137 



surround a small hill containing a cell or stone-built grotto :* there 

 are many in England, particularly in the south western district ; 

 in Scotland, and in Ireland they abound. Their ancient date in 

 Britain is proved by the circumstance that in several instances 

 they have been injured by the Roman roads which have been 

 carried across them, and to which they must therefore have been 

 prior. -f- None of those remaining in Ireland are equal in grandeur 

 to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, nor to the large circle in Lewis, one of 

 the Western Isles of Scotland, which is described as the most 

 striking monument of this kind in Great Britain, after Stone- 

 henge ;| nor to the great one which covers so large a space at Carnac 

 in Normandy.§ 



The circles generally stand on elevated ground, such as the side 

 of a moderate eminence, or encompassing an artificial hill. They 

 frequently surround a cairn, as was instanced at New Grange, 

 where the stones are placed at about one-third of the whole height 

 above the base. They often encircle a cromleac, as at Bally-na- 

 Schrehen,f county of Londonderry ; while many instances occur 

 of a pillar stone forming the centre, as at Moore Lodge, county of 

 Antrim,ll a tall pillar-stone is encircled by two concentric circles of 

 large stones : the space contained within the monument is remark- 

 able for returning, to a stamp of the fool upon the ground near 

 its centre, a long resounding sound. 



* Coxe's Travels. 



f Brewer's Beauties of Ireland, Introd Uxxvii. 



X Maculloch's Western Isles, I. p. 186. 



§ Stothard's Tour in Normandy, p. 252. 



f Survey of Londonderry, p. 496. 



II Parochial Surveys, I. p. 387. 



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