ch a great quantity is dug up
in the country north and west of the town.

The River Fowey, which is very broad and deep here, was formerly
navigable by ships of good burthen as high as Lostwithiel--an ancient and
once a flourishing but now a decayed town; and as to trade and
navigation, quite destitute; which is occasioned by the river being
filled up with sands, which, some say, the tides drive up in stormy
weather from the sea; others say it is by sands washed from the
lead-mines in the hills; the last of which, by the way, I take to be a
mistake, the sand from the hills being not of quantity sufficient to fill
up the channel of a navigable river, and, if it had, might easily have
been stopped by the townspeople from falling into the river. But that
the sea has choked up the river with sand is not only probable, but true;
and there are other rivers which suffer in the like manner in this same
country.

This town of Lostwithiel retains, however, several advantages which
support its figure--as, first, that it is one of the Coinage Towns, as I
call them; or Stannary Towns, as others call them; (2) the common gaol
for the whole Stannary is here, as are also the County Courts for the
whole county of Cornwall.

There is a mock cavalcade kept up at this town, which is very remarkable.
The particulars, as they are related by Mr. Carew in his "Survey of
Cornwall," take as follows:--

"Upon Little Easter Sunday the freeholders of this town and manor, by
themselves or their deputies, did there assemble; amongst whom one (as it
fell to his lot by turn), bravely apparelled, gallantly mounted, with a
crown on his head, a sceptre in his hand, and a sword borne before him,
and dutifully attended by all the rest (also on horseback), rode through
the principal street to the church. The curate in his best beseen
solemnly received him at the churchyard stile, and conducted him to hear
divine service. After which he repaired, with the same pomp, to a house
provided for that purpose, made a feast to his attendants, kept the
table's-end himself, and was served with kneeling assay and all other
rights due to the estate of a prince; with which dinner the ceremony
ended, and every man returned home again. The pedigree of this usage is
derived from so many descents of ages that the cause and author outreach
the remembrance. Howbeit, these circumstances afford a conjecture that
it should betoken royalties appertaining to the honour of C