MINOR ENGLISH ANTIQUITIES.
AYLESFORD.
The detailed examination of these groups at Avebury and Stonehenge
will probably be deemed sufficient to establish at least a _prima
facie_ case in favour of the hypothesis that these monuments were
sepulchral--that at least some of them marked battle-fields, and
lastly, that their antiquity was not altogether prehistoric. If this is
so, it will not be necessary to repeat the same evidence in treating of
those monuments or groups we are about to describe. Incidentally the
latter will, if I am not mistaken, afford many confirmations of those
propositions, but it will not be necessary to insist or enlarge on them
to the same extent as has been done in the previous pages.
[Illustration: 27. Countless Stones, Aylesford. From a drawing by
Stukeley.]
Among the remaining groups of stones in England, one of the most
important is--or rather was--that in front of Aylesford in Kent. The
best known member of this group is that known as Kit's Cotty--or
Coity-house, which has, however, been so often drawn and described
that it is hardly necessary to do much more than refer to it here.
It is a dolmen, composed of four stones, three upright; the two
side stones being about 8 feet square and 2 in thickness, the third
somewhat smaller; these form three sides of a chamber, the fourth
side being--and apparently always having been--left open. These
three support a cap stone measuring 11 feet by 8 feet. If we can
trust Stukeley's drawing,[134] it was an external dolmen standing on
the end of a low long barrow. At the other end of the mound lay an
obelisk, since removed, but in Stukeley's time it was said to mark
"the general's grave." The mound has since been levelled by the
plough, but the whole forms an arrangement so common both in England
and in Scandinavia, that I am inclined to place faith in the drawing.
So little, however, hinges on it here that it is not worth while
insisting on it, but a trench across the site of the barrow might lead
to interesting results. Nearly due south of Kit's Cotty-house, at the
distance of about 500 yards, is another monument of the same class,
popularly known as the Countless Stones, but so ruined--apparently
by searchers after treasure--that its plan cannot now be made out.
In Stukeley's time, however, it was more perfect, and as his pencil
is always more to be trusted than his pen, it may be worth while to
reproduce his drawings,[135] for the arrangement of the stones was
peculiar, but may have analogies elsewhere. Between these two a third
dolmen is said to have existed within the memory of man, but no trace
of it is now to be found. In the rear of these groups, nearer the
village, there exists, or existed, a line of great stones, extending
from a place called Spring Farm, in a north-easterly direction, for
a distance of three-quarters of a mile, to another spot known as
Hale Farm,[136] passing through Tollington, where the greater number
of the stones are now found. In front of the line near the centre
at Tollington lie two obelisks, known to the country people as the
coffin-stones--probably from their shape. They are 12 feet long by 4 to
6 broad, and about 2 or 3 feet thick.[137] They appear to be partially
hewn, or at least shaped, so as to resemble one another.
Besides these stones, which are all on the right bank of the river,
there are several groups at or near Addington, about five miles to the
westward of Aylesford. Two of these in the park at Addington have long
been known to antiquaries, having been described and figured in the
'Archæologia' in 1773.[138] The first is a small circle, about 11 feet
in diameter, the six stones comprising it being 19 feet high, 7 wide,
and 2 in thickness. Near it is the larger one of oval form, measuring
50 paces by 42 paces. The stones are generally smaller than those of
the other circle. The other groups or detached stones are described
by Mr. Wright,[139] who went over the ground with that excellent and
venerable antiquary the Rev. L. B. Larking. They seem to have adopted
the common opinion that an avenue of such stones existed all the way
from Addington to Aylesford, but it seems to me that there is no
sufficient evidence to justify this conclusion. Many of the stones
seem natural boulders, and in no place is any alignment distinctly
perceptible.
In addition to these, Mr. Wright found, and attempted to excavate some
smaller monuments of a sepulchral character, near Kit's Cotty House,
but situated on the brow of the hill immediately above it. These
"consist generally of groups of stones buried partly on the ridge of
the hill, but evidently forming, or having formed, small sepulchral
chambers." "Each group," he adds, "is generally surrounded by a circle
of stones."[140]
There only now remains the question, why were all these stones placed
here, and by whom? Mr. Wright is far too sober and too well-informed
an antiquary to repeat the usual nonsense about such monuments having
been Druid temples or altars. The conclusion at which he arrives (p.
183) is that Kit's Cotty-house, and the cemetery around it, with
that in the parish of Addington, together formed the grand necropolis
of the Belgian settlers in this part of the island. Against this
it must be observed that the Belgians erected no such monuments in
their own country, Gallia Belgica being exactly that part of France
in which no stone monuments are found, and it is very unlikely that
the Belgians should have done here what they did not do at home. But
another objection is, that the theory is wholly gratuitous, no shadow
of tradition, no analogy, and no reason being adduced to show why it
should be so, and, to say the least of it, it is most unlikely. If a
straight line were drawn from the mouth of the Humber to the head of
Southampton Water, this is the only group of this class of monuments
to the eastward of the line, and what possible reason can we have for
supposing that the princes or people of that vast district chose this
place, and this only, for their necropolis? Had it been some vast plain
like Salisbury, or some gloomy valley, or the site of some ancient
sacred city, the choice might have been intelligible, but a more
unromantic, unlikely spot than the valley of the Medway could hardly
have been chosen. It is neither central nor accessible, and neither
history nor tradition lends any countenance to the suggestion.
Suppose, on the other hand, we assume that these erections are a record
of the battle which, according to the Saxon chronicle,[141] was fought
on this spot between Vortigern and Hengist and Horsa, in the year 455,
and in which Catigren was slain on the side of the British, and the
redoubted Horsa fell on that of the Saxons. This at least has the merit
of accounting for all we see--the line of stones at Tollington is just
such a position as the British army would take up, to cover the ford at
Aylesford against an enemy advancing from Thanet. The two obelisks in
front would represent the position of the two chiefs; Kit's Cotty-house
would become the tomb of Catigren, which tradition always represented
it to be; the circles at Addington would become the graves of chiefs
who were wounded in the battle, and taken to the rear and buried with
due honours, at or near the spot where they died; and lastly the
tumulus at Horstead would also in accordance with ancient tradition be
the grave of Horsa.
So much depends on this last determination, that last year through the
kindness of Colonel Fisher, R.E., the assistance of a party of sappers
was procured from Chatham, and the mound was thoroughly explored. It
was found that a cremation (it is presumed of a human body) had taken
place on the natural surface of the ground, and that a tumulus had
been raised over it. The chalk was dug down to some depth and found
quite undisturbed, but no ornament or implement was found anywhere. At
first this seemed disappointing; but on Mr. Godfrey Faussett, who was
present at the digging, referring to certain passages in 'Beowulf,' it
appears to be exactly what should have been expected. The poem, in the
first place, is about the best authority we could have, inasmuch as,
according to Kemble, "it gave accounts of exploits not far removed, in
point of time, from the crossing of Hengist and Horsa into Britain, and
the poem was probably brought hither by some of those Anglo-Saxons,
who, in 495, accompanied Cerdic and Cyneric."[142] After Hengist's
conflict with Fin, the body was burnt (l. 2232-2251); but after
Beowulf's death not only cremation is mentioned, but a splendid mound
is raised over the spot where the funeral pile stood, "ad on Eorthen"
(l. 6266), on the surface of the ground. At Beowulf's funeral, vases,
and arms, and jewels of all kinds, were thrown upon the pile and burnt
with him; and no wonder, considering the wealth just rescued from the
guardianship of the "Wurm" by the victorious hero. Poor Horsa died
defeated, and all his friends could expect would be to be allowed to
bury him under a flag of truce, with such rites as would ensure his
proper reception in the next world. Had they attempted to bury any
treasures with him, they probably would have been appropriated by the
victorious Brits.
Bede's expression that Horsa's tomb was situated in "orientalibus
partibus Cantiæ,"[143] has more than once been quoted to disprove this
identification. But what did Bede mean by "eastern parts"? May it
not have been that in his day the Medway divided Kent into east and
west? Or he may have spoken without sufficient local knowledge. But
that Horsa fell at Aylesford, is as well authenticated as any fact in
that age: he most probably was buried near the battle-field; and the
village where the mound is situated has probably ever since been called
Horstead, as it is at this day.
All this, it appears to me, makes so strong a case, that I cannot help
thinking it might be accepted till, at least, something is advanced
against it. At present I am not aware of any argument to the contrary
that seems to me entitled to any serious consideration. No flint, or
bronze, or iron implement of any sort, so far as I know, have been
found on the spot--this may be only because they have not been looked
for; but as the case at present stands, the Danish system cannot be
pleaded for or against this view.
The real difficulty to be feared in obtaining acceptance of this
explanation of the stone at Aylesford, is its extreme simplicity.
After all that has been written about the unfathomable mystery and the
primæval antiquity of this class of monuments, to be told that these
are merely the memorials of a battle fought on the spot in the year
455, is too terribly prosaic to be tolerated, nor ought it perhaps to
be accepted if it stood alone. If, however, it proves to be only one of
many instances, the ultimate admission of the above views can hardly be
doubtful.
ASHDOWN.
In the neighbourhood of Uffington, in Berkshire, there are three
monuments, two at least of which still merit a local habitation and a
name in our history. One of these is the celebrated white horse, which
gives its name to the vale, and the scouring of which is still used by
the inhabitants of the neighbourhood on the occasion of a triennial
festival and games, which have been so graphically described by Mr.
Thomas Hughes.
[Illustration: 28. The Sarsen Stones at Ashdown. From a drawing by A.
L. Lewis, Esq.]
The second is a cromlech, known as Wayland Smith's Cave, and
immortalized by the use made of it by Sir Walter Scott in the novel
of 'Kenilworth.' The third is as remarkable as either, but still wants
its poet. The annexed woodcut will give a fair idea of its nature and
extent.[144] It does not pretend to be minutely accurate, and this
in the present instance is fortunately of no great consequence. All
the stones are overthrown: some lie flat on the ground, some on their
edges, and it is only the smallest that can be said to be standing. The
consequence is, that we cannot feel sure that we know exactly where
any of them stood, nor whether they were arranged in lines, like those
at Carnac; nor if so, in how many rows, or whether they always had
the confused appearance they now present. They are spread over an area
of about 1600 feet north and south, and of half that distance east
and west. The gap in the centre was made purposely to clear the view
in front of the house when it was built, and many of the stones it is
feared were employed in the erection. They are the same Sarsens as are
used at Avebury and Stonehenge, and the largest are about 10 feet long
from 6 to 9 wide, and from 3 to 4 feet high (in their present recumbent
position); but there are few so large as this, the majority being from
2 to 4 feet in length and breadth, and from 1 to 3 high.[145]
No one has yet attempted to give any explanation of the monument
beyond repeating the usual Druidical formulæ. To me it appears almost
incontestable that it is a memorial of the battle fought here between
the Saxons and the Danes in the year 871. From Asser we learn that
the Pagans, advancing from Reading, occupied the higher ground. It is
sometimes supposed that Uffington Castle was thrown up by them on the
occasion, which is by no means impossible. Advancing eastward, they
then attacked the Christians under Alfred, who occupied the lower
ground. This, and the ill-timed fit of devotion on his brother's
part, nearly lost the Christians the day; but Alfred's skill and
intrepidity prevailed, and the victory was complete.[146] This being
so, nothing appears more probable than that the victorious army, either
by themselves or with the assistance of the peasantry, should have
collected together the Sarsens in the neighbourhood, and have arranged
them as Alfred and his army stood, when he first received the shock
of the Pagans. It seems also probable that he would have engraved the
emblem of the white horse on the side of the hill where the Pagans had
encamped the night before the battle, and where probably the fight
ended on the following day.
