GWAVAS LAKE— GWENNAP GweiDiap (3 m. E. of Redruth) was once the centre of the duchy's richest mining dis- trict, but is now a scene of desolation. Mines in this neighbourhood were worked to a depth of 1780 ft., with cuttings of over 60 miles in length. It is stated that value to the amount of _£ 1 0,000,000 has been taken from these mines during the past century ; and no other spot of equal size in the Old World is con- sidered to have contained so much mineral wealth. The famous Gwennap Pit, immedi- ately associated with the name of Wesley, was formerly supposed to be an artificial amphi- theatre formed for the performance of inter- ludes and mysteries ; but it is now believed that the hollow is due to a subsidence following on mining operations. It was on a windy day in 1762 that Wesley tried the experiment of preaching in this pit, as a shelter and for acoustic reasons, with complete success. He preached here repeatedly to immense congre- gations, the last occasion being in his eighty- fifth year. In 1803 the pit was brought to its present condition, and is now used for the annual Whitsuntide gathering of Methodists — to whom indeed it must be hallowed ground. The church bears the name of a St. Wenep. When the word dedication is used, in reference to early Cornish churches, it is rather as a convenient than a strictly accurate term. In the modern sense, there were no dedications in the old Celtic Church ; neither had many of those whom we call " saints " any regular
