1 2 Transactions. 



Kelton, at a certain point in the march- dike fencing the moor 

 from the arable ground on Hartburn, there is a stone wliich forms 

 the first step of what is known as the " Chapman's (or Pack- 

 man's) Stile." The stoiy runs that a certain packman, after 

 committing a murder near this spot, fled, and, in scrambling over 

 the dyke, left the impression of his blood-stained foot here on 

 this stone. The origin of so particularly funny a myth seems to 

 lie in the fact that the shape and size of this weathered hole are 

 exactly those of a good-sized foot or boot — one would be inclined 

 to say of a very much-down-at-heel boot, since the upper portion 

 of the sole is square-edged, while the heelmark is a nearly 

 circular and very deep hollow — the whole purely natural. 

 I had been led to believe, and that by no less good observers than 

 Mr Hornel and the late Mr Hamilton of Ardendee that this 

 was a genuine Cup Mark connected with genuine carved grooves 

 running ofl' at either side and crossed at the end — the toes of the 

 boot — by another groove. I am very certain, however, that had 

 this stone not come under notice during our early petroglyphic 

 mania, no such interpretation would have been placed upon it. 

 Probably the knowledge of the legend led our friends to tit the 

 boot to the story, or the facts to the boot. The general con- 

 clusions to be drawn from the above remarks may thus be 

 summarised, (a) Have no regard for cup hollows when found 

 alone unaccompanied by rings, unless they occur in a symmetric 

 grouping. (6) Always doubt cup hollows in proportion to their 

 depth ; genuine cups are apt to be very shallow when fouml on 

 exposed rocks, and if on rocks from which turf has been removed, 

 their hollows usually show clear tool marks, (c) Doubt more 

 especially any site to which a legend or tradition attaches. To 

 none of the sites of genuine Cup and Ring Marks anywhere, so 

 far as I know, the wide world over, is there one scrap of tradition 

 appended, (d) Do not take for granted statements regarding the 

 occurrence of Cup and Ring Marks until, yirs^, you are reasonably 

 convinced of the accuracy of the writer ; second, of the nature of 

 the rock whiere the marks are said to be found ; and third, of the 

 genuineness of the cuttings by your own repeated personal 

 observation and careful scrutiny. 



N.B. — Since a somewhat heated diicussiou, started on a mistaken 

 view of my stand-point, took place when the above paper was read, I 

 should like it to he clearly understood that the paper is not to be taken as 

 a monograph on Holywood Circle, but as the expression of my opinion on 

 the "Cup Marks " there.— F.E.C. 