The question whether Weyland Smith's Cave belongs to the same group, or
to an earlier date, is not so easily settled. My impression is that it
is older. It is a three-chambered dolmen almost identical in plan with
Petrie's No. 27, Carrowmore, to be described in the next chapter, but
with this difference, that whereas the circle of stones in the Irish
example contained thirty-six or thirty-seven stones, and was 60 feet
in diameter, this one contained probably only twenty-eight, and was
only 50 feet in diameter. This and the fact of the one consisting of
Sarsens--the other of granite blocks--account so completely for all the
difference between them, that I cannot believe that so great a lapse
of time as eight centuries could have taken place between the erection
of the two. I fancy it must have been erected for the entombment of a
local hero in the early centuries of the Christian era; but of this we
will be better able to judge when we are further advanced in our survey
of similar monuments.
ROLLRIGHT.
At Rollright, between Chipping Norton and Long Compton, in Oxfordshire,
there is a circle, which, from what has been written about it, has
assumed an importance in the antiquarian world, which is certainly
not due either to its dimensions or to any traditions that attach to
it. Every antiquary, from Camden down to Bathurst Deane, has thought
it necessary to say something about this splendid temple of the Druid
priesthood, so that the traveller, when he visits it, is sure to
be dreadfully disappointed. It is an ordinary 100-foot circle, the
entrance to which is apparently from the south opposite to the five
largest stones, which are placed in juxtaposition on the north, the
tallest in the centre being about 5 feet in height. The others average
about 3 or 4 feet, but are uneven in height and irregularly spaced,
but with a tendency to form groups of threes, which is a peculiarity
observable-in some similar circles on Dartmoor.
Across the road, at a distance of about 50 yards, stands a single
obeliscal stone, about 10 feet high, on a mound which appears to be
artificial. If it is so, however, it was raised with the materials
taken out of a pit, which still exists on one side, and not from a
ditch surrounding it, as is usual in such cases. In another direction,
about a quarter of a mile from the circle, stands a dolmen, which is
the finest feature in the group. The cap stone, which has fallen,
measures 8 feet by 9, and is of considerable thickness; and three of
the supporting stones are 7, 8, and 10 feet in height respectively.
This circle appears to have been examined by Ralph Sheldon, but without
results.[147] The mound, so far as is known, is yet untouched, and the
dolmen could not now be explored without causing its complete ruin; I
presume no one will contest its being sepulchral. It would be difficult
now to bring to the test of experiment the question whether the circle
is so or not, as some forty or fifty years ago, it and the plot round
it were planted with larch trees, whose roots have spread over the
surface and could with difficulty be now got rid of. This is to be
regretted, as from its isolated position the group affords an excellent
opportunity of testing the usual theories regarding these monuments.
If it was a temple, it gives us a very low idea of the religious state
of our ancestors, that for a district of from twenty to thirty miles'
radius they should have possessed only one single small enclosure,
surrounded by a low imperfect wall, 3 or 4 feet high. If any other
had ever existed, traces of it must have been found, or why has this
one remained so complete, for not one stone apparently is missing. It
is also strange that, as in other instances, it should be situated on
the highest and bleakest part of the surrounding country. It is, in
fact, not only the unlikeliest form, but the most inconvenient site
for a temple. It also gives us a very low idea of their civilization.
The circle at Rollright is a sort of monument that the boys of any of
our larger schools could set up in a week, supposing the stones to be
found lying about, at no great distance, which there is little doubt
was the case when it was erected. The dolmen might require a little
contrivance to get the cap stone hoisted; but there is nothing that the
villagers in the neighbourhood could not now complete in a few days, if
so inclined, and certainly nothing that a victorious army, of say even
1000 men, could not complete between sunrise and sunset in a summer's
day. Even if the sepulchral character of the group is admitted, it can
hardly be the burying-ground of a chief, or clan, or family. In that
case, instead of one dolmen there must have been several, smaller
it may be, but in succession. The chief must have had ancestors, or
successors, or relations, and they would not be content that one, and
one only, of their family should possess an honoured tomb, and that
they themselves should rest in undistinguished graves. As in other
cases, unless we are prepared to admit that it marks the site of a
battle, I know of nothing that will explain the situation and the form
of the group; nor do I see why we should reject Camden's explanation of
the circumstances under which it was erected: "These would, I verily
think, to have been the monument of some victory, and haply erected
by Rollo the Dane, who afterwards conquered Normandy." "In what time
he with the Danes troubled England with depredations we read that the
Danes joined battle with the English thereby at Hock Norton, a place
for no one thing more famous in old time than for the woeful slaughter
of the English on that foughten field, under the reign of King Edward
the Elder."[148] This last, however, is apparently a mistake, for it
was Eadward (901-923) who was really the contemporary of Rollo. He was
also the contemporary of Gorm the Old, of Denmark, of whose tumulus and
Pagan habits we shall hear hereafter.
This again will appear a very prosaic anti-climax to those who are
nursed on ideas of the hoar antiquity and wondrous magnificence of such
monuments as Ashdown and Rollright. A visit to them is sufficient to
dispel one part of that illusion, and a little common-sense applied
to the other will probably show that the more moderate view meets
perfectly all the real exigencies of the case.
PENRITH.
In the neighbourhood of Penrith in Cumberland there is a group, or
perhaps it should be said there are three groups of monuments, of
considerable importance from their form and size, but deficient in
interest from the absence of any tradition to account for their being
where we find them. They extend in a nearly straight line from Little
Salkeld on the north to Shap on the south, a distance of fourteen miles
as the crow flies, Penrith lying a little to the westward of the line,
and nearer to its northern than its southern extremity.
About half a mile from the first named village is the circle known
popularly as Long Meg and her Daughters, sixty-eight in number, if each
stone represents one. It is about 330 feet (100 metres) in diameter,
but does not form a perfect circle. The stones are unhewn boulders,
and very few of them are now erect. Outside the circle stands Long
Meg herself, of a different class of stone from the others, about
12 feet high, and apparently hewn, or at all events shaped, to some
extent.[149] Inside the circle, Camden reports "the existence of two
cairns of stone, under which they say are dead bodies buried; and
indeed it is probable enough," he adds, "that it has been a monument
erected in honour of some victory."[150] No trace of these cairns now
remains, nor am I aware that the centre has ever been dug into with a
view of looking for interments. My impression, however, is that the
principal interment was outside, and that Long Meg marks either the
head or the foot of the chief's grave.
Close to Penrith is another circle called Mayborough, of about the
same dimensions--100 metres--as that at Little Salkeld, but of a very
different construction. The vallum or enclosure is entirely composed
of small water-worn stones taken from the beds of the Eamount or Eden
rivers. The stones are wonderfully uniform in size, and just about
what any man could carry without inconvenience. This enclosure mound
is now so mined that it is extremely difficult to guess what were
its dimensions. It may have been from 15 feet to 20 feet high, and
twice that in breadth at its base. The same cause makes it difficult
to determine the dimensions of the internal area. The floor of the
circle I calculated as 290 feet from the foot of one slope to the foot
of the opposite one, and consequently the whole as from 320 feet to
340 feet[151] from crest to crest; but these dimensions must be taken
as only approximative till a more careful survey is made than it was
in my power to execute. Near, but not quite in the centre, stands a
single splendid monolith; it may be 12 feet in height, but is more than
twice the bulk of Long Meg. In Pennant's time there were four stones
still standing in the centre, of which this was one, and probably
there may originally have been several more forming a small circle
in the centre.[152] In his day also he learned that there were four
stones--two pairs--standing in a gap in the vallum looking like the
commencement of an avenue. The place, however, is too near Penrith, and
stone is there too valuable to allow of such things escaping, so that
nothing now remains which would enable us to restore this monument with
certainty.
Close by this is a third circle known as Arthur's Round Table.
[Illustration: 29. Sketch Plan of King Arthur's Round Table, with the
side, obliterated by the road, restored.]
It consists, or consisted, of a vallum of earth, as near as can be
made out, 300 feet from crest to crest; but about one-third of the
circle being cut away to form a road, it is not easy to speak with
certainty. Inside the rampart is a broad berm, then a ditch, and in
the centre a plateau about 170 feet in diameter, slightly raised in
the centre. No stone is visible on the surface, though the rampart
when broken into shows that it is principally composed of them. There
is now only one entrance through the rampart and across the ditch, but
as both entrances existed in Pennant's time (1772), and are figured in
his plan of the monument, I have not hesitated to restore the second
accordingly.[153] The distance between Mayborough and King Arthur's
Round Table is about 110 yards, and at about the same distance from
the last-named monument, a third circle existed in Pennant's time. It
seems, however, to have been in his day at least only a circular ditch,
and has now entirely disappeared.
Owing to their more ruined state, the remains at Shap are more
difficult to describe. They were, however, visited by Stukeley in 1725,
but he complains it rained all the time that he was there, and rain on
a bleak exposed moor like Shap is singularly inimical to antiquarian
pursuits.[154] The remains were also described by Camden,[155] but
not apparently from personal observation, and others have described
them since, but the destruction has been so rapid, the village being
almost entirely built out of them, that it is now extremely difficult
to ascertain what they really were. All, however, are agreed that the
principal monument was an alignment, according to some of a double
row of stones, of which others can only trace a single row. So far
as I could make out on the spot, it commenced near a spot called
the Thunder-stone, in the north, where there are seven large stones
in a field; six are arranged as a double row; the seventh seems to
commence a single line, from this all the way to a place at the
southern extremity of the village, called Karl Lofts, single stones
may be traced at intervals, in apparently a perfectly straight line
and still beyond this, at a farmyard called Brackenbyr, Mr. Simpson
fancied he could, in 1859, trace the remains of a circle 400 feet in
diameter, with a large obelisk in the centre.[156] I confess I was not
so fortunate in 1869, and I also differ from him as to the position of
the stone row. He seems to fancy, from the description of Stukeley,
that it was situated to the southward of Karl Lofts, though he could
not detect any traces of it. My impression is that it commenced
with the circle at Brackenbyr, immediately south of Karl Lofts, and
proceeded in a north-westerly direction for nearly a mile and a half to
the Thunder-stone, as before mentioned. Rather more than half a mile
due south of Brackenbyr stands a portion of what was once a very fine
circle. It was partially destroyed by the railway, but seems to have
been a hundred-foot circle, and to have stood considerably in advance
of the line of the avenue, in the same relative position to the stone
row as the circle at Merivale Bridge (woodcut No. 12), or as Stonehenge
to its cursus (woodcut No. 26), whether we assume that it was continued
in this direction, or terminated as above indicated. In front of the
circle is a noble tumulus, called Kemp How, in which the body of a man
of gigantic stature is said to have been found.[157]
According to the popular tradition the stone avenue originally
extended to Muir Divock, a distance of rather more than five miles,
to which it certainly points. Though this is most improbable, it is
not wholly without reason, as on Muir Divock there are five or six
circles of stone and several tumuli. The circles have most of them
been opened recently, and in all instances were found to contain
cists or other evidence of interments.[158] Immediately over the Muir
stands a commanding hill, 1747 feet high, marked on the Ordnance
Survey as Arthur's Pike. Besides these, on the hill behind Shap, to
the eastward, are several stone circles, some single, some double,
but none are of any great size, or composed of stones of very large
dimensions. The whole aspect of the country is that of a district used
as a burying-place to an extent far beyond anything that the usual
inhabitants of the locality could have required, for a bleaker and more
ungenial spot is not inhabited in any part of these islands.
* * * * *
So far as I know, no credible tradition attaches to these monuments
so as to connect them with any historical or local incident. We
are, therefore, left almost wholly to their intrinsic forms, or to
analogies, to determine either their history or their purposes.
