This parish is principally composed of strata of red and greenish-grey slate, inclosing here and there beds of a compact quartzose rock. These rocks are all similar to those of St. Anthony, and to those in the cliff under Mount Edgcumbe, and at Saltash; but whether they belong to the calcareous series, or to a more recent one associated with the fossilliferous limestone of Plymouth, remains to be ascertained. REDRUTH. HALS. The manuscript relating to this parish is lost. TONKIN. Redruth is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is bounded to the east and north by Illogan, to the east by St. Agnes, to the south by Gwenap and Stithians. This town and parish takes its name from ryd, a ford, and ruth, red, the red ford, from its being a ford over a river so coloured by the tin works round it. [Ryd (C.) is a ford, as ryd-helik is the Willow-ford; and rydh, rud (C.) is red, as pedn-rydh is red-headed. W.] It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £19. 11_s._ but by the Bishop’s Book, £20. The patronage in John Pendarves Basset, esq. in right of his manor of Tehidy, which extendeth itself all over this parish; the incumbent Mr. Hugh Ley. (dead in 1734, now Mr. John Collins.) All the lands in this parish are within the royalty, and held from the manor of Tehidy. I shall begin with THE MANOR OF REDRUTH, properly so called, which comprehends the town of the same name, and part of the parish, but not entire, and intermixed with several other gentlemen’s lands. This manor is now divided between three lords, the Right Hon. Henry Earl of Radnor, John Hawkins, D. D. (by purchase lately from Francis Scobell, esq. as heir of Tredenham), and Reginald Haweis of Kelliow, esq. THE TOWN OF REDRUTH. This was formerly so inconsiderable as to be wholly past in Mr. Carew’s Survey; who indeed is so much in haste in the whole hundred of Penwith, that he seems to be like a weary traveller, glad to come to his journey’s end. But this town is of late years grown very considerable, and its market the greatest in the West, especially for corn. It owes its rise to the great confluence of people drawn together by the mines of tin and copper, with which it is surrounded; yet it must have been in former days of some note, since in the reign of Edward the Third, William Basset of Tyhiddy, got a patent from that king, to keep “duo mercata” weekly, “et duas ferias annuatim” here. But whether it did not turn to account, or however it was, the market was neglected, and only the two fairs kept, which still continue in that family.