Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/91

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ST. AUSTELL.
49

In the Archæologia, vol. ix. pl. viii. and vol. xi. pl. vii. are engravings of a silver cup, several rings, and other pieces of jewellery, of very early workmanship, which were found, together with a coin of Burgred king of Mercia (expelled from his dominions in 874), in a stream-work in this parish, in the year 1774. They were deposited in a silver cup, which has since been used for the sacramental wine at the church; and therefore had probably been originally collected at some earlier period.

St. Austell measures 10,018 statute acres.

The annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 £.
4,628
s.
0
d.
0
The Poor Rate in 1831 2,890 6 0
Population, in 1801,
3788
in 1811,
3686
in 1821,
6175
in 1831,
8758.

Increase on an hundred in thirty years, 131.2, or above 131 per cent.

Present incumbent, the Rev. T. S. Smyth, presented in 1815 by the King.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish, so important in an economical point of view, on account of its minal production, affords a vast fund of geological information. Its northern part is composed of granite; its southern part of various rocks belonging to the porphyritic group. Its granite on the eastern side is like that of Alternun, and contains layers which abound in porphyritic crystals of felspar. On the western side it comprises several kinds of this rock; some characterised by the proportions of shorl that enter into their composition; and others by containing talc instead of mica, and by the felspar being prone to an extensive decay, in which state it furnishes porcelain clay (or china clay) for the potteries. A more particular description of these kinds of granite