THE ANTIQUITIES
Innumerable relics on Dartmoor--Small in size--Great
destruction of them that has taken place--Lake-head Hill thus
devastated--Classification of the remains--1. The dolmen, an
ossuary--2. The kistvaen--Great numbers, all rifled--3. The stone
circle--possibly a crematorium--4. The stone row--Astonishing
numbers still existing--5. The menhir--In Christian times becomes
a cross--Story of S. Cainnech--Dartmoor crosses--Altar tombs--6.
Hut circles--All belong to one period--7. The tracklines--8. The
pounds--9. The cairns--10. The camps--11. Rude stone bridges,
comparatively modern.
As already intimated, the antiquities found on Dartmoor belong almost
exclusively to the Prehistoric Period. The few exceptions are the
crosses and the blowing-houses. These shall be spoken of in other
chapters. In this we will confine ourselves to a general review of
the relics left to show how that the moor was occupied by a large
population in the early Bronze Period.
Now, although these relics are very numerous, they are none of them
megalithic, that is to say, very huge. And this for two reasons. In
the first place it is uncertain whether the people occupying the moor
ever did erect any huge stones, like the Stonehenge monsters, or the
enormous dolmens of Brittany, and above all of the sandstone districts
of the Loire.
In the second place, in the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth
centuries the great bulk of the churches round Dartmoor were rebuilt,
and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the manor houses,
bartons, and farms were also reconstructed, and then for the first time
since the sixth century was granite employed in ecclesiastical and
domestic architecture. The builders delighted in selecting huge stones.
They employed monoliths for their pillars; each door and window had
a single stone on each side as a jamb, and a single stone as a base;
two stones above were used for the arch of every door and window. The
amount of granite of a large size carried away from the moor is really
prodigious, and no large monument was likely to have been spared.
Then came the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when granite was
in demand for gateposts, and every standing stone serviceable was
ruthlessly carried away. Almost every circle of upright stones has lost
some of its finest blocks in this way, and all that is left to show
where they were is the hole cut in the "calm" from which they were
extracted, and the _spalls_ or chips made by the quarrymen as they
knocked the block into shape. At Sherberton was a fine circle: the
three largest stones have been employed a few yards off as gateposts,
and two others have been cast down.
Next came the newtake-wall builders. The ravage they have wrought
is incalculable. In 1848 S. Rowe published his _Perambulation of
Dartmoor_, and gave an illustration of double stone rows that ran
from the Longstone, near Caistor Rock, for half a mile to the Teign.
In 1851 I planned them. A few years ago a farmer built a newtake wall,
and used the rows as his quarry; nothing now is left of them but a few
insignificant stones he did not consider worth his while to remove. The
stones are in the wall, and can be recognised, and the socket-holes can
all be traced, with a spade.
There was a row or set of rows of stones on a common near Leusden. In
1898 the road-menders destroyed it and employed the stones for the
repair of the Ashburton highway.
Now it is quite possible that the old rude stone monument builders
did not erect really mighty structures on Dartmoor, but it is still
more likely that all such as were of any size have been carried
away. Lake-head Hill, near Post Bridge, must at one time have been a
veritable necropolis. The farmer at Bellever was given his holding on a
rent that was to be mainly paid by inclosing new-takes, and repairing
old walls. For six years he was employed in clearing Lake-head Hill of
all the stones he could find. Thousands of loads were removed, and it
is only by a lucky chance that one or two kistvaens have escaped. Three
pounds with their huts, probably scores of kistvaens, and certainly
several stone rows, have been obliterated by this man. In 1851 I drew
the finest moor kistvaen at Merrivale Bridge. The covering stone
measured 9 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 9 inches. In 1891 a man at Merrivale
Bridge wanting a gatepost, cut one out of the capstone and left only
two scraps _in situ_.
Considering the ruthless manner in which these monuments of a hoar
antiquity have been carried away or destroyed, it is a marvel that any
remain; but then, this devastation explains why those allowed to remain
are such only as were considered too insignificant to offer inducement
to the plunderer. The late Mr. Bennett, of Archerton, when inclosing
and planting, utilised a fine pound for a clump of beech. The old
inclosing ring was used up to make a wall for the protection of the
young trees, and these latter, in growing, threw all the huts that had
not been despoiled out of shape and into inextricable confusion.
