An oak four-sided balter and square section truncheon, second quarter 19th century, the head inscribed and decorated BOROUGH / OF / LOSTWITHIEL / Arms of Lostwithiel, (a shield charged with a castle rising from water between two thistles);, 16.25, 41cm longA similar example is illtrated in Truncheons Their Romance and Reality, Erland Fen Clark , 1935, pp 172-3The name Lostwithieles from the Cornish lost(g)wydhyel, which means tail-end of the woodland. In the 17th century popular opinion was that the origin was a translation of Lost (tail) and Withiel (a lion), the lion in question being the lord who lived in the castle.