THE FREAKS
Lucubrations of antiquaries in past times--How their imagination
led them astray--Rock idols--Logan stones--Who originated
the idea that they were oracular--Rock basins--Tolmens--The
difference between the modern system of archæological research
and that which it has supplanted.
It would be amusing were it not melancholy to read the lucubrations of
antiquaries of the early part of the nineteenth century on the relics
of the past found in such abundance on the moor. Their imagination
played a large part in their researches, and references to curious
customs in the Bible or in classic writings were drawn in to explain
these relics. The antiquaries lacked the faculty of observing
accurately, and instead of labouring to accumulate facts, and recording
them with precision, employed them as pegs on which to hang their
theories, and they whittled at what they did observe, so as to fit what
they saw to elucidate these theories.
In rambling over the moor they discovered rock idols, logan stones,
rock basins, and tolmens, and entered into long dissertations on their
employment for worship, oracles, lustrations, and ordeals.
[Illustration: BOWERMAN'S NOSE]
There are, indeed, to be seen curious piles of rock, but none of
these are artificial, and there is not a particle of evidence that
any of them received idolatrous worship. Bowerman's Nose is the most
remarkable, perhaps. Carrington, the poet of Dartmoor, thus describes
it:--
"On the very edge
Of the vast moorland, startling every eye,
A shape enormous rises! High it towers
Above the hill's bold brow, and seen from far,
Assumes the human form; a granite god,--
To whom, in days long flown, the suppliant knee
In trembling homage bow'd."
It stands up, a core of hard granite, forty feet high, in five layers
above a "clitter," the softer masses that have fallen off from it. Had
it ever been venerated as an idol, the worshippers would assuredly
have done something towards clearing this clitter away, so as to give
themselves a means of easy access to their idol, and some turf on which
to kneel in adoration.
Another remarkable pile is Vixen Tor, presenting from one point a
resemblance to the Sphinx. Not a single relic of early man is in its
immediate neighbourhood. We can hardly doubt that prehistoric man was
not as big a fool as we suppose him, and that he was quite able to see
that Bowerman's Nose and Vixen Tor were natural objects as truly as the
tors on the hilltops.
The logan stones on the moor are numerous, and these, also, are natural
formations. The granite weathers irregularly; a hard bed alternates
with one that is soft, and the wind and rain eat into the more
crumbling layer and gnaw it away, till the harder superincumbent mass
rests on one or two points. Either it topples over and becomes one
more block in a clitter, or it remains balanced, and, if fairly evenly
balanced, can be made to rock like a cradle.
Here is a specimen of tall twaddle from the hand of Mrs. Bray or the
Rev. E. Atkyns Bray, her husband:--
"There must have been a more than ordinary feeling of awe inspired
in the mind of the criminal by ascending heights covered with
a multitude, to whose gaze he was exposed, as he drew nigh and
looked upon these massive rocks, the seat of divine authority and
judgment. How imposing must have been the sight of the priesthood
and their numerous trains, surrounded by all the outward pomps
and insignia of their office; as he listened to the solemn hymns
of the vates, preparatory to the ceremonial of justice; or as he
stepped within the sacred inclosure, there to receive condemnation
or acquittal, to be referred to the ordeal of the logan, or the
tolmen, according to the will of the presiding priest! As he
slowly advanced and thought upon these things, often must he have
shuddered and trembled to meet the Druid's eye, when he stood by
'the stone of his power.'"
All this rubbish is based on supposition. There is not a particle of
evidence to support it. Toland was the first to start the theory that
logan stones were used for ordeal purposes or as oracles. He says:
"The Druids made the people believe that they alone could move these
stones, and by a miracle only, by which pretended power they condemned
or acquitted the accused, and often brought criminals to confess
what could in no other way be extorted from them." Here is a positive
statement. Toland died in 1722. Whence did Toland derive this? From his
imagination only. Then Rowe quotes him as his authority for attributing
to the logan stones this function of delivering oracular judgments.
Appeal was wont to be made to a line in Ossian as a support for the
theory, but since Ossian has been proved to be a fraud antiquaries are
chary of referring to him.
[Illustration: LOGAN ROCK. THE RUGGLESTONE, WIDDECOMBE.]