Let us now take in their order such monuments as remain, and I will say
a few words about each kind.
1. Of the characteristic _dolmen_, which we in England perhaps
improperly call _cromlech_, we have but a single good example, that
at Drewsteignton. The dolmen was the family mausoleum. It is composed
of several large slabs set upright in box-form, and covered with one
or more large stones, flat on the under side. These were probably all
originally covered with earth, but in course of time the earth has been
washed or trodden away. In some cases the dolmen becomes the _allée
couverte_, a long chamber or hall constructed of uprights and coverers.
The most magnificent example is that at Saumur, on the Loire, which is
over 62 feet long and 13 feet wide, and high enough for a tall man to
walk about in it with ease.
In these the dead were interred, not burnt, and their bones seem to
have been taken out on anniversaries, scraped, and then replaced; and
remoter ancestors were huddled into the background to make room for
newcomers.
In time the fashion for carnal interment gave way to one for cremation.
Now of the large dolmen or cromlech we have only the fine Drewsteignton
example, and that deserves a visit. Formerly it was but one of a number
of monuments, lines and circles of upright stones. All these have been
destroyed in this century.
But although this is the sole remaining example, we know by place names
that anciently there were many more. These monuments have everywhere
a local designation. In France they are _pierres levées_ or _cabannes
des fées_. In Devon they were shelf-stones, and wherever we meet
with a farm called Shilston, there we may confidently assert that a
dolmen formerly existed. With a little search the portions of it may
occasionally be recognised in pigsties, or worked into the structure of
the house.
The parish of Bradstone derives its name from the broad coverer of
a cromlech, which is now employed as a stile. The supporters have
disappeared, used probably for the church. There is a shilstone in
Bridestowe, and another in Modbury. In dolmens it is usual to have a
hole in the end stone, and even sometimes closed with a stone plug,
or else a small stone is employed that could easily be removed, so
as to enable those who desired it to enter and put therein food for
the consumption of the dead, or to remove the remains for the annual
scraping, or again for the introduction of a fresh tenant.
[Illustration: THE PEDIGREE OF A TOMB]
2. When carnal interment gave way to incineration, at once the need for
large mausoleums ceased, and mourners saved themselves the labour of
erecting huge cromlechs, and contented themselves instead with the more
modest _kistvaen_, or stone chest. This is constructed in precisely the
same manner as the dolmen, but is much smaller. A beautiful diminutive
example, from Peter Tavy Common, has been transported to the Plymouth
Municipal Museum. It measures 21 inches long, 13 inches wide, and 14
inches deep. On Dartmoor there are many hundreds of these kistvaens, of
various sizes, but most have been rifled by treasure-seekers; indeed,
all but such as were covered with earth and so escaped observation have
been plundered.
The kistvaens were always buried under cairns, and almost invariably a
circle of stones surrounded the cairn, marking its bounds.
The finest kistvaens are--one at Merrivale Bridge, one adjoining a
pound near Post Bridge, one on Lake-head Hill, one near Drizzlecombe,
one on Hound Tor, and two on the slope of Bellever. One is near the
Powder Mills. There are several, also, about the Plym.
3. The _stone circle_ is called by the French a cromlech. The name
means curved stone. The circle, of which Stonehenge is the noblest
known example in Europe, consists of a number of stones set up at
intervals in a ring. The purport is purely conjectural. Undoubtedly
interments have been made within them; but none, so far, have been
found in those on Dartmoor. In the great circle on Penmaen-mawr there
were burials at the foot of several of the monoliths, and, indeed, one
of these served as the back-stone of a kistvaen.
Among semi-barbarous tribes it is customary that the tribe should have
its place of assembly and consultation, and this is marked round by
either stones or posts set up in the ground. Among some of the great
clan circles, if one of the constituent tribes fails to send its
representative, the stone set up where he would sit is thrown down.
