GHoolhope Naturalists’ Field Club. 
GOLDEN VALLEY MEETING. 
May 257TH, 1882. 
ARTHUR’S STONE, DORSTONE, 
By Mr. Gzorcz H. Prrrr, F.G.S., President. 
Tue yery fine, and tolerably well-preserved Cromlech (Welsh, from cvom, bent, 
arched or covering ; Jlec a flat stone) on Merbage Hill, in the parish of Dorstone, 
known by the name of “ Arthur's Stone,” is one of the most perfect Druidic 
structures in our Island. 
Cromlechs in British antiquities, are huge, broad, flat stones, raised upon other 
stones set up on end for that purpose. 
Rowland partly inclines to the opinion of their having been altars, and 
partly to their having been sepulchres. He supposes them to have been originally 
tombs, but that in after times sacrifices were performed upon them to the heroes 
deposited within. Skeletons have been discovered under them. The Cromlech 
chiefly differs from the Kist-faen in not being closed up at the ends and sides, that 
is, in not so much partaking of the chest-like figure. It is generally of larger 
dimensions and sometimes consists of a greater number of stones. The terms, 
Cromlech and Kist-faen, are however indiscriminately used for the same 
monument. 
Although we would gladly associate Arthur’s Stone closely with the great 
British Hero, whose name it bears, and enrich it with some of the glorious 
traditions of his prowess and knightly worth, we are compelled to assign its 
erection to a period prior to the Roman invasion, and certainly more than 500 
years before the era of the Great Pendragon, who was born at Tintagel, about 
the year 501. He established the first Military Order that was ever instituted in 
Britain, and by its means raised a glow of ingenuous heroism—the first spirit of 
chivalry that ever appeared in Europe—that manly and honourable gallantry of 
soul, which has made him and his worthies the subjects of romantic histories over 
all the world. 
Beyