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108 SOME NOTES ON ARBOR LOW. 
below its base was wedged a Roman tile! Mr. Ferguson, in an 
admirable chain of reasoning, contends that Carnac was a national 
monument to commemorate the battle wherein the Romans were 
overthrown, civca s.c. 400. Is not this tile irrefutable evidence 
that the Carnac stones are historic ? 
The great stone circles are a class of Megalithic remains peculiar 
to England, and are apparently the product of one people about 
the same time. The probability is great that they are military 
trophies of victory in connection with the burial of prominent 
leaders, and easily erected when large bodies of troops were 
present in the very sparsely inhabited districts where they are 
usually found. The probability is also great that their date is cvca 
A.D. 500, and that they commemorate a series of battles fought 
by the Britons against the Saxons, and which are attributed by 
Irennius to King Arthur. 
At any rate, so far as Arbor Low is concerned—and I have only 
been able to give a very few of the arguments in the most meagre 
skeleton form—I have been myself convinced, after the closest 
and most unprejudiced study, that its date is subsequent to the 
Roman occupation of Britain, and that it was erected as a trophy 
of victory on a spot where a commander fell, or where the crisis 
of a battle was decided. 
As to the Etymology of Arbor Low, the lowe is of course a 
barrow. Dr. Pegge connects the first half of the word with either 
arar, a hero, or with Ardila, a British chief, mentioned in 
Scholiast, or Juvenal’s Fourth Satire. Either of these support our 
theory, but the most probably correct of all the proffered deriva- 
tions is also in favour of its military character, viz.. arrhber, which 
is Celtic for a fort. This gives it the same origin as Cold 
Harbour—co/, hill, and avrfder, fort, that is the hill fort. 
Those who have not hitherto made any study of our rude stone 
monuments, and may be disappointed at the size of Arbor Low, 
will not quarrel with Dr. Pegge’s description of it as “a capital 
British monument,” when I mention that there are only five 
circles that are larger. 
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