The areas within the circles on Dartmoor, so far as they have been
examined, show that great fires have been lighted in them; the floors
are thickly bedded in charcoal. It may be that they were the crematoria
of the tribe, and certainly numerous cairns and kistvaens are to be
found around them; or it may be that great fires were lighted in them
when the tribe met for its parliament, or its games and war-dances.
It has been noticed that usually these circles of upright stones are
placed on the neck of land between two rivers.
Some have speculated that they were intended for astronomical
observation, and for determining the solstices; but such fancies may be
dismissed till we have evidence of their being erected and employed for
such a purpose by some existing savage race.
The Samoyeds were wont to make circles of stones of rude blocks set
up, and these are still to be seen in the districts they inhabit; and
although these people are nominally Christians, yet they are secretly
addicted to their old paganism. Mr. Jackson, in his _Great Frozen Land_
(London, 1895), says:--
"The rings of stones which I frequently met with in Waigatz are the
sites of their midnight services, and are made, of course, by the
Samoyeds. They are called yon-pa-ha-pai. It is possible that within
these circles the human sacrifices with which Samoyeds used to
propitiate Chaddi were offered up; and, although these are things
of the past now, it is only a few years ago that a Samoyed, living
in Novaia Zemlia, sacrificed a young girl" (p. 89).
A tradition or fancy relative to more than one of these circles is that
the stones represent maidens who insisted on dancing on a Sunday, and
were, for their profanity, turned into stone when the church bells rang
for divine service. It is further said that on May Day or Midsummer Day
they dance in a ring.
There are several of these circles on the moor. The finest are those
of Scaur Hill, near Chagford, of the Grey Wethers--two side by side,
but most of the stones of one are fallen--the circle on Langstone
Moor above Peter Tavy, Trowlesworthy, Sherberton, and Fernworthy. The
diameters vary from thirty-six feet to three hundred and sixty. One
that must have been very fine was near Huccaby, but most of the stones
constituting it have been removed for the construction of a wall hard
by.
The number of stones employed varies according to the area inclosed.
4. The _stone row_ is almost invariably associated with cairns and
kistvaens, and clearly had some relation to funeral rites. The stone
settings are often single, sometimes double, or are as many as eight.
They do not always run parallel; they start from a cairn, and end with
a blocking-stone set across the line. In Scotland they are confined to
Caithness. The finest known are at Carnac, in Brittany. It is probable
that just as a Bedouin now erects a stone near a fakir's tomb as a
token of respect, so each of these rude blocks was set up by a member
of a tribe, or by a household, in honour of the chief buried in the
cairn at the head of the row.
It is remarkable how greatly the set stones vary in size. Some are
quite insignificant, and could be planted by a boy, while others
require the united efforts of three, four, or even many men, with
modern appliances of three legs and block, to lift and place them
in position. This seems to show that the rows are not the result of
concerted design, but of individual execution as the ability of the
man or family permitted to set up a stone large or small. Usually the
largest stones are planted near the cairn, and they dwindle to the
blocking-stone, which is of respectable size.
[Illustration: STONE-ROWS, DRIZZLECOMBE]
There is no district known so rich in stone rows as Dartmoor. As many
as fifty have been observed. The finest are those of Drizzlecombe,
where there are three double rows, not parallel; Down Tor, a single
line; Merrivale Bridge, two parallel double rows, but the stones
constituting them small; Stall Moor, a single line that looks like
a procession of cricketers in flannels stalking over the moor;
Challacombe; at Glazebrook are thirteen rows; also Staldon Moor.
Some of these rows which are small are nevertheless instructive. On
the north slope of Cosdon is a cairn that originally contained three
kistvaens, one of which is perfect, one exists in part, and evidence of
the existence of the third was found on exploration. From this cairn
start three rows of stones, one for each kistvaen. A remarkably perfect
set of stone rows is on Watern Hill, behind the Warren Inn, on the road
from Post Bridge to Moreton. It is actually visible from the road, but
as the stones are small it does not attract attention. It starts from a
cairn and a tall upright stone set at right angles to the rows, which
are brought to a termination by blocking-stones. Another perfect row
is at Assacombe, starting from a cairn with two or three big upright
stones, and running down a rather steep hill to a blocking-stone which
remains intact.
