subjoin a general plan, as well as plans of the hovels.
The doorways are in several instances perfect.
Against the wind and rain the hovels were protected by a high bank to the west. From the
Cheesewring, about two and a half miles distant, a
line of rails was carried to just above this singular
village, and there abandoned. The visitor may well
wonder why a railway was carried into the heart of
this desolate region ; it was apparently an excuse for
wasting the money of investors. The bulk of their
deposits have disappeared, and no profits have been
realised. Trewartha Marsh occupies the bed of a lake
that decants over a granite lip into the valley of
the Lynher. At some remote period the miners cut
down the lip and let off the water, and then turned
over the lake bed. A former owner of Trebartha
Hall gave to his daughters on their marriage heavy
gold rings from the precious ore washed out of the
gravel of Trewartha. A stroll among the refuse-heaps that occupy the lake-bed among lanes of water
and stretches of morass will show the visitor how great
was the industry of the ancient streamers. There are
several cairns and barrows on the heights, but none
that have been explored have given other results
than small stone cists containing bone and wood ash.
On the north side of the marsh were some old cottages, that have been destroyed, and their materials employed for building purposes, in which coins of Elizabeth and Queen Mary were found. A vague tradition exists that a town existed at Tresillern, one of the reaches of the lake, which was submerged for the iniquity of the inhabitants.