No one will now probably be found seriously to maintain that the long
stone row at Shap was a temple either of the Druids or of any one else.
At least if these ancient people thought a single or even a double
row of widely-spaced stones, stretching to a mile and a half across
a bleak moor, was a proper form for a place to worship in, they must
have been differently constituted from ourselves. Unless they possessed
the tails, or at least the long-pointed ears with which Darwin endows
our ancestors, they would have adopted some form of temple more nearly
similar to those used in all other countries of the world. Nor was it a
tomb. Not only have no sepulchral remains been found here, but nowhere
else has any trace of such a purpose been found connected with such
alignments. Even, however, if it is contended that it is sepulchral,
it certainly was not the burying-place of the hamlet of Shap, or of
its neighbourhood, for a more miserable spot for habitation does not
exist in England, and it cannot be that Shap, like Avebury, should
require the most magnificent cemeteries in the island, while nothing of
the sort exists near the great centres of population. Had the country
been as thickly inhabited as China, we might fancy the people seeking
waste uncultivable spots in which to bury their dead, but even at the
present day Woking is the only cemetery that has been selected on this
principle in England, and at any previous time to which we can look
back, the idea appears too absurd to be entertained for a moment.
If, therefore, the alignment at Shap was sepulchral, it must have
been the burying-place of those that fell in some battle on the spot;
this in fact brings us to the only suggestion I am aware of that seems
at all tenable: that it marks a battle-field like those on Dartmoor
(_ante_, p. 54), and others we shall meet with hereafter.
Excavations have proved that all the smaller circles which abound in
the neighbourhood are graves, and if those from 60 feet to 100 feet
in diameter are so, all analogy must lead us to the inference that
the 100-metre circles are so also. Direct proof has not, however, yet
been obtained of this, but that may arise first from the difficulty of
excavating so large an area; or it may be that the bodies were buried
outside the circle, as at Hakpen (_ante_, p. 76), or at the foot of the
stones, as at Crichie (_ante_, p. 75) or in those circles which have
no erect stones in a similar position--at the toe of the inner slope
of the rampart--and these are just the places where they have not been
looked for. Meanwhile the cairns in the inside of the circle of Long
Meg's Daughters seem to favour this view of their sepulchral purpose.
But if sepulchres, certainly they were not family or princely tombs. If
that was their destination they would not be found only in two or three
groups in the wildest and most remote parts of the country, but in far
greater numbers, and nearer those places where men most do congregate.
We are in fact driven to Camden's suggestion, that they may have been
made to celebrate some victory; but, if so, what victory? It looks like
riding a hobby very hard to make the same suggestion as was made with
regard to Avebury, but I confess I know no other that can be brought
forward with so much plausibility as that of considering them to be
memorials of Arthur's campaigns against the Saxon invaders.
The first objection that will naturally be raised to this hypothesis
is, that King Arthur was a myth, and never fought any battles at all.
It was not necessary to examine this when speaking of Avebury. All that
was then required was to know if Waden Hill was Badon Hill. If it was
the site of that famous battle, there was no further enquiry necessary.
Arthur, and he only, commanded there; and if we admit the fact of the
battle being fought, we admit at the same time the existence of him who
commanded there. But with regard to the other eleven battles mentioned
by Nennius[159] the case is not so clear, and according to the present
fashionable school of historical criticism it is thought reasonable to
reject the whole as a myth, because the evidence is not such as would
stand examination in a court of law, and also because the story as it
now stands is so mixed up with incredible fables as to throw discredit
on the whole. It is very much easier to heap ridicule on the silly
miracles which Merlin is said by mediæval minstrels to have performed,
and to laugh at the marvellous exploits of Arthur and the Knights of
his Round Table, than to attempt to glean the few facts which their
wild poetry has left unobscured. But if any one will attempt the
same process with one of the many 'Lhystoires du noble et vaillant
roy Alexandre le grand,' he will find exactly the same difficulties.
Aristotle and his master have been rendered quite as fabulous persons
as Merlin and Arthur, and the miracles of the one and the feats of the
other are equally marvellous. In Alexander's case we fortunately have
Arrian and Curtius, and others, who give us the truth with regard to
him; but Arthur had no contemporary history, and instead of living in
a highly civilized state that continued for ages after him, he was the
last brilliant light of his age and race, and after him all was gloom
for centuries. It was not till after a long eclipse that his name was
seized upon in a poetical and an uncritical age as a peg for bards
whereupon to hang their wild imaginings.
This is not the place to examine so large a question. It will be
sufficient to state what I believe to be the main facts. Those who
do not admit them need not read further. Arthur, it seems to me, was
born the prince of one of the smaller states in the West of England,
probably Cornwall, and after the death of Ambrosius, in or about the
year 508, took up the struggle the latter had carried on with varying
success against the hordes of Saxons and others who were gradually
pushing the Bryts out of England. My impression is, that even before
the Romans left, Jutes, Angles, and Danes had not only traded with,
but had settled, both on the Saxonicum littus of Kent, and on the
coast of Yorkshire, Northumberland, and the Lothians; and that during
the century that elapsed between the departure of the Romans and the
time of Arthur, they were gradually pushing the British population
behind the range of hills which extends from Carlisle to Derby and
forms the back-bone of England. It was in the plains behind this range
and further south that all Arthur's battles seem to have been fought.
With Cumberland, Wales, and Cornwall behind him, he was not only sure
of support from the native population in his rear, but had a secure
retreat in case of adverse fortune overtaking him. In all this range
of country I do not know any spot so favourable strategically for
a defender of his country to take up as the high land about Shap,
or the open country extending from thence to Salkeld. The ridges at
Shap protected his right against an enemy advancing by Lancaster, the
Caledonian Forest and a very rugged country covered his left, and in
front there was only a wild inhospitable tract by which the invader
from the opposite coast could advance against him, while by a single
day's march to his rear he was among the inaccessible mountains and
lakes of Cumberland.
I am afraid to lay much stress on the fact of one of the circles at
Penrith and the hill opposite Shap bearing Arthur's name, because in
the last few years we have seen two hard-headed sober-minded Scotchmen
proving, to their own satisfaction, that Arthur was born north of the
Tweed--that all his battles were fought and all his exploits performed
in the northern portion of the island. Even Ganora--the faithless
Guinevere--if not a Scotchwoman, was at all events buried in Miegle
churchyard under a stone, which some pious descendant sculptured some
centuries later.[160] Even here, however, I fancy I can perceive
a difference between the two cases. In the middle ages the Scotch
had historians like Boece and Fordun, who recorded such fables for
the edification of their countrymen, and with proper patriotism
were willing that their country should have as large a share of the
world's greatness or great men as they could well appropriate. They
were followed by an educated class throughout the country, who were
actuated by the same motives, and did exactly what Stukeley and his
followers did with English monuments. They found Druids who had no
temples, and remains which they supposed to be temples with no priests;
so, putting the two together, they made what they fancied was a perfect
whole out of two incongruous halves. So the Scotch, having a rich
repertory of fables on the one hand, and on the other having hills
without names and sculptured stones without owners, joined the two
together, and went on repeating in the same manner their inventions
till, from dire reiteration, they took the likeness of fact.
The case was, if I mistake not, very different in Cumberland. The boors
of that land had no literature--no learning, and none of that ardent
patriotism which enabled the Scotch poets and pedants to manufacture
a quasi history for themselves out of other people's doings. It is
difficult to fancy the inhabitants of Cumberland troubling themselves
with Arthur and his affairs, and wishing to apply his name to
their hills or antiquities, unless some ancient tradition had made
it probable, and, "valeat quantum," these names may therefore be
considered as suggesting a real connexion between the place and the man.
Owing to the extreme brevity of the record in Nennius,[161] there are
few things about which greater discrepancy of opinion exists even among
the believers in Arthur than the localities of his battles. Taking
them in the order in which they are mentioned, the first is said to
have been fought on the river Glem of Glein, which the editors of the
'Monumenta Historica Britannica' suggest may be a river of that name
in Northumberland. The river indicated is so small a brook that it is
difficult to fancy its name should be attached to so important an event.
If we must go so far north, I would rather feel inclined to place it
at Wood Castle, near Lochmaben, in Dumfriesshire, where there is a
circular enclosure identical in plan and dimensions with King Arthur's
Round Table at Penrith.[162] Strategically, it is a much more likely
spot than the exposed east coast of Northumberland; but, except
the plan of Wood Castle, I know of no authority for placing this
battle-field in Annandale.
There is no indication where the second, third, or fourth battles were
fought; but for the fifth we have this important designation that it
was fought "super aliud flumen quod vocatur Duglas vel Dubglas quod est
in regione Linuis," or in another MS. Linnuis. A marginal note suggests
Lindesay, in Lincolnshire, but for no other reason apparently than from
the first three letters being the same in both. There is a River Duglas
flowing past Wigan, in Lancashire, which Whittaker, in his 'History
of Manchester,' boldly adopts as the place indicated, and others have
been inclined to accept his determination. After going carefully over
the ground, I confess no spot appears to me more unlikely for a great
battle than the banks of this river, nor does any local evidence of
their having been so now remain. One cannot but feel that if Arthur
ever allowed himself to be pushed into such a corner, with nothing but
the sea behind him to retreat upon, he certainly was not the general
that made so successful a stand against the Saxons. I am much more
inclined to believe that Linnuis is only a barbarous latinization of
Linn, which in Gaelic and Irish means sea or lake. In Welsh it is Lyn,
and in Anglo-Saxon Lin, and if this is so, "In regione Linnuis" may
mean "In the Lake Country."
The name of the river does not appear to me at all an insuperable
difficulty. All the rivers about Penrith, the Lowther, the Eamount,
and the Eden, have names that were certainly given to them by the
Saxons, but they must have had Celtic names before they came; and Dubh
as an adjective is dark or black, and Glas, green or grey, is used
as a substantive to denote the sea, in Irish. Such an epithet would
apply admirably to the Lowther; and if it could be identified with the
river mentioned by Nennius, our difficulties would be at an end. These
speculations, however, must of course be taken for what they are worth.
There is, so far as known, no authority for the name Duglas or Dubhglas
being applied to the Lowther or Eden.
The sixth battle was on a river called Bassas. It has been suggested
that this means the Bass Rock in the Frith of Forth; but it need hardly
be objected that a rock is not a river, and there is an extreme
improbability that Arthur ever saw the Lothians. In Derbyshire there is
a Bas Lowe[163] in a neighbourhood where, as we shall presently see,
there is reason to believe Arthur fought one or more of his battles,
but I am not aware of any river so called in that neighbourhood.
The seventh war was in Silva Calidonis, "id est Cat Coit Celidon."
The Cat in the last name is evidently Cat or Cath, "a battle," which
we frequently meet with, and shall again in describing these matters.
Coit, only so far as the dictionaries tell us, means coracle, and would
seem to indicate a struggle in boats. The Caledonian Forest, is what
will really determine the locality. Generally it is understood to be
the forest that extended from Penrith to Carlisle; and, if so, any one
of our Penrith circles might be assumed to mark the site of the seventh
battle. Most probably in that case it would be the Salkeld circle, or
it might be one known as the Grey Yawds, near Cumrew, about eight or
nine miles further north.[164]
The eighth battle was in Castello Guinnion, or Guin, which, from the
sound of the name, can hardly escape being in Wales or the Welsh
border, unless indeed we assume that these Welsh appellations were
common to the whole country before the Saxons re-named many of the
places. In that case we have nothing to guide us as to where the battle
was fought.
The ninth battle was "in Urbe Legionis." This may be either Chester
or Caerleon in South Wales. It most probably was the latter, as in
another MS. it is added "quæ Britannice Karlium dicitur," or Cair lin
in another.