The longest of all the rows is that on Staldon, which springs from a
circle of 59 feet 9 inches in diameter, inclosing the remains of a
cairn, runs with a single line for two miles and a quarter, and crosses
the Erme river. Had a straight line been followed, an obstruction in
the precipitous bank of the river would have been encountered, to
avoid which the builders of this great monument took a sweep eastward,
where the bank was more sloping. In the Cosdon lines of stones already
referred to, the rows waver so as to avoid a platform of rock in which
the constructors were unable to plant their stones.
At Drizzlecombe there is a cairn with which is connected a row 260
feet long, with an upright stone 17 feet 9 inches high at the end of
the row.
All sorts of random guesses have been made about these rows. Some have
made them out to be sacred _cursi_, where races were run, but then some
lines are single, some are eightfold. Others have supposed that these
were the supporting stones to cattle sheds, but these stones are often
not more than 2 feet 6 inches high, and the rows often run for over 600
feet.
We must, as already said, look to present usage for their
interpretation, and that afforded by the practice of the Khassias of
the Brahmapootra, and by the Bedouin, seems the simplest--stones set up
as memorials or tributes of respect to the dead man who is buried at
the head of the row.
There would seem to have been no feeling attached to the direction in
which these lines run.
One singular feature is that in several cases a second row starts off
from a small cairn in or close to the main row, and runs away in quite
a different direction.[8]
5. The _menhir_, or tall stone, is a rude, unwrought obelisk. In some
cases it is nothing other than the starting or the blocking stone of a
row which has been destroyed. This is the case with that at Merrivale
Bridge. But such is not always the case. There were no rows in
connection with the menhirs on Devil Tor and the Whitmoor Stone.
That the upright block is a memorial to the dead can hardly be
doubted; it was continued to be erected, with an inscription on it,
in Romano-British times, and its modern representative is in every
churchyard.
The menhirs, locally termed longstones, or langstones, must at one
time have been numerous. There was a langstone near Sourton, another
by Tavistock, one at Sheeps Tor, others by Modbury; these stones have
disappeared and have left but their names to tell where they once
stood. One on Peter Tavy Common gave its title to the moor which the
Ordnance surveyors have rendered Launceston Moor. The stone is at one
end of a row, and served as a waymark over the down. It had fallen, but
is re-erected.
But there are still a good many remaining. The tallest is one already
referred to at Drizzlecombe. Bairdown Man (_maen_ = a stone) is by
Devil Tor in a singularly desolate spot. We have none comparable to the
Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge in Yorkshire--but the best have been
carried away to serve as monolithic church pillars.
The Chinese hold that the spirits of the dead inhabit the memorials
set up in their honour; and the carved monoliths in Abyssinia, erected
by the race when it passed from Arabia to Africa, have carved in their
faces little doors, for the ingress and egress of the spirits. Holed
menhirs are found in many places. I know one in France, La Pierre
Fiche, near Pouancé (Maine-et-Loire), where such a little door or
window, intended for the popping out and in of the spirit, has been
utilised to hold an image of the Virgin, and has been barred to
prevent the statue making off or being made off with.
In Irish post-Christian records there is frequent allusion to the early
saints carrying about their _lechs_ (flat stones) with them, to be
set up over them when dead, and this explains the fantastic stories
afterwards told of saints as of having crossed from Ireland to Wales,
or Cornwall, or Brittany floating on stones. In the original record
it was related that the saint came over with his _lech_, and a later
redactor of the story converted this into coming _on_ it, as a raft.
The _lech_ was cut into a cross when the Celts became Christians, or
crosses were inscribed on them. Some of the most fantastic of the
saints, when travelling over the country, would not sit down to dinner
till they had visited and prayed at all the crosses set up over tombs
anywhere near.
A pretty story is told of S. Cainnech. Bishop Aed's sister had been
carried off by Colman MacDermot, King of the Hy Niall, and he refused
to surrender her. Aed went to Cainnech with his grievance, and Cainnech
at once resolved on intervention. Colman had retired to an island in
the Ross Lake, or Marsh, and shrewdly suspecting that the saint would
administer a lecture, he removed the boats to the island fort or
crannoge. However, Cainnech was not to be deterred, and managed to wade
or swim across. Subdued by his pertinacity, the king surrendered the
girl.