There are some really fine logan rocks on Dartmoor. Perhaps the largest
is one above the West Okement, which I remember seeing many years ago,
when a boy, rolling in a strong wind like a boat at sea. That on Rippon
Tor measures 16½ feet in length, and is about 4½ feet in thickness and
nearly the same in breadth. It still logs, but not so well as formerly,
owing to mischievous interference with it. There is a large one in
the Teign, above Fingle Bridge, that can also be made to roll with the
application of a little strength.
The Rugglestone, near Widdecombe-in-the-Moor, measures 22 feet by 14
feet in one part, and 19 feet by 17 feet in another, and is 5 feet 6
inches in mean thickness. Its computed weight is 110 tons, whereas the
celebrated logan in Cornwall weighs 90 tons. This stone is poised upon
two points.
Roos Tor, which the Ordnance surveyors playfully render Rolls Tor,
possessed two logan stones, but quarrymen have destroyed one, together
with the fine mass of rock on which it stood. Near it lay a huge
menhir, never removed till these depredators broke it up. I give an
illustration of the head of the tor with its two logans, taken in
1852; one alone remains. On Black Tor, near the road from Princetown
to Plymouth, is a small logan, with a rock basin on the top, and
with a projection like a handle. It can be made to oscillate without
difficulty. A small logan is near the stone rows on Challacombe in the
miners' workings. Its existence is purely accidental. Another is near a
collection of hut circles on the slope of Combeshead Tor.
The rock basins are numerous; they are hollow pans formed on the
surface of granite slabs by the action of wind and water, assisted by
particles of grit set in rotation by the wind. "That this rude and
primitive species of basin formed part of the apparatus of Druidism
there can be little doubt," says Mr. Rowe, "but the specific purpose
for which they were designed is not clear." Fosbroke unhesitatingly
pronounces rock basins to be "cavities _cut_ in the surface of a rock,
supposed for reservoirs, to preserve the rain or dew in its original
purity, for the religious uses of the Druids."
[Illustration: ROOS TOR, WITH ITS LOGANS, PREVIOUS TO DESTRUCTION.]
All this assertion must be put aside. The bowls are excavated by
natural agencies, and there is not a scrap of evidence to show that
they were put to superstitious or any other use. The largest is on
Caistor Rock, and this has been railed round, as sheep floundered in
and got drowned, or could not get out again. Mis Tor has a fine basin,
called "The Devil's Frying-pan."
These basins may be seen in all stages of growth on the tops of the
tors.
The tolmen is either a holed stone or a rock supported in such a manner
as to preserve it from falling, and supposed to have been used as an
apparatus of ordeal, by requiring those accused of a crime to creep
through the orifice.
Holed stones have unquestionably been employed for the purpose of
taking oaths and sealing compacts, the hands being passed through
an opening and clasped. And certainly S. Wilfrid's needle, in the
crypt under Ripon Minster, was made use of as a test to try whether a
maiden accused of incontinency was guilty or not. There is, however,
no well-defined tolmen on Dartmoor that can be pronounced to be
artificial. A holed stone in the Teign was pierced by the action of the
water, and a suspended rock at an incline on Staple Tor, called by Mrs.
Bray and Mr. Rowe a tolmen, is a natural production also. It is, of
course, possible that stones thus poised may have been employed for the
purpose, but we have no evidence that those on Dartmoor were so used.
Of rocks supported at one end by a small stone there are plenty. There
is a good one on Yar Tor, above Dartmeet.
The old school of antiquaries started with a theory, and then sought
for illustrations to fit into their theories, and took facts and
distorted them to serve their purpose, or saw proofs where no proofs
existed. The new school accumulates statistics and piles up facts, and
then only endeavours to work out a plausible theory to account for the
facts laboriously collected and registered. It never starts with a
theory, but applies practices in savage life still in use to explain
the customs of prehistoric men, who lived on the same cultural level as
the savages of the present day.
One word of caution must be given relative to the Druids, who are
credited with so much. It is true that there were Druids in Britain
and in Ireland, but they were the schamans, or medicine-men, of the
earlier Ivernian race, who maintained their repute among the conquering
Celts, and their representatives at the present day are the white
witches who practise on the credulity of our villagers.