The tenth war was on the shores of a river which was called Ribroit.
Though this is spelt in various MSS. Tribruit, Trathreuroit, and
Trattreuroit, it seems impossible to identify it. But it must have been
a large river, or the expression "in littore" would hardly have been
used.
The eleventh battle "fuit in Monte quod dicitur Agned Cathregonnon;"
and in different MSS. this is spelt Cathregomion, Cabregonnon,
Catbregonnion, and in one it is added, "in Somersetshire quem nos
Cathbregion appellamus." No such name seems now to be known in that
country; but as we shall presently, I hope, see reason for believing,
the spot is probably that now known as Stanton Drew.
The twelfth battle was that of Mount Badon, the position of which,
as we have already pointed out, may almost certainly be fixed in the
immediate neighbourhood of Avebury.
All this is indistinct enough, it must be confessed, and much of it
depends on nominal similarities, which are never very satisfactory;
still the general impression it leaves seems worthy of acceptance. It
would lead us to think that Arthur commenced his struggles with the
invaders in the north of England, probably in the time of Ambrosius,
and fought his way southwards, till after twelve campaigns, or twelve
battles, he reached his crowning victory at Badon Hill, which gave
him peace for the rest of his days. At all events, with respect to
the first seven battles, there seems no reason why we should not
appropriate any of them except perhaps the first--to our Cumberland
circles. The proof of whether or not it is reasonable to do so will of
course depend on the case we can make out for the other circles we have
to examine, and on the general interdependence which the whole series
can be shown to have on one another.
At present it may be allowed to stand on an hypothesis, which certainly
has the merit of explaining the facts as now known; but the probability
or disproof of which must depend on the facts and arguments to be
adduced hereafter.
DERBYSHIRE.
The next group of monuments with which we have to deal is perhaps as
interesting as any of those hitherto described. As before mentioned,
when speaking of the labours of William and Thomas Bateman, the
north-western portion of the county is crowded with barrows, but none
apparently of so ancient a character as those excavated by Canon
Greenwell in Yorkshire, and most of them containing objects of so
miscellaneous a character as to defy systematic classification. As
these, however, hardly belong to the subject of which we are now
treating, it is not necessary to say more about them at present; and
the less so, that the group which falls directly in with our line of
research is well defined as to locality, and probably also as to age.
The principal monument of this group is well-known to antiquaries as
Arbe or Arbor Low,[165] and is situated about nine miles south by
east from Buxton, and by a curious coincidence is placed in the same
relative position to the Roman Road as Avebury. So much is this the
case, that in the Ordnance Survey--barring the scale--the one might
be mistaken for the other if cut out from the neighbouring objects.
Minning Low, however, which is the pendant of Silbury Hill in this
group, is four miles off, though still in the line of the Roman road,
instead of only one mile, as in the Wiltshire example. Besides, there
is a most interesting Saxon Low at Benty Grange, about one mile from
Arbor Low. Gib Hill, Kens Low, Ringham Low, End Low, Lean Low, and
probably altogether ten or twelve important mounds covering a space
five miles in one direction, by one and a half to two miles across.
Arbor Low consists of a circular platform, 167 feet in diameter,
surrounded by a ditch 18 feet broad at bottom, the earth taken from
which has been used to form a rampart about 15 feet to 18 feet high,
and measuring about 820 feet in circumference on the top.[166] The
first thing that strikes us on looking at the plan (woodcut No. 30) is
that, in design and general dimensions, the monument is identical with
that called "Arthur's Round Table," at Penrith. The one difference is
that, in this instance, the section of the ditch, and consequently that
of the rampart, have been increased at the expense of the berm; but the
arrangements of both are the same, and so are the internal and external
dimensions. At Arbor Low there are two entrances across the ditch, as
there was in the Cumberland and Dumfriesshire examples. As mentioned
above, only one is now visible there, the other having been obliterated
by the road, but the two circles are in other respects so similar as to
leave very little doubt as to their true features.
[Illustration: 30. Arbor Low. From a drawing by Sir Gardner Wilkinson.]
The Derbyshire example, however, possesses, in addition to its
earthworks, a circle of stones on its inner platform, originally
probably forty or fifty in number; but all now prostrate, except
perhaps some of the smallest, which, being nearly cubical, may still be
in _situ_. In the centre of the platform, also, are several very large
stones, which evidently formed part of a central dolmen.
There is another very interesting addition at Arbor Low, which is
wanting at Penrith, this is a tumulus attached unsymmetrically to the
outer vallum. This was, after repeated attempts, at last successfully
excavated by the Messrs. Bateman, and found to contain a cist of rather
irregular shape, in which were found among other things two vases[167]
one of singularly elegant shape, the other less so. In themselves
these objects are not sufficient to determine the age of the barrow,
but they suffice to show that it was not very early. One great point
of interest in this discovery is its position with reference to the
circle. It is identical with that of Long Meg with reference to her
daughters, and perhaps some of the stones outside Avebury, supposed to
be the commencement of the avenue, may mark the principal places of
interment.
[Illustration: 31. Vases and Bronze Pin found in Arbor Low.]
[Illustration: 32. Section of Gib Hill. No scale.]
Attached to Arbor Low, at a distance of about 250 yards, is another
tumulus, called Gib Hill, apparently about 70 to 80 feet in
diameter.[168] It was carefully excavated by Mr. T. Bateman in 1848;
but after tunnelling through and through it in every direction on
the ground level and finding nothing, he was surprised at finding,
on removing the timber which supported his galleries, that the side
of the hill fell in, and disclosed the cist very near the summit.
The whole fell down, and the stones composing the cist were removed
and re-erected in the garden of Lumberdale House. It consisted of
four massive blocks of limestone forming the sides of a chamber, 2
feet by 2 feet 6 inches, and covered by one 4 feet square. The cap
stone was not more than 18 inches below the turf. By the sudden fall
of the side a very pretty vase was crushed, the fragments mingling
with the burnt bones it contained; but though restored, unfortunately
no representation has been given. The only other articles found in
this tumulus were "a battered celt of basaltic stone, a dart or
javelin-point of flint, and a small iron fibula, which had been
enriched with precious stones."[169]
[Illustration: 33. Summit of Minning Low, as it appeared in 1786. From
Douglas.]
[Illustration: 34. Plan of Chambers in Minning Low.]
Though Gib Hill is interesting as the first of the high-level dolmens
which we have met with in this country, Minning Low is a still more
striking example of that class which we hinted at before as common
in Aveyron (_ante_, woodcut No. 8), and which we shall meet with
frequently as we proceed. When it first attracted the attention of
antiquaries in 1786, Minning Low seems to have been a straight-lined
truncated cone, about 300 feet in diameter, and the platform on
its summit measured 80 feet across.[170] Its height could not be
ascertained.[171] It was even then planted over with trees, so that
these dimensions, except the breadth of the platform, are hardly to
be depended upon, and since then the whole mound has been so dug
into and ruined, that they cannot now be verified. On the platform
at the top in 1786 there stood live kistvaens, each capable of
containing-one body; and, so far as can be made out from Douglas'
plates and descriptions, the cap stone of these was flush with the
surface, or possibly, as at Gib Hill, they may have been a few inches
below the surface, and, becoming exposed, may have been rifled as
they were found; but this is hardly probable, because unless always
exposed, it is not likely they would have been either looked for in
such a situation, or found by accident. Below them--at what depth we
are not told--a stone chamber, or rather three chambers, were found by
Mr. Bateman, apparently on the level of the ground on the south side
of the Barrow.[172] To use Mr. Bateman's own words ('Vestiges,' &c.,
p. 39): "On the summit of Minning Low Hill, as they now appear from
the soil being removed from them, are two large cromlechs, exactly
of the same construction as the well-known Kit's Cotty-house, near
Maidstone, in Kent. In the cell near which the body lay were found
fragments of five urns, some animal bones, and six brass Roman coins,
viz., one of Claudius Gothicus (270), two of Constantine the Great, two
of Constantine, junior, and one of Valentinian. There is a striking
analogy between this and the great Barrow at New Grange, described by
Dr. Ledwich, of which a more complete investigation of Minning Low
would probably furnish additional proofs." Mr. Bateman was not then
aware that a coin of Valentinian had been found in the New Grange
mound,[173] which is one similarity in addition.
The fact of these coins being found here fixes a date beyond which
it is impossible to carry back the age of this mound, but not the
date below which it may have been erected. The coins found in British
barrows seem almost always those of the last Emperors who held sway
in Britain, and whose coins may have been preserved and to a certain
extent kept in circulation after all direct connexion with Rome had
ceased, and thus their rarity or antiquity may have made them suitable
for sepulchral deposits. No coin of Augustus or any of the earlier
Emperors was ever found in or on any of these rude tumuli, which must
certainly have been the case had any of them been pre-Roman. This mound
is consequently certainly subsequent to the first half of the fourth
century, and how much more modern it may be remains to be determined.
Be this as it may, if Mr. Bateman's suggestion that this monument is a
counterpart of Kit's Cotty-house is correct--and no one who is familiar
with the two monuments will probably dispute it--this at once removes
any improbability from the argument that the last-named may be the
grave of Catigren. The one striking difference between the two is, that
Kit's Cotty-house is an external free-standing dolmen, while Minning
Low is buried in a tumulus. This, according to the views adopted in
these pages, from the experience of other monuments, would lead to the
inference that the Kentish example was the more modern of the two. It
is not, however, worth while arguing that point here; for our present
purpose it is sufficient to know that both are post-Roman, and probably
not far distant in date.
Another barrow belonging to this group is at Benty Grange, about a
mile from Arbor Low, which, though of a different character, may be
connected with the others. One body only was buried in it, of which
no trace, however, remained but the hair.[174] There was apparently
little more than 2 feet of earth over it. The first thing found was a
leather drinking-cup, ornamented in silver with stars and crosses. Two
circular enamels were also there, adorned with that interlacing pattern
found in the earliest Anglo-Saxon or Irish MSS. of the sixth or seventh
centuries, or it may be a little earlier; a helmet also was found,
formed of iron bars, with bronze and silver ornaments, and surmounted
by what Mr. Bateman assures us was a perfectly distinct representation
of a hog. He then quotes from Beowulf several passages, in which the
poet describes: "The boar an ornament to the head, the helmet lofty
in wars" (l. 4299).... "They seemed a boar's form to bear over their
cheeks" (l. 604).... "At the pile was easy to be seen, the mail-shirt
covered with gore, the hog of gold, the boar hard as iron" (l. 2213).
As Beowulf lived, as shown above, probably in the fifth century, the
poem may be taken as describing perfectly the costume of the warriors
of his day; and nothing could answer more completely his description
than the contents of this tomb.
[Illustration: 35. Fragment of Drinking Cup from Benty Grange.]
[Illustration: 36. Fragment of Helmet from Benty Grange.]
In Kenslow Barrow, between Minning Low and Arbor Low, were found a few
implements of flint and bone; but on clearing out the grave in the
rock, which had been examined before in 1821, Mr. S. Bateman found some
portions of the skeleton undisturbed, and with them a small neat bronze
dagger, and a little above these an iron knife of the shape and size
usually deposited in Anglo-Saxon interments.[175] Of course the theory
of successive interments is called on to explain away these disturbing
facts; but there seems nothing here to justify any other inference than
that in this case all the deposits belonged to the same age. This,
therefore, may be added to the examples quoted from the 'Vestiges,' to
show how little the Danish system is really applicable to the class of
monuments of which we are treating.
