The first men who inhabited our island were the merest savages. They had no knowledge of the use of metals, they could not make pottery; they had not domesticated the cow, the sheep, or the dog. They used extremely rude flint weapons and tools. They were contemporary with the cave bear, the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, and the cave hyÆna, all which beasts then lived in Britain; and at that time the temperature was much colder than at present. This period is called the Palaeolithic, or Old Stone Age.

The next race that entered our island found the temperature much as it is now. They were comparatively civilised. They still used flint implements, but of a very superior type, and far better finished than those of the earlier race. Moreover they were agricultural, grew corn, had cows and sheep and dogs, and made pottery. This race it was which erected the so-called cromlechs, stone circles, and tall upright stones. The remains of their villages of circular stone huts are very numerous on the moors. This period is called the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.

After a time bronze was introduced, by trade, and was at first as valuable as gold is to us. But after a while it became much more common. Its introduction marked the commencement of the Bronze Age.

To the Bronze Age succeeded the Iron Age. This metal was introduced by the conquering Celts, of whom there existed two branches, one called Brythonic, of which were the Britons, now represented by the Welsh, the Cornish, the Cumbrians, and the Bretons of Brittany; the other called Goidelic, and now represented by the Irish, the natives of the Isle of Man, and the Scots. The Celts with their iron weapons speedily overcame and enslaved the earlier race, usually called Ivernian. The latter was dusky and dark haired, but the Celt probably had yellow or red hair, blue or grey eyes, and a fair complexion.

No satisfactory evidence has been produced that Palaeolithic man occupied Cornwall, but the traces of Neolithic man at the stage when he became acquainted with the use of bronze are abundant. By him were erected the rude stone monuments that are scattered over the county, and he had his favourite sites for trimming flints into scrapers and arrow-heads. One of the most notable of these was the shore of Dozmare Pool.

Of the rude stone monuments the dolmen or cromlech is sepulchral, the dolmen when large having been a tribal or family mausoleum, and the kistvaen, which is far smaller, contained the bones of one individual alone. The dolmen is composed of three or more upright stones sustaining one or more coverers, and was often buried under a cairn. The finest in Cornwall are Zennor and Lanyon Quoits, the Trethevy Stone, and ChÛn Quoit.

Stone circles are numerous. Their purpose has not been determined, but on Dartmoor, where they have been examined, they exhibit a floor strewn with charcoal. They have, moreover, usually numerous cairns or barrows associated with them. The finest sacred circle is that of the Stripple Stones on the Bodmin moors, but this has of late years been sadly mutilated. The "Merry Maidens," in St Buryan's parish near Penzance, is a magnificent circle. Other circles are those of Boscawen-Ûn, Dauns MÔr, Wendron, the Trippet Stones on Blisland moor, Fernacre and Stannon on the St Breward moors, the Hurlers near the Cheesewring, the Nine Maidens in St Columb Major, Duloe, etc.

Lanyon Cromlech

Lanyon Cromlech

Menhirs or "longstones" are upright monoliths, probably set up in memorial of the dead. Of these there are many in Cornwall but none of great height. The Pipers in St Buryan are the loftiest, 13 ft. 6 in. and 15 ft.

The Merry Maidens, St Buryan

The Merry Maidens, St Burylan

Of stone alignments Cornwall is almost wholly barren, but one at St Breock can be claimed with confidence. This is the more remarkable as they abound on Dartmoor. But the reason probably is that the stones have been carried off to serve as gateposts, and in some cases are embedded in walls of fields. They were probably erected in commemoration of the dead and are always associated with cairns and interments.

Subterranean chambers, constructed of upright stones with coverers, were possibly store chambers for grain. The best preserved is at Trelowarren.

Upright holed stones are met with in Madron, St Buryan, St Just, Sancreed, Constantine, Wendron, etc. Their purport is unknown.

Very curious are the clusters of communal huts at Chysauster, Bosporthennis, etc. They probably belong to the Iron Age, whereas the hut circles scattered over a hill side, or within a pound, pertained to the early Bronze Age.

Arrow heads, lance heads and scrapers have been found in tolerable abundance on the Bodmin moors, on Carn Brea, at St Agnes, etc., and celts (axe heads) of greenstone and diorite have occurred, but not with great frequency.

At Harlyn Bay has been found a cemetery of the Iron Age, all the bodies in slate cists, crouching. In the cairns and kistvaens (stone coffins) on the other hand the bodies have been burnt. Numerous urns of the well-determined Bronze Age type have been recovered from cairns.

The camps of stone and earth in Cornwall are very numerous. They all—or nearly all—date back to the same period of the early bronze, but may have been used by later peoples. They are of two descriptions, the cliff castles, where a headland is protected by banks and dykes on the side of the mainland, and circular or oval camps crowning heights, with concentric rings of circumvallation. Where the hill top does not admit of the circular form the earthworks adapt themselves to the contour of the hill.

Roman remains are conspicuously rare in Cornwall. Some fragments of Samian ware, coins, and a bronze and silver metal vessel have been found in Bossens, a camp in St Erth, and the head of an ensign at St Just. A second Roman camp is Tregeare, near Bodmin. An inscribed milestone of the time of Constantine the Great is in the churchyard of St Hilary. The metal bowl at Bossens was inscribed by Aelius Modestus to the god Mars.

Of the Celtic period, gold lunettes have been found at Harlyn; a gold cup near the Cheesewring in a cairn along with a corroded iron weapon; a portion of a gold armlet at Penzance and of a brooch at the Lizard.

Of Saxon remains the principal are the hoard at Trewhiddle, a silver chalice, finger-ring, pins, etc. Coins have been found; among them one of Ethelred, struck at Launceston. On the altar slab formerly at Treslothan, now supporting a sundial at Pendarves, is inscribed the Saxon name of Ægured; and an old bell at Lanhydrock has on it "Æthelstan sumpta an[ima] sua." These are scanty remains, fewer even than the Roman.

St Cleer: Monument to Doniert

St Cleer: Monument to Doniert, son of Caradoc, died A.D. 872

Cornwall is, however, rich in Romano-British inscribed stones, dating from the eighth century down. At St Cleer is the memorial stone to Doniert (Dungarth) son of Caradoc. In Lewannick churchyard are stones with inscriptions not only in Latin characters but also with Ogams at the angle, showing that the Irish had settled there. Some of the inscribed stones are certainly earlier than the eighth century, to which cautious antiquaries have brought them down.

Mawgan Cross

Mawgan Cross

Crosses of granite are common, and some are very early, certainly earlier than Athelstan's passage through Cornwall in 938. But others are much later. They vary considerably in size and in shape. Some were used as preaching stations before churches had been built, but others marked the tracks over the moors, and some may have indicated boundaries. Some are excessively rude, some have the figure of the Saviour carved upon them, and these are comparatively late. Others—as that of St Neot—have elaborate scroll-work on them like those in South Wales.

St Buryan's Cross

St Buryan's Cross