[Illustration: MENHIR, CROSS AND HEADSTONE]
Many years after, one winter day, Cainnech was traversing a moor,
when he noticed a rude stone cross, on the head and arms of which the
snow lay in a crust. He halted to inquire whose cross that was, and
learned that it had been erected on the spot where King Colman had
been assassinated some years previously. Cainnech at once went to the
_lech_, leaned his brow against it, and as he recalled the interviews
he had had with the king, and thought on his good as well as his bad
qualities, his outbursts of violence, and his accesses of compunction,
the old man's tears began to flow, and his disciples noticed the snow
melting and dripping from the arms of the cross, thawed by the tears of
the venerable abbot.
[Illustration: CROSS, WHITCHURCH DOWN.]
Now see how many rugged crosses there are on Dartmoor! Some certainly
are waymarks, others as surely indicate graves. Would that we knew the
tales connected with them!
Then go into any churchyard and observe the tombstones. We are children
of the men who set up menhirs, and we do the same thing to this day,
though the stones we erect are mean and small compared with the great
standing monoliths they set up to their dead.
In many of the churches around the moor are monuments that derive from
the cromlech and kistvaens as certainly as does the modern tombstone
from the menhir. The graveyard of Sourton was rich in these great slabs
standing on four supporters. A late rector who "restored" Sourton
church, and supposed he did God service by so doing, threw all these
down and employed the slabs as pavement to the church paths; he placed
the supporters outside in the village for anyone to carry off as he
listed.
The finest menhirs on Dartmoor are--one at Drizzlecombe, the Langstone
near Caistor Rock, the Whitmoor Stone, the Bairdown Man, the Langstone
at Merrivale, and that on Langstone Moor, Peter Tavy. There must have
been numbers more, for their former presence is testified to by many
place names. They have been carried off, and it is matter of wonder
that any remain.
6. _Hut circles._ The cairn and kistvaen were the places of burial of
the dead, but the hut circles were the habitations of the living. So
many of them have been dug out during the last six years, that we may
safely draw conclusions as to the period to which they belong. They
were occupied by the Neolithic population that at one time thickly
covered Dartmoor.
[Illustration]
In the _Archæologia_ of 1875 is an account of the exploration
of a set of hut circles near Bintley, Northumberland, and this
revealed successive occupation by Celts (?) of the Bronze Age; then
Romano-British, who left fragments of Samian ware and a bronze
horse-buckle; lastly by Saxons, who left behind an iron sword.
Not a trace of continuous occupation has been found in any circle
explored on Dartmoor. All belong to the early Bronze Period, when flint
was the principal material of which tools and weapons were fabricated.
Some account of these huts has been already given. They usually have a
raised platform on the side that is towards the hill, and the circle
bulges at this point to give additional space on this platform. It
was probably used as a bed by night, and was sat upon by day. In one
hut at Grimspound the platform was divided into two compartments. In
some instances, small upright stones planted in the floor show that
the platform was made of logs and brushwood, held in place by these
projections. The stone platforms on the other hand were paved.
The doorways into the huts are composed of single upright stones as
jambs, with a threshold and a lintel, this latter always fallen, and
often found wedged between the uprights. The floor within is paved
near the door, but there only; the rest consists of hard beaten soil.
Occasionally a shelter wall protects the entrance from the prevailing
wind. The huts must have been entered on all-fours; the doorways are
never higher than three feet six inches, usually less. The huts have
hearthstones much burnt or broken, but occasionally hollows lined with
stones full of ashes. Cooking-holes are sunk in the floor near the
hearths, and piles of cooking stones are found at hand much cracked
by fire. Sometimes a flat stone is found bedded in the soil near the
centre to support a pole that sustained the roof. In some instances a
hole has been discovered sunk in the floor near the middle, with the
charred rem ains of the bottom end of the post in it.
[Illustration: HUT CIRCLE, GRIMSPOUND.]
