I have endeavoured to render the work cheap by adopting the octavo form, and by abstaining from all decoration, except a slight sketch of the Pitt Diamond, which by raising that family into an influential situation, has modified the fate of Europe in a degree impossible to have been contemplated by the Regent Duke of Orleans, when he purchased that bauble at the expense of an hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds; and excepting also the Tomb of Archbishop Tregury, a view of Cotehele house, and the Seal of a Corporation, all of which had been previously cut on wood. I have abstained from further expense with the view of placing my work in the hands of as many persons in Cornwall as I possibly could, thereby diffusing the entertainment likely to arise from Local Anecdotes, from Provincial Occurrences, and from Historical Events, not of sufficient general importance for securing to themselves a place in national records. I have caused an ample Index to be prepared for the whole work; and among the Appendixes will be found an Index to the Survey of our most respected historian Mr. Carew; and I will add as a proof of my own disinterestedness, that I have engaged to leave with the Publishers all the profits, if any should arise, reserving to myself the much more probable alternative of sustaining the loss. The concluding paragraph proves the least agreeable of my work. I am sorry to say, that the Typographical errors far exceed my expectation. I must entreat of all my readers to excuse them, and to correct the Text from the too extensive Tables of Errata. The want of early habit, dimness of sight, and absence from the Press, must be alleged on my behalf; perhaps the compositor may plead unusual names or terms, and subjects not rendered familiar by his ordinary practice. DAVIES GILBERT, 1837. [1] While this sheet is passing through the press, we have to lament the premature decease of Dr. Hingston, at Falmouth, on the 15th July 1837. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GEOLOGY OF CORNWALL. BY DR. BOASE. The geological notices inserted in this Work, are necessarily so brief and so unconnected, on account of the alphabetical arrangement of the parishes, that it is desirable that a few introductory remarks should be made that this defect may be in some measure obviated.