Biography of William Copeland Borlase 1848-1899

Illustrated London News, October 11th 1879. Sepulchral Remains In Cornwall. Mr. W. C. Borlase (age 31), F.S.A., has recently been making some interesting discoveries in the parish of St. Just-in-Penwith, in Cornwall, one of the most fertile districts for pre-historic antiquities in England. Some of the tumuli have been found to contain very remarkable structural characteristics, such as one dome of dry masonry encasing another, as in the topes of Afghanistan. In one instance, two fine sepulchral chambers were discovered in a mound which had been surmounted by an ancient Christian oratory. The plan and section which our Engraving presents are those of a tumulus at Tregascal [Map], in which the large sepulchral urn shown in the accompanying Illustration was found. The mound was oval, 36 ft. long and 32 ft. broad, with an extreme height of 9 ft. in the centre. It contained a massively constructed chamber, with walls and roof formed of unhewn blocks of granite, 11 ft. 9 in. long, 4 ft. wide, and 3 ft. 2 in. high. It lay in the direction of north-west to south-east ; at the north-west end was a raised platform of stone. The floor of this chamber was strewn with a layer of calcined human bone, among which were ashes, flints, fragments of pottery, and a perforated sandstone implement, perhaps a charm (see fig. 1). At G was taken up the bottom of a small urn of reddish pottery. On the top of the central roofing-stone, at H, was a curious natural excrescence on the face of the granite, a peculiarity which had probably caused the stone to be selected. Outside the north-west wall of the chamber, and resting, mouth downwards, on the surface of a large flat rock, was the urn (see fig. 2), the largest perfect one yet found in Cornwall. It measures 21 in. in height, by 16 in. in diameter at the mouth. The whole of the upper rim is ornamented with a pattern arranged in zigzag form, made by the impression of some instrument, or by that of twisted grass, while the clay was wet. A band of ornamentation, in diamond form, runs round the vessel, on a level with the handles, which are likewise ornamented, and are no less than 5 in. wide. Owing to the roofing stone of the little cist, which had been built up round it, having fallen in, the bottom of the vessel was broken down into it; but this, on being taken out for restoration, was found to be adorned with a cross, champered and raised in bold relief, on the inside. The arms are of equal length, and do not extend to the edge of the vessel, which measures here only 6 in. in diameter. A few other instances of raised crosses on the inside of the bottoms of urns have occurred in Wilts and Dorset. A careful drawing has been made of this one, which is subjoined. The cist which contained the vessel was of very rade construction, and small stones had been set around to wedge it in. The pottery is half an inch thick, and coarsely made. The interior was filled with ashes and minute portions of calcined bone. The mound was surrounded by a ring of upright stones, forming a basement; and there were also traces of an inner wall on the west side. For the plan, section, and drawings we are indebted to Mr. J. W. Trounson, C.E., of Penzance. PHOTOS/PREHISTORY/ViIjmZsp.jpg