In the cooking-holes have been found cooking-pots made by hand of
the coarsest clay, usually round at the bottom; where not round,
with transverse ridges of thick clay forming a cross to strengthen
the bottom. These pots were too fragile to stand the action of fire
on a hearth, and served by having meat and red-hot stones placed in
them. Consequently they do not show signs of exposure to strong fire
externally, and are black with animal matter within, which may be
extracted by means of a blowpipe.
One found at Legis Tor had been cracked and was mended with china-clay.
It had a cooking-stone in it. There would seem to have been in use as
well shallower vessels that were covered with round slate discs. None
of these have been recovered whole. Possibly they were employed to hold
curd or butter.
Occasionally round stones, flat on one side and convex on the other,
have been disinterred in the huts. They served to protect the apex
of the roof, where the poles were drawn together, from the action of
the rain, which would rot them, as well as to prevent the rain from
entering at this point. An example of a stone of the same character
employed for this very purpose may be seen in actual use on a thatched
circular pounding-house on Berry Down, near Throwleigh.
Not a single quern has been found in a hut, and this indicates that
the occupants neither grew nor ground corn extensively.[9] They lived
mainly on milk and meat. Numerous rubber-stones have been unearthed
that served for smoothing the seams of skin clothing sewn together;
and plenty of flint scrapers that turn up show that the skins employed
for garments were previously carefully scraped and cleaned. Esquimaux
women chew the leather to get it flexible, and then rub it with similar
smoothers of stone.
7. _Tracklines_ in abundance are everywhere found, made of stones, but
without close investigation it is not possible to determine to what
period they belong.
8. Paved roads exist; the main road across the moor has been traced
from Wray Barton in Moreton Hampstead, by Berry Pound to Merripit, by
Post Bridge, and thence on to Mis Tor. From somewhere near the Powder
Mills a branch struck off in the direction of Princetown, aiming
probably for Tamerton, but it has been obliterated by the prison
inclosures. A raised paved road leaves the camp above Okehampton
Station and takes a direction due south, but cannot be traced far. That
these ways were not Roman is tolerably certain. The ancient Britons
drove chariots with wheels, and where wheeled conveyances were in use,
there roads are postulated.
9. The _cairns_ that are abundant, and were of considerable size, have
nearly all been ransacked by treasure-seekers. Only such as were too
small to attract attention have escaped. They are mounds of earth and
stone over a pit sunk in the original soil, or over a kistvaen. Usually
they contain a handful of ashes only; they rarely yield more. One,
however, on Hamildon surrendered a bronze knife with amber handle and
rivets of gold. Others have given up small knives of bronze, and urns
of the characteristic shape and ornamentation of the Bronze Age. In
one, on Fernworthy Common, was found a thin blade of copper, along with
a flint knife, a large button of horn, and a well-ornamented urn.
A cairn surrounded by a circle of stones, and containing a kistvaen,
near Princetown, is called "The Crock of Gold," a name that may be due
to a vessel of the precious metal having been found in it.
One thing is obvious, the enormous labour of exploring the larger
cairns would not have been undertaken unless previous ransackings had
yielded valuable results. Some of the cairns must have been huge, and
have taken many men several days in clearing out their interiors. About
these cairns I shall say a good deal in a chapter apart.
10. Of _camps_ there are two kinds, those constructed of stone and
those of earth. I reserve what I have to say about these to a separate
chapter.
11. The old stone _bridges_, composed of rude slabs cast across an
opening to a pier, also rudely constructed, have been attributed to
"the Druids," of course. There is nothing to indicate for these a
great antiquity. They belong to the period of pack-horses, and were
doubtless often repaired. Those at Dartmeet, and Post Bridge, and Two
Bridges--this last has disappeared--were in the line of the pack-horse
track, and _not_ in that of the paved way across the moor.
The rude bridge at Okery in like manner is in the pack-horse line of
way, which is indicated between Princetown and Merrivale Bridge by rude
posts of granite set up at intervals.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Merrivale Bridge, Har Tor, and Longstone, near Caistor Rock.
[9] Querns have been found, but none in prehistoric habitations.