On Stanton Moor, four miles east from Kenslow, and about five miles
from Arbor Low and Minning Low respectively, there are many monuments,
both of earth and stone, which, though on a smaller scale, seem to
belong to the same age as those just described. They seem to have been
very much overlooked by the Batemans, but a very detailed account of
them is given by Mr. Rooke in the sixth volume of the 'Archæologia,'
in 1780. One of them, called the Nine Ladies, has been given already
(_ante_, p. 49); but westward of it stands or stood a stone, called the
King Stone, at a distance of 34 yards, thus suggesting a similarity to
the Salkeld circle. Half a mile west from this, nearer Arbor Low, is
another group of nine stones, the tallest 17 feet in height, and 75
yards southward two stones of smaller dimensions; 200 yards from this
an oval ring, the major axis of which measures 243 feet, the minor 156
feet. It has what Mr. Rooke calls a double ditch, a rampart outside the
ditch as well as one inside; it is, in fact, a less-developed example
of that form of which Arbor Low and Arthur's Round Table are finished
examples. On the east side of the Moor were three tall isolated stones,
which in Rooke's time the natives still called Cat Stones, showing
clearly that the tradition still remained of a battle fought there, but
when or by whom no tradition lingers on the spot to enlighten us.
All these monuments and many more which it would be tedious and
uninteresting to particularize, are contained within a circle, which
may be described with a radius of about three miles, the centre being
half way between Henty Grange and Stanton Moor. It would perhaps be too
much to assert that they are all of one age; but there is certainly a
very strong family likeness among them, and they cannot differ much
either in age or purpose. It may also perhaps be conceded that they
are not the tombs or temples of the inhabitants of the moors on which
they stand. The country where they are situated is a bleak inhospitable
tract, only not quite so bad as Shap, but hardly more able to support
a large population, if left only to their own resources, than the
Wiltshire Downs. These three localities could never consequently have
been so much richer in this class of monuments than settlements in the
more fertile parts of the island. Strangers must have erected them, and
to determine who these strangers were, is the task to which antiquaries
have now to apply themselves.
Whatever may be determined on the point, one thing, I think, must and
will be conceded, which is, that Arthur's Table at Penrith, Arbor Low,
and Avebury, are monuments of the same age, and were dedicated to the
same purposes. The first is a simple earthen monument, of a certain
design and with certain dimensions; the second has the same design and
dimensions, with the addition of a circle of stones and dolmen in the
centre; the third has all the features that the other two possess, with
the addition of increased dimensions, and the internal circles being
doubled. But the internal ditch, the rampart, and the character of the
circle and other features, are so like each other, and so unlike what
are found elsewhere, that they must stand or fall together. If any one
of these belonged to the age of Arthur, all three certainly did. If, on
the other hand, any one of the three can be proved to belong to another
age, the other two will hardly be able to maintain their position. The
circles at Cumrew, Salkeld, and Mayborough, present so many points
of similarity, that they, too, must probably be classed with these
three, though there is not the same evidence to justify their being
classed together. The stone avenue at Shap is also most probably the
counterpart of that at Kennet; but the destruction of the circle at
Brackenbyr, and the limited knowledge we have of it, prevent anything
very definite being predicated regarding it.
If we may consider Gib Hill as the analogue of Silbury Hill, its place
and position may throw some light on the mystery attaching to the
latter. The relative distances of these satellites to their primaries
is nearly proportional to the diameter of the circles, and they both
present the peculiarity that they have no interment in their base.
The Archæological Institute in 1849 did exactly what the Batemans had
done before them. They tunnelled and explored the base of Gib Hill,
and gave it up in despair, when an accident revealed to them the grave
over their heads, within 18 inches of the surface. The antiquaries were
not so fortunate at Silbury; but judging from the analogy of Gib Hill,
and still more from that of Minning Low, the graves may be expected
to be found arranged around the plateau on the summit, probably six
or seven in number, and as probably within a few feet of the surface.
There was none in the centre of the platform at Minning Low, though
there was in the smaller tumulus of Gib Hill; and this may account for
the Duke of Northumberland's ill-success when he dug into the hill
in 1776. Poor Stukeley was very much laughed at for prizing a very
modern-looking iron bit, belonging to a bridle that was found on the
top of the hill[176] (woodcut No. 18); yet it may turn out to be the
only real fact he brought away from the place. Nothing but an iron
sword was found in the kistvaen, on the top of Minning Low, but it was
nearly perfect;[177] why should not the bridle be found, for we know
that horses were frequently buried with the warriors they had borne in
battle?
Omitting Cornwall for the present, the circles at Stanton Drew form the
only other group of any importance in England for which it remains to
find a purpose and a name; and I confess I see no reason for separating
them from those just named. There are so many points of similarity,
that they can hardly be of an age far apart, and their purpose
certainly is the same. If there is anything in the arguments adduced
above, they must mark a battle-field. They are certainly not a family
or a princely sepulchre, still less a local cemetery, nor need it now
be added, certainly not a temple.
[Illustration: 37. Circles at Stanton Drew. From a plan by Sir R. C.
Hoare.]
[Illustration: 38. View of the Circles at Stanton Drew. From a sketch
by Percy Shelton, Esq.]
Their arrangement will be understood from the annexed woodcut (No.
37). The group consists of one first-class circle or oval, 378 feet
(?) by 345 feet--100 metres; and two of the second class, one 96 feet,
the other 129; and a dolmen near the church, at a distance of 157
yards from the last-named.[178] Attached to the two principal circles
are short straight avenues, pointing apparently to two stones very
near to one another--the one at a distance of 300 feet from the large
circle, the other at the distance of about 100 from the smaller one,
or at distances relative to their diameters. There is also a very
large stone, called the King Stone, by the roadside, but beyond the
limits of the plan. This, with the stones to which the avenues point,
are probably the analogues of the detached stone, known as Long Meg,
at Salkeld, or the Ring Stone, which stands 180 feet from one of the
circles at Avebury; perhaps also of the two which are assumed to be the
commencement of the Beckhampton avenue at that place, or of the Friar's
heel at Stonehenge, or of the King Stone at Stanton Moor. In fact, all
these circles seem to have detached stones standing at some little
distance from them outside. It is there that I would look for the
principal interments, rather than in the circles themselves; but this
is one of the questions that the spade, and the spade only, can decide.
There is, however, also attached to the smaller of the two circles
at Stanton Drew a heap of stones which is apparently the ruins of a
dolmen, and these may mark the real place of interment, as does the
tumulus attached to Arbor Low, which corresponds with them in position.
The only recorded tradition with regard to this monument at Stanton
Drew represents Keyna, a holy virgin in the fifth century, the daughter
apparently of a Welsh prince, obtaining a grant of the land on which
the village of Keynsham now stands from the prince of the country. She
was warned, however, of the insecurity of the gift, in consequence of
the serpents of a deadly species that infested the place. She accepted
the gift notwithstanding, and by her prayers converted the serpents
into the stones we now see there,[179] so at least Stukeley and
Bathurst Dean assure us.
Such a tradition is only valuable as indicating the date that is
popularly ascribed to the monument. In this instance the fifth century
is suggested, which may be 50 or even 100 years earlier than I would
be inclined to assign it to, but such data are of little consequence.
The date is also shadowed forth in the incident related; for not
only in Ireland, but in France, and frequently also in England, the
early struggles of the first Christian missionaries are represented
as victories over the snakes or snake worshippers. St. Hilda, for
instance, at Whitby signalized the establishment of Christianity in
the seventh century by converting the Yorkshire snakes into Ammonites,
which are still found there in quantities, which in the eyes of the
peasantry are much more like stone snakes than the stones into which
St. Keyna transformed her Somersetshire enemies.
Whatever the value of these and such like traditions, one thing seems
quite certain, that every local tradition which has yet been quoted
represents these monuments as erected subsequently to Roman times,
and generally as belonging to that transitional age when Christianity
was struggling with Paganism for the mastery. The common people are
generally willing enough to amuse themselves with fables about giants
and demigods, and to wander back into prehistoric times; but with
regard to these monuments they do not seem to have done so. I do not
recollect a single tradition that ascribes any stone circle to the
pre-Roman period.
If, however, I am correct in assuming that these great groups of
circles belong to the Arthurian age, we have no difficulty in assigning
to this one its proper place in the series of his battles. The ninth,
as we have seen above, was probably fought at Caerleon on the Usk;
which would seem to indicate that, at a certain point in his career,
Arthur was forced back quite out of England into South Wales; but
his return on that hypothesis is easily traced. The tenth battle was
on the shore of some large river, which ought in consequence to be
the Severn, though the name given in the text lends no countenance
to this supposition; the eleventh was "In monte quod dicitur Agned
in Somersetshire," which would answer perfectly, except in name; for
Stanton Drew, in that case, would be in the direct line of advance to
Badon Hill, where the twelfth and crowning victory was fought.
The name here, as throughout, creates the difficulty, but Stanton on
the Stones, or Stone Town, is simply an epithet applied to all these
groups by the Saxons at some period subsequent to that of which we are
speaking, when the memory of their purpose was lost, or little cared
for by those of a different race, and speaking a different language,
who had succeeded to the Bryts, who had erected them. Unless we assume
that Stonehenge, Stanton Drew, the circles on Stanton Moor, and the
stones at Stennis, and others, were erected by the Saxons themselves,
they must originally have borne Celtic names, and it would be these
names that Nennius would quote, and which consequently could not be
those by which they are now known.
The expression "in monte" is singularly confirmatory of this
determination, inasmuch as one of the remarkable features of the
locality is the fortified hill known as Maes[180] Knoll, which
literally looks into Stanton Drew, and is the most remarkable feature
seen from it, and a fight on its ridge is as probable an operation as
any likely to be undertaken in this quarter.
* * * * *
If the above were all the evidence that could be produced in support
of the hypothesis that all these great circles belonged to the
Arthurian age, it might be admitted to be sufficient to establish not a
conclusion but a fair _prima facie_ case. The reasonableness, however,
of what has been here advanced will, it is hoped, become more and more
apparent as we proceed. Absolute mathematical or logical proof it is to
be feared, in the present state of the evidence, is not available. Till
attention is fairly turned to a certain definite line of argument, the
experiments are not made, and the authorities are not read, which bear
upon it, or if made or read are not understood; but when the arguments
are examined with the earnest desire to prove or disprove them, new
light springs up from every quarter, and before long there may be
grounds for a positive answer.
Meanwhile it may be well to point out, before going further, that this
class of circles is peculiar to England. They do not exist in France
or in Algeria. The Scandinavian circles are all very different, so too
are the Irish. The one circle out of England that at all resembles them
is that at Stennis, or rather Brogar, in the Orkneys, which will be
described in detail further on. There we have a great 100-metre circle,
with a ditch (but no rampart), a smaller 100-foot circle, with a ruined
dolmen in its stone circle, as at Stanton Drew, and we have the Maes
Knoll for the Maes How. The Stennis group has also the detached stones,
though it wants the rudimentary avenues, and some minor peculiarities,
and it may be more modern, but it is very similar; whereas those in
Cornwall and elsewhere are small and irregular, and totally wanting
in the dignity belonging to those which we have ventured to call
Arthurian.
The arguments adduced in the preceding pages will probably be deemed
sufficient to make out a strong case to show that these great circles
were erected, at all events, after the departure of the Romans, and if
this is so, it confines the field for discussion within very narrow
limits. Either they must have been erected by the Romanized Britons
before they were so completely Christianized as to be entirely weaned
from their Pagan habits, or they were the works of the Saxons or
Danes. We shall be in a better position to judge how far it is likely
that the latter were the authors, when we have examined the rude
stone monuments of Scandinavia or Friesland, from which countries
the Northmen descended on our shores. When this is done, we shall
probably come to the conclusion that, as they erected Dolmens as
burying-places for their dead, and Menhirs or Bauta Stones and circles
in their battle-fields, there is no improbability of their having done
so also here. The question, however, is, did they erect these great
100-metre circles? These are unique, so far as I know; a class quite by
themselves, and so similar, whether found in Cumberland or Derbyshire,
or in Wilts or Somersetshire, that, with the probable exception of the
Orkney group, they must be the work of one people, and also nearly of
the same age. If, in fact, they do not mark the battle-fields to which
I have attempted to ascribe them, they must mark something nearly
approximating to them in date, and as nearly analogous in intention and
purpose.
SMALLER CIRCLES.
[Illustration: 39. Rose Hill Tumulus. From the 'Archæologia,' vol. x.]
It would be as tedious as unprofitable to attempt to enumerate all
the smaller circles existing in various parts of England; but there
are two or three which are curious in themselves, and interesting as
illustrating the large circles of which we have just been treating.
The first to be mentioned is one situated in Englewood Forest, near
Rose Hill, and therefore nearly equidistant from Cumrew, Salkeld, and
Carlisle. Locally, therefore, it belongs to the Cumberland group,
described above, and may do so in date also. It is a low platform,
it can hardly be called a tumulus, as it is only 12 feet high. It is
circular, and measures 63 feet across. On the platform stand, or at
least stood in 1787, three bilithons, or groups of two tall stones
standing side by side, like those in the inner circle at Stonehenge.
Mr. Rooke dug in front of one of these, with the intention of seeing
how deep it was in the ground, but to his astonishment he found a cist
formed of six perfectly well fitted hewn stones, but measuring little
more than 2 feet each way. In front of the other outside group he
found a similar cist, but a little larger, 2 feet 10 inches by 2 feet
2 inches, and further removed from the central pair of upright stones,
and nearer the centre of the circle, a third cist, formed equally of
hewn and well fitted stones. In all three of these were found human
bones, fragments of skulls, teeth, &c., but no implements or ornaments
of any sort, only under one head a metallic lump, with apparently
particles of gold in it.[181] This was sent to the Society of
Antiquaries for examination, but with what result is not stated.[182]
According to the plan, it would appear as if there were originally six
interments in the mound. In fact, that it was the counterpart of the
top of Minning Low, with the addition of the pairs of obelisks. Mr.
Rooke was, however, so much puzzled at finding Druids buried six feet
below the floor of their own temple, that he did not seek further.
But if the mound still exists, it would be very interesting to know
if any more cists exist in the mound, or any burial deeper down below
them, as in the Derbyshire example. It might contain coins, and if so,
would be interesting as another example of its date; but meanwhile its
truncated conoidal form and arrangement of graves, and of trilithons,
are sufficient to show that it was cotemporary with Minning Low and
Stonehenge, or at all events not far from their date.
[Illustration: 40. Snaffle-Bit found at Aspatria.]
In the same paper in which Mr. Rooke describes the Rose Hill tumulus
he gives an account of an excavation at a place called Aspatria, a
little farther westward, and near St. Bees. They cleared away a barrow
about 90 feet in diameter, and at 3 feet below the original surface
of the ground found a cist in which lay the skeleton of a man of
gigantic stature. As he lay extended, he measured 7 feet from the head
to the ankle. His feet were decayed and rotted off. At his side, near
the shoulder-blade, was an iron sword 4 feet in length, the handle
elegantly ornamented with inlaid silver flowers; a gold fibula or
buckle was also found, with portions of the shield and his battle-axe.
One of the most curious things found was the bit of a snaffle-bridle,
which is so modern-looking that it would not excite interest if seen
on a stall in Seven Dials. The main interest resides in its similarity
to that which Stukeley found at Silbury Hill (woodcut No. 18, p.
81). He cleaned and polished his one carefully. Mr. Rooke had his
engraved with all the rust upon it, so, at first sight, they are not so
similar as they are in reality. The fact of this one being found in an
undoubtedly ancient grave, takes away all _prima facie_ improbability
from the suggested age of the other. From its form, Stukeley's appears
to be the older of the two; but we have no chronometric scale for
bridle-bits.
All these things make this grave look as if it were very modern; but on
the outside of the stones forming the cist were engraved a variety of
figures which are of interest as a means of comparison with the Irish
and Danish engravings we shall meet with hereafter. They are not very
artistically drawn, and are probably worse engraved; but it is easy to
recognize the cross in the circle. There are the concentric circles
with dots in the centre and straight lines proceeding from them and
other figures found on rocks and elsewhere, which antiquaries have
hitherto been inclined to ascribe to a primæval antiquity, but which
this tomb would bring down at least to the Viking age--of which more
hereafter.
[Illustration: 41. Side Stone, Aspatria Cist.]
[Illustration: 42. Mule Hill, View of Cists.]
[Illustration: 43. Circle of Cists at Mule Hill, Isle of Man.]
The circle of cists on Mule Hill, in the Isle of Man, are interesting
from another cause; for unfortunately they all have been laid bare
and rifled before any antiquary took cognisance of them, and we have
consequently nothing by which their date can be even guessed at. Their
interest lies in their arrangement, which is that of eight cists
arranged in a circle, with, it would seem, others at right angles at
certain intervals.[183] From simple inspection it is evident that
these cists must at one time have been covered with earth. They are
not dolmens, or anything that would do for self-standing monuments.
If covered with earth, they would form a circular mound 45 feet in
diameter internally, and 65 feet across to the foot of the outer
slope, and, as far as one example can go, would tend to prove that the
circular vallum at Avebury and many other places was a place for the
deposit of bodies. Except in the instance spoken of in describing the
circle at Marden, I am not aware of bodies having been found in England
under these ramparts; but they have not been sought for. Of one thing
we may feel certain, that nothing is unique in these matters, and that
what occurred once, occurred frequently, and will no doubt be found
when looked for.
Another peculiarity of this circle is worth observing. There are two
gaps or openings in the circle opposite one another, as at Arbor
Low and Penrith. One must not rely too much on this, as the gaps
here may arise from the removal of cists; but the coincidence is at
least curious, and if we restored this monument in the sense just
indicated, and could rely on that restoration, the secret of the
vallum surrounding Avebury and other similar monuments would no longer
be a mystery. To my mind it has not been so for many years past; but
though I dare not yet ask others to follow at once, I trust sufficient
evidence has been accumulated in the preceding pages to render it
probable that they were only continuous tumuli.
The circle or rather circles, on Burn Moor, near Wast Water,
Cumberland, are described by Mr. Williams as consisting of a 100-foot
circle, formed of forty-four stones, beyond which, at a distance of 25
feet is an outer circle of fourteen large stones. A niche or square
enclosure on one side of the inner circle contains a cairn 25 feet in
diameter, and within the circle are four others, irregularly spaced,
and measuring 21 to 25 feet in diameter; each like the circle itself,
surrounded by fourteen stones. These, on being opened, were found to
contain a rude chamber formed of five stones, in which were found
remains of burnt bones, horns of stags, and other animals.[184]
One point of interest in this monument is, that it explains the
existence of a similar square enclosure on one side of a well-known
100-foot circle near Keswick. There is no sign of a cairn there now;
it may have been removed, as those at Salkeld were, or it may be that
the body was interred without this external indication; but that it
lies, or lay, in this enclosure seems certain. The principal reason
for referring to it here is that it is undoubtedly sepulchral. We
shall find many examples equally so further on, but it is well, in the
meanwhile, to illustrate one which certainly was neither a temple nor
place of assembly, and which contains, besides, several peculiarities
to which we shall have occasion to advert hereafter.
[Illustration: 44. Circles on Burn Moor, Cumberland.]
It seems almost equally clear that the Boscawen circles, with which
we close our illustrations of English circles for the present, were
neither Temples nor Things. It is very difficult to see how any one
could fancy that anything so confused as the centre of these circles
is, could be a temple, still less a place of assembly. But Borlase,
though generally admitting the sepulchral nature of the circles,
maintains that this one was a temple, and describes the position
of the serving Druids and all the ceremonies down to the minutest
particulars. The circles are small, the largest being only 75 feet in
diameter, and the whole group only 200 feet across, neither are the
stones by any means of imposing dimensions. Another circumstance worthy
of being noticed, is that there are detached stones in front of the
principal circles. Interesting results might be obtained by excavating
at their bases, as, for reasons above stated, it seems as if the
principal interment might be found at their feet.
[Illustration: 45. Boscawen Circles. From Borlase.]
DOLMENS.
As stated above, England seems to be the native country of the great
circles, no 100-metre circles having yet been found anywhere out
of England, excepting, of course, that at Stennis. France, on the
contrary, seems to be the native country of the dolmens. They exist
there in numbers far beyond anything we can show, and of dimensions
exceeding anything we can boast of. In England proper, when we
have enumerated Kit's Cotty-house, the dolmen in Clatford Bottom,
Wayland Smith's Cave, that at Rollright, and one at Drewsteignton, in
Devonshire, our list is nearly exhausted. There may be heaps of stones
which seem dolmens, or something like them; and chambered tumuli, whose
internal kistvaens, if exposed, might be entitled to rank with dolmens;
but, taking the word in its broad sense, it is difficult to carry our
list beyond the half-dozen.
In Cornwall the case is different. In the corner to the westward
of Falmouth there are at least twice as many as in all England. In
Wales, I think I could enumerate twice as many as in Cornwall; and
in Anglesea[185] there are certainly as many as in Cornwall, perhaps
more; and in the Isle of Man they are also numerous. It is difficult
to be precise, as the same monument is, sometimes at least, recorded
under two names; but it is not an exaggeration to say that from fifty
to sixty have been described, and most of them figured, as found in
the West country, and I should not be surprised if an industrious
statistician carried the number to 100, including, of course, many that
are now ruinous.
There are two points of view from which this geographical distribution
of English dolmens may be regarded. The first and most obvious would
be to consider that they were erected by the Britons after they were
driven into the mountain fastnesses of the West, first by the Romans,
and more completely afterwards by the Saxons. The other view would
be that they are the work of a different race, who, we have every
reason to believe, occupied the western country in the time of the
Romans. Tacitus is particularly explicit on this point. He divides
the inhabitants of the country into three classes. The red-haired
Caledonians, resembling the Germans and inhabiting the north; the
Silures, of dark complexion and curling hair, and whom he describes
as living in that part of the country which is opposite Spain, and
he suggests that the ancient Iberians crossed over and occupied
these regions; and he then adds: "Those nearest to Gaul are similar
to the inhabitants of that country."[186] There is so much in the
present aspect of the people of this country to confirm this general
classification that there seems very little reason for doubting its
general correctness; and as all these dolmens are found in the country
of the Silures it may be argued that they belong to them. If he had
joined the Aquitanians to Iberians he would probably have expressed
more completely the whole facts of the case as we now know them.
Admitting, however, this ethnographic view of the case to the fullest
possible extent--which I am prepared to do, it still leaves the
question of date wholly unsettled. It would be answered if we dared
to assume that the Silures were driven from the fertile parts of the
valley of the Severn, which we have reason to suppose they occupied
in Agricola's time, to the mountain fastnesses, and that it was then
only that they began to repeat in stone what previously they had only
erected in earth. If this could be established, we should get both an
ethnographical and a chronological determination of no small value; but
of this we shall be better able to form an opinion after discussing the
monuments of France.
Meanwhile there is one point bearing upon the subject to which it may
be as well to draw attention. In Wales and Anglesea, which we may
assume to have been the country of the Silures or that to which they
were driven, there are no circles, but only dolmens. In Cornwall, where
the blood was certainly more mixed, there are both circles and dolmens,
and the same is the case at the other extremity of the western district
in the Isle of Man.
