26 ANTIQUARIAN INVESTIGATIONS ON DARTMOOR. 



parently remains in its original position. At Kam Boscawen, 

 near Penzance, is a similar monument (figured in Borlase's Anti- 

 quities,) where the quoit is partially supported by the natural 

 rock, as in the present instance. 



In the ancient ruined village, at Merivale bridge, is a prostrate 

 cromlech. The quoit, ten feet six, by five feet four inches, has 

 fallen firom its three supporters, and remains in an angle of 45 * . 

 Natural circumstances would not satisfactorily account for the 

 present position of the stones ; the ground being nearly flat the 

 quoit could not have slipped from a higher spot into its present 

 site — nor are there, as on tors, numerous blocks of a similar des- 

 cription promiscuously scattered around ; this is sufficiently 

 distinct in appearance to attract immediate attention. In the 

 same village is another conformation of four stones, appearing 

 like three supporters and a quoit, less decidedly artificial, though 

 bearing great resemblance to a prostrate cromlech, wherein the 

 quoit is of much larger dimensions, being no less than sixteen 

 feet in length, and nine feet eight inches in breadth. 



Below Furtor, near the Tavy head, is another fallen cromlech, 

 about a furlong from the eastern bank. Although surrounded by 

 scattered masses of granite, its distinction is sufficiently marked. 

 The quoit thirteen feet by five, remarkably regular in shape, has 

 fallen with its longest side to the ground, into which it has partly 

 imbedded itself; the base being overgrown with luxuriant heather. 

 The supporting slabs are crippled under the quoit, and retain it 

 in a position less inclined than the former. These slabs are three, 

 and three only — for there are no similar masses so near, as to ren- 

 der the monument of a doubtful character ; nor are there any 

 appearances which would induce the observer to refer it to natural 

 circumstances. Its site is one of the most secluded spots on the 

 moor, apart from any other relic of Druidical antiquity. 



The Logan stone and Rock idol, though belonging to the 

 class of Druidical antiquities, can boast of so little, if any, artifi- 

 cial preparation, that, in an enumeration of the present kind, they 

 will not long detain our attention. The celebrated specimen of 

 the first of these monuments, the Drewsteignton logan stone, 

 might be repeatedly passed, without exciting more curiosity or 

 attention than any other fine granite mass in the bed of a river. 

 Advantage was doubtless taken by the Druids, of the natural 

 circumstances on which this rock was found, and its motion 

 might have been rendered subservient to the purposes of super- 

 stition. On the application of considerable strength at its east 



