65 

 ANTIQUARIAN INVESTIGATIONS ON DARTMOOR. 



Continued from page 27. 



Those who wish to derogate from the antiquity of these monu- 

 ments, have pronounced them to be mere bound-stones of com- 

 paratively modern date, to mark the limits of such divisions as 

 hundreds, parishes, manors, or commons. A slight inspection 

 will, however, satisfy an observer that this conclusion is ill-founded ; 

 for although some of the maens may have been thus appropriated, 

 as at Gidleigh, a marked distinction will be perceived, when a 

 known modern bound-stone is compared with one of those vene- 

 rable obelisks. 



It will be remarked that the antiquities hitherto mentioned, 

 have, more or less, decidedly a sacred or religious destination. 



We now proceed to enumerate those which are of a civil or 

 military description ; viz. the Barrow or Cairn the Kistvaen, the 

 Beacon, Huts, Pounds or Inclosures, and Trackways. 



The Barrow and Cairn are too well known to require any more 

 than a passing notice, as the tombs, or sepulchral monuments of 

 the ancient inhabitants of this island. Like the maen, or rock- 

 pillar, they are among the most ready and obvious means, at the 

 command of a simple and uncivilized people, to perpetuate the 

 memory of any solemn or remarkable transaction. Where stones 

 are not plentiful, and to be made easily available, the harrow, or 

 mound of earth has been resorted to; but those on Dartmoor are 

 chiefly cairns in the more limited sense, and being very commonly 

 placed on the summits of the highest hills, became the chosen site 

 for beacons — from which some of the loftiest Devonshire moun- 

 tains have acquired their appellations, as Pen beacon, West and 

 East beacon, and Cawson beacon. 



Cawson is the highest land in Devonshire, its summit being 

 more than one thousand seven hundred feet above the sea-level. 

 On this spot is a cairn ninety-one yards in circuit, which has been 

 opened in two places. No point could be chosen for the site of 

 a beacon, to alarm a wide extent of country, more advantageous 

 than this, which commands the surrounding districts, as far as 

 the shores of the English and British Channels. The great cairn 

 at Three-barrow tor, which is entirely composed of small stones, 

 is one hundred and twenty yards in circuit. 



Sometimes the cairn has a kistvaen or small cromlech on its 

 summit, like Mo*fra cromlech, Cornwall. The kistvaen, which 

 may be described as a rudely formed sarcophagus, is sometimes 

 VOL. IV. — 1834. I 