If it is contended that, being nearer to Spain or Aquitaine than Wales,
Cornwall must have been earliest and most exclusively inhabited by
the dark race, the answer is, that though it may originally have been
so, the races in Cornwall had been mixed with Celtic and other blood
before the age of the stone monuments; while in the Isle of Man we
shall probably see reason for believing that northern blood was infused
into the veins of the people, at a very early age, when few, if any,
monuments of this class existed, and certainly before all had been
completed.
[Illustration: 46. Park Cwn Tumulus. Scale 16 feet to 1 inch.]
Even a cursory examination of these West Coast dolmens would, I think,
be sufficient to prove to any one that the theory that all were
originally covered with earthen mounds is utterly untenable. That such
chambered graves as those at Uley in Gloucestershire,[187] or Stoney
Littleton in Somersetshire,[188] were always intended to be so covered
up is clear enough. So was this one at Park Cwn, in the peninsula of
Gower, recently opened and described by Sir John Lubbock.[189] It
is of the same type as Uley and Stoney Littleton, but has only four
chambers arranged on each side of the central passage. One of its most
remarkable characteristics is the beautiful masonry of the retaining
walls on each side of the funnel-shaped passage leading to the cells.
These are so carefully built that it is evident that they were meant
to be seen, and the entrance to be kept open. Indeed, unless we fancy
it was the monument of some fight, which there seems no reason for
supposing, it is evident it must have been kept open till forty
deaths had occurred in the family of the chief to which it served
as sepulchre, as at least that number of bodies were found in the
chambers, but in a dreadfully confused condition, as if the grave had
been rifled before, but no implements or trace of metal were left to
indicate even approximately its age.
At Uley, in Gloucestershire, half way between Berkeley and Tetbury,
there is a tumulus which, in its internal arrangement, is very similar
to that last described. The entrance is of the same form, and there are
four side-chambers; but those at Uley are grouped more artistically
in the centre, instead of being separated by a passage, as at Park
Cwn. Externally the differences are more apparent; the Gloucestershire
example being oblong, or rather heart-shaped, while that in Gower is
more circular in form. The Uley tumulus was first opened by a Mr.
Baker, in 1821, but subsequently examined with great care by Dr.
Thurnam; and a very careful account, resulting from his own observation
compared with the records of Mr. Baker's, published by him in the
'Archæological Journal.'[190] The bodies in the chambers, which were
numerous, had been disturbed and were lying in disorder, as at Park
Cwn; but among them was found a vessel resembling a Roman lachrymatory,
and some pottery which may have been either Romano-British or Mediæval.
There were also found some fragments of flint implements, apparently
arrow-heads, and outside two stone axes--one of flint. Near the summit
of the mound, exactly over the easternmost chamber, there had been
another interment, and beside the skeleton were found three brass coins
of the sons of Constantine the Great.
On this evidence, Dr. Thurnam, with the approval probably of every
antiquary in England, comes to the conclusion that the original
erection of the chambered tumulus belongs to the long prehistoric past;
that the pottery, &c., were accidentally introduced; and that the coins
belong to a secondary post-Roman interment. The only evidence for this
being the presence of the flints above mentioned, and the assumptions
based on them; they having become articles of faith with antiquaries
which it is rank heresy to dispute. As I have already stated, till
some one can show at what period flint ceased to be used in any
particular locality, this evidence is worthless. With regard to the
secondary interments, it appears to be inconceivable that, after the
lapse of 500 or 600 years at least, and the civilizing influence of the
Roman occupation, any one should choose the top of one of the mounds
of the long-forgotten pagan savages for a burying-place. If burying
in barrows had been the fashion in Gloucestershire, as it was on the
wolds of Yorkshire or the downs of Wiltshire, something might be said
in favour of such an hypothesis if we could also assume that the races
had been undisturbed in the interval. But there are hardly half-a-dozen
tumuli in the whole county. They, like Uley, Rodmarton,[191] Stoney
Littleton,[192] are all chambered tumuli of one class and apparently of
one age. All too, it may be remarked, are close to Roman stations and
surrounded by evidences of Roman occupation.
In the previous pages we have already met with several instances
of summit interments, as at Gib Hill, Minning Low, &c., which are
certainly not secondary, and we have reason to suspect that more will
be found when looked for; and the finding of Roman coins on or near
the top of tumuli is too frequent to be accidental, and occurs even in
Ireland, where the Romans never went.
We shall have occasion to recur to this subject when speaking of the
tomb of King Harald Hildetand at Lethra, and then propose to treat
it more in detail; but meanwhile it seems clear that the evidence of
the coins and the pottery must be allowed to outweigh that of the
flints; and if this is so, not only Uley but all the chamber-tumuli in
Gloucestershire or Somerset belong either to the Romano-British, or
rather to the post-Roman period of British history.
[Illustration: 47. Tumulus, Plas Newydd.]
[Illustration: 48. Entrance to Dolmen, in Tumulus, Plas Newydd.]
Another and even more interesting example of this class has recently
been brought to light by the Hon. W. O. Stanley, at Plas Newydd, not
far from the great dolmen represented on woodcut No. 50.[193] It is
a chamber or cist, 3 feet 3 inches wide by about 7 feet long, and
covered by two slabs. Before being disturbed, the supporting slabs
must have formed nearly perfect walls, thus distinguishing the cist
from those standing on widely-spaced legs. Its principal point of
interest, however, is the widely-splayed avenue of stones leading up to
it, showing that it was always intended to be visited; and still more
curious are the two holes that were pierced in the slab that closed
the entrance. The upper part of this slab is now broken off, but so
much remains that it is easy to see that they were originally circular
and about 10 inches in diameter. Such holed stones are very frequent in
Eastern dolmens, and are also common in Cornwall and elsewhere;[194]
but what their purpose may have been has not yet been explained.
Further on it may be attempted. At present it is the relation of this
form of chambered tumuli to external dolmens that principally interests
us.
[Illustration: 49. Dolmen at Pentre Ifan. From 'Archæologia
Cambrensis.']
Almost all the so-called dolmens in the Channel Islands are of this
class. One has already been given (woodcut No. 11), and it may safely
be asserted that all chambers which were wainscoted with slabs,
so as to form nearly perfect walls, and all that had complicated
quasi-vaulted roofs were, or were intended to be, covered with
mounds--more especially those that had covered passages leading
to them. There is, however, a very wide distinction between these
sepulchral chambers and such a monument as this at Pentre Ifan, in
Pembrokeshire.[195] The top stone is so large that it is said five
persons on horseback have found shelter under it from a shower of
rain. Even allowing that the horses were only Welsh ponies, men do
not raise such masses and poise them on their points for the sake of
hiding them again. Besides that, the supports do not and could not
form a chamber. The earth would have fallen in on all sides, and the
connexion between the roof and the floor been cut off entirely, even
before the whole was completed. Or, to take another example, that at
Plas Newydd, on the shore of the Menai Strait. Here the cap stone is an
enormous block, squared by art, supported on four stone legs, but with
no pretence of forming a chamber. If the cap stone were merely intended
as a roofing stone, one a third or fourth of its weight would have been
equally serviceable and equally effective in an architectural point of
view, if buried. The mode of architectural expression which these Stone
men best understood was the power of mass. At Stonehenge, at Avebury,
and everywhere, as here, they sought to give dignity and expression by
using the largest blocks they could transport or raise--and they were
right; for, in spite of their rudeness, they impress us now; but had
they buried them in mounds, they neither would have impressed us nor
their contemporaries.
[Illustration: 50. Dolmen at Plas Newydd. From 'Archæologia
Cambrensis.']
As before mentioned, however, the great argument against the theory of
their having been always covered up is the impossibility of accounting
for the disappearance of the tumuli. If they had been situated on
fertile plains where the land was valuable for agricultural purposes,
it might be assumed that a civilized people with highly cultivated
antiquarian tastes might have been at the trouble and expense of
removing the tumuli for the sake of the land, and of preserving the
dolmens for their historical value. But that the rude peasantry of
Cornwall and Wales should have done this is inconceivable, more
especially as by far the greater number of these monuments are situated
on bleak moorlands of no agricultural value whatever. Still more
inconceivable is it that they should have done it so neatly and so
carefully that no trace of the mound can now be found either around the
stones or in the neighbourhood.
If any history were attached to these Western dolmens, or any remains
had been found under them which would enable us to fix their dates,
even approximately, or to arrange them in any intelligible sequence,
it might be worth while recapitulating their names or illustrating
their forms. Nothing of the sort, however, has yet been attempted;
and apparently no materials exist from which any such series could be
elaborated.
[Illustration: 51. Arthur's Quoit, Gower. From a drawing by Sir Gardner
Wilkinson.]
[Illustration: 52. Plan of Arthur's Quoit.]
Only one dolmen in Wales, so far as I know, bears a name; but it is the
illustrious one of King Arthur. The dolmen bearing his name is situated
in the peninsula of Gower, on the northern slopes of the bleak Bryn
Cefn, about ten miles west from Swansea.[196] It forms the centre of a
very extensive group of monuments--eighty cairns, at least, are still
to be counted in an area less than half a mile in length, by a quarter
of a mile in width. These are mostly small, 12 to 15 feet in diameter;
one, 20 feet across, was opened by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, but proved
to contain no interment. The largest is 68 feet in diameter, but has
not been opened. About 350 feet from this is the dolmen. The cap stone
is 14 feet 6 inches in length, 7 feet 5 inches in height, and 6 feet 8
inches in breadth even now, but a very large piece has been broken off,
and now lies beside it, measuring upwards of 3 feet in thickness; and
another piece seems to have been broken off on the other end, so that
when complete it must have weighed between 35 and 40 tons. It rested
originally on ten or eleven upright stones, two of which, however,
have fallen, and only four now touch the cap stone. Sir Gardner is of
opinion that it once was covered with a tumulus; but this appears
very doubtful. The slight mound, backed up with large stones, that now
surrounds it, with a diameter of 73 to 74 feet, seems an enclosure more
like that of Hob Hurst's House (woodcut No. 53) than the remains of a
tumulus, and till some further evidence is adduced, we must be allowed
to doubt whether any cap stone on legs was ever so treated. Sir Gardner
traced, doubtfully, an avenue, of which, however, only five stones now
remain, extending to about 500 feet in a direction that would have
passed the dolmen on the north, as that at Shap did the circle at its
front, or the lines at Merivale Bridge, the circle still found there;
Sir Gardner also points out some small circular enclosures, which, from
the analogy of those found on Dartmoor, he assumes to be hut-circles.
[Illustration: 53. Hob Hurst's House, on Baslow Moor, Derbyshire. From
a drawing by Thomas Bateman.[197]]
What, then, is this group of monuments? Sir Gardner assumes that it
is a cemetery of the ancient Britons; but, if so, why are not other
cemeteries found in the fertile valleys and plains in South Wales?
Why did they choose one of the barest and bleakest hillsides, and one
farthest removed from their habitations as a place in which to bury
their dead? Why did they not, like the inhabitants of Salisbury Plain,
disperse their graves pretty equally over an area of 30 miles by 10?
Why crowd them into less than half-a-mile? Without reverting to my
previous suggestion of a battle-field, I do not see how these questions
can be answered; and if so, I do not think we have far to go to look
for its name? As hinted above, Arthur's eighth battle must have been
fought in Wales. The name of the place is written Guin (Gwyn), Guinon,
Guinnon, Gunnion,[198] which certainly is Welsh; and when we find it
immediately preceding the battle of Caerleon on the Usk, and the
principal monument still bearing Arthur's name, we may fairly, I think,
adopt the suggestion till, at least, a better is offered.
