united with hornblend or actynolite; they are traversed by courses or dykes of felspar porphyry, as may be seen on the sea-shore.
[2] Extracted from an “Account of certain Hill Castles, near the Land’s End in Cornwall,” by William Cotton, Esq. F.S.A. printed in the Archæologia, vol. XXII. where a plan and section of Castle-an-Dinas will be found, taken with greater care than that in Lysons’s Cornwall. In the Gentleman’s Magazine, LXXII. p. 393, are engravings of two stone weights found within the inner circle of this fortress. The weight of one was seventeen pounds and a half; and that of the other three pounds one ounce.
LUXILIAN, or LUXULIAN.
HALS.
The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
Luxilian is in the hundred of Powder, and hath to the west St. Roche and St. Anstell, to the north Lanivet, to the east Lanlivery, to the south St. Blasey and Tywardreth.