1901-1902. ] A Winter in Cornwall. 363 
opening was cut in the wall, and through this slit the unfor- 
tunates could see and hear what was going on without giving 
offence to their healthier neighbours in the building. 
Numerous examples of those historical instruments of igno- 
miny, the stocks, are to be found lying about the porches and 
belfries: fortunately they are merely objects of antiquarian 
interest nowadays. Granite crosses are of common occurrence 
all over the county, not only in churchyards, but at the 
junction of roads, many of them bearing weather-beaten traces 
of carving: some are very tall, others dumpy, and a few are 
erected on the top of a series of steps composed of the same 
material, What are commonly called “ Standing-stones ” crop 
up everywhere, some being as high as sixteen feet above ground, 
pointing, of course, to the fact that they go down into the 
earth to a considerable distance as well. Another antiquity of 
frequent occurrence in lonely parts is what is known, presum- 
ably for want of a better name, as the “ Druidical circle.” I 
ran across some very perfect specimens of these, the finest of 
which was “ Boscawen-un” in the vicinity of Penzance. As you 
will observe from the illustration (Plate XX XII.), it consists of 
nineteen stones,—the same number as in another good example 
in St Buryan neighbourhood designated “The Merry Maidens,” 
but with the addition of a twentieth in the centre. This one 
lies in a slanting direction, but whether this has been done of « 
set purpose or the stone has slipped over is matter of conjec- 
ture. Around these monuments of a bygone age clings a halo 
of superstition, and the story goes that the huge unchiselled 
blocks were once men or women turned into stone for some 
heinous sin committed. Notably is this the case in a circle 
near the Cheesewring bearing the name of “The Hurlers.” 
Tradition says that a set of men were playing at ball on 
Sunday, and were turned into granite as a punishment. 
The game in Oornwall is known as “hurling,” and 
from what I could gather it seems to be something 
like a pastime which gave intense delight in our youthful 
days, and which, in Edinburgh at least, bore the name 
of “dully.” 
Another fascinating antiquity distributed fairly evenly over 
the county is the cromlech, or “ Quoit” as it is termed locally, 
supposed to mark the burial-place of some notability crumbled 