Be this as it may, I think all antiquaries will agree with Sir Gardner
Wilkinson in assuming that this is the stone of Cetti[199] mentioned
in the Welsh triads. 'The 84th Triad' speaks of the Cor of Emmrys in
Caer Caradawg (another name for Salisbury), and the 88th of the three
mighty achievements of the Isle of Britain, the raising of the stone
of Cetti, the building of the work of Emmrys, and the heaping of the
pile of Cyvragnon.[200] The work of Emmrys (Ambrosius) is generally
admitted to be Stonehenge. If this is the stone of Cetti, which I see
no reason for doubting, it only remains to identify the third. Most
antiquaries suggest Silbury Hill; and, if I am correct in placing these
three monuments so near one another in date, this seems also extremely
probable, and so far as it goes, is a satisfactory confirmation of what
has been advanced above from other sources.
From my ignorance of the Welsh language I am not in a position to say
what amount of reliance should be placed in the evidence of these
triads. But Herbert and other competent scholars consider it undoubted
that Emmrys is Ambrosius, and the 'Work' referred to certainly
Stonehenge. If this is so, it fixes its date beyond question, and as
the other two are mentioned in the same breath it is probable they
were not distant in date. All this may be, I believe certainly is so,
but the circumstantial evidence adduced above seems to me so much
clearer and so much more to be relied upon, that it derives very little
additional force from the utterance of the Welsh bards. It is, however,
no doubt satisfactory that their evidence coincides with everything
that has been brought forward above, as bearing directly or indirectly
on their age or use.
* * * * *
Before proceeding, it may be as well to revert for one moment to Hob
Hurst's House. It is quoted here to show how a tumulus, with a dolmen
on the top of it, may be connected with a low rampart so as not to
conceal it, exactly, I believe, as is the case with Arthur's Quoit.
But the name of the place where it is situated may afford a hint which
may lead to something hereafter. It will be recollected that Arthur's
sixth battle was fought "super flumen quod vocatur Bassas." This mound
is situated on "Bas" Moor, the Low being merely the name of the mound
itself. These nominal similarities are too treacherous to be relied
upon; but the more the whole group is looked at the more does it appear
that there are coincidences of name, or form, or purpose, between
those monuments here called Arthurian, which cannot all be accidental.
Individually they may not be able to resist hostile criticism, but in
their cumulative form they appear to me to make up a very strong case
indeed.
If any of the other dolmens in the West had even so good a title to
a date as Arthur's Quoit, it might be possible to arrange them in a
series; but as none have even traditional dates, all we can now do is
to suggest that the dolmen at Plas Newydd (woodcut No. 50) is of about
the same age as Arthur's Stone: perhaps something more modern, as it
is more carefully squared; but this may arise from the one being a
battle-stone, the other a peaceful sepulchre. In like manner it would
seem that such an exaggerated form as Pentre Ifan (woodcut No. 49) is
a "tour de force" of a still more modern date; and if we could get
one certainly older than any of these, a tentative scheme could be
constructed which might lead us to satisfactory results.
I by no means despair of being able eventually to construct such a
scheme of classification, and, even before this Work is concluded, to
make it tolerably clear that the thing is possible, and then it will
only remain, if one or two fixed or probable dates can be ascertained,
to bring the whole within the range of historical investigation.
[Footnote 134: 'Iter Curiosum,' pl. xxxiii.]
[Footnote 135: 'Iter Curiosum,' p. xxxii.]
[Footnote 136: When I was there four years ago I was fortunate
enough to find an old man, a stonemason, who had been employed in
his youth in utilizing these stones. He went over the ground with
me, and pointed out the position of those he remembered.]
[Footnote 137: It is extremely difficult to be precise about the
dimensions. One is almost wholly buried in the earth, and its
dimensions can only be obtained by probing; the other is half
buried.]
[Footnote 138: 'Archæologia,' ii. 1773, p. 107.]
[Footnote 139: 'Wanderings of an Antiquary;' London, 1854, p. 175
_et seq._]
[Footnote 140: _loc. cit._ 175.]
[Footnote 141: 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 299.]
[Footnote 142: 'Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon Poem,' translated by J. W.
Kemble, 1835, preface, p. xix.]
[Footnote 143: 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 121.]
[Footnote 144: This woodcut is copied literally from one by Mr.
Lewis published in the 'Norwich Volume of the International
Prehistoric Congress,' and the figures and facts I am about to
quote are mostly taken from the paper that accompanied it. The
inferences, however, are widely different.]
[Footnote 145: 'Norwich Volume of the International Prehistoric
Congress,' p. 37.]
[Footnote 146: Asser, in 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 476.]
[Footnote 147: Stukeley, 'Avebury,' p. 12; Borlase, p. 210.]
[Footnote 148: Camden, 'Britannia,' i. p. 285. See also Charleton's
'Stonehenge restored to the Danes,' p. 36.]
[Footnote 149: On this stone Sir Gardiner Wilkinson traced one of
those circles of concentric rings which are so common on stones in
the north of England. I did not see it myself, but assuming it to
be true--which I have no doubt it is--it will not help us much till
we know when and by whom these circles were engraved.]
[Footnote 150: 'Brit.' p. 1021.]
[Footnote 151: Pennant in his text calls the diameter 88 yards, but
the scale attached to his plan makes it 110 yards nearly.]
[Footnote 152: 'Tour in Scotland, 1772,' pl. xxxvii. p. 276.]
[Footnote 153: Near Lochmaben, in Annandale, a circle exists, or
existed, called Wood Castle, which, in so far as the plan and
dimensions are concerned, is identical with this. It is figured in
General Roy's 'Military Antiquities of the Romans,' pl. viii. I
would not hesitate in quoting it as a monument of this class, but
for the view which I distrust excessively, but which makes it look
like a fortification. As I have no means of verifying the facts, I
can only draw attention to them.]
[Footnote 154: 'Iter Boreale,' p. 42.]
[Footnote 155: 'Brit.,' Gough edit. iii. p. 401.]
[Footnote 156: 'Archæological Journal,' xviii. p. 29.]
[Footnote 157: _Ibid._, xviii. p. 37.]
[Footnote 158: I am not aware that any account of these diggings
has been published. The facts I ascertained on the spot.]
[Footnote 159: Here, again, I quote from the copy in the 'Mon.
Hist. Brit.' p. 47 _et seq._, to which it will not be necessary to
refer every time the name is mentioned.]
[Footnote 160: Stuart Glennie, 'King Arthur.' 1867. L. W. Skene.
'Ancient Books of Wales,' i. 52 _et seq._]
[Footnote 161: 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' p. 73.]
[Footnote 162: General Roy's 'Mil. Ant. of the Romans,' pl. viii.]
[Footnote 163: Bateman, 'Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 87.]
[Footnote 164: I have not seen this circle myself, though I made
a long journey on purpose. It is said to consist of eighty-eight
stones, and one larger than the rest, standing outside the circle,
at a distance of about five yards, or exactly as Long Meg stands
with reference to her daughters.]
[Footnote 165: First described in the 'Archæologia,' vol. viii. p.
131 _et seq._, by the Rev. S. Pegge, in 1783.]
[Footnote 166: These dimensions, as well as the plan, are taken
from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's paper in the 'Journal of the
Archæological Association,' xvi. p. 116, and may consequently be
thoroughly depended upon.]
[Footnote 167: Bateman, 'Vestiges,' p. 65.]
[Footnote 168: These dimensions are taken from Sir Gardner
Wilkinson's plan. The Batemans, with all their merits, are
singularly careless in quoting dimensions.]
[Footnote 169: _Ante_, p. 11.]
[Footnote 170: Douglas, 'Nenia Brittanica,' p. 168, pl. xxxv.]
[Footnote 171: If we knew its height we might guess its age. If
it was 65 feet high, its angle must be 30 degrees, and its age
probably the same as that of Silbury Hill. If 100 feet, and its
angle above 40 degrees, it must have been older.]
[Footnote 172: 'Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 82.]
[Footnote 173: 'Petrie's Life,' by Stokes, p. 234.]
[Footnote 174: The complete disappearance of the body of this
undoubted Saxon chief ought to make us cautious in ascribing remote
antiquity to many comparatively fresh bodies we find elsewhere.]
[Footnote 175: Bateman, 'Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 21.]
[Footnote 176: "In 1723 the workmen dug up the body of a great
king buried there in the centre, a very little below the surface.
The bones were extremely rotten, and, six weeks after, I came
luckily to rescue a great curiosity which they took out there--an
iron chain, as they called it. It was the bridle buried along
with the monarch. There were deer horns and an iron knife, with
a bone handle, too, all excessively rotten, taken up along with
it."--Stukeley's 'Stonehenge and Avebury,' pp. 41-12. The bridle is
figured, pl. xxxvi.]
[Footnote 177: Douglas, 'Nenia Brit.' p. 168.]
[Footnote 178: Nothing can exceed the effrontery with which
Stukeley inserted curved avenues between these circles, so as to
make the whole into a serpent form. Nothing of the kind exists,
nor existed in 1826, when Mr. Croker made, for Sir R. C. Hoare,
the survey from which the woodcut is copied, with Sir Gardner
Wilkinson's corrections.]
[Footnote 179: 'Archæologia,' xxv. p. 189.]
[Footnote 180: What is the meaning of the word "Maes"? It is
singular that the Maes How, in Orkney, should bear the same
relative position to the Standing Stones of Stennis, in Orkney,
that Maes Knoll does to the group of circles. I do not know of the
name occurring anywhere else. According to the dictionaries, it
merely means "plain" or "field." In Irish "Magh" pronounced "Moy;"
but that can hardly be the meaning here.]
[Footnote 181: 'Archæologia,' x. pl. xi. p. 106.]
[Footnote 182: It probably may have been a piece of iron pyrites,
and may have been used for striking a light.]
[Footnote 183: 'Archæologia Cambriensis,' third series, vol. xii.
p. 54. A fancy plan of the same circle appears in the same volume,
but is utterly untrustworthy. It is reproduced by Waring, 'Mon.'
&c. pl. xli.]
[Footnote 184: 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,' iii. p.
225.]
[Footnote 185: The Hon. W. C. Stanley enumerates by name
twenty-four in Anglesea.--'Archæologia Cambrensis,' fourth series,
vol. i. p. 58.]
[Footnote 186: Tacitus, 'Vita Agricolæ,' chap. v.]
[Footnote 187: 'Somerset Archæo. Soc. Proceedings,' viii. p. 51.]
[Footnote 188: 'Archæologia,' xix. p. 43 _et seq._]
[Footnote 189: 'Journal of the Ethnological Society,' January,
1871, p. 416.]
[Footnote 190: Vol. xi. p. 315 _et seq._]
[Footnote 191: 'Pro. Soc. Ant.,' second series, ii. 275. Thurnam,
'Archæologia,' xlii. 217.]
[Footnote 192: 'Archæologia,' xix. p. 43.]
[Footnote 193: 'Archæologia Cambrensis,' fourth series vol. i. p.
51 _et seq._]
[Footnote 194: For Rodmarton, see 'Proceedings Soc. Ant.' _l. s.
c._; for Cornish, see paper by M. Brash, 'Gent. Mag.,' 1864.]
[Footnote 195: 'Archæologia Cambrensis,' third series, xi. p. 284.]
[Footnote 196: The following particulars are taken from a paper by
Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in the first volume, fourth series, of
the 'Archæologia Cambrensis,' 1870. It is not only the last, but
the best description which I know, and, being from the pen of so
accurate an observer, I have relied on it exclusively.]
[Footnote 197: 'Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 87.]
[Footnote 198: Dare one suggest Gower?]
[Footnote 199: Is this the same word as "Cotty," as applied to
Kit's Cotty-house, in Kent? It looks very like it.--Coity?]
[Footnote 200: Herbert, 'Cyclops Christianus,' p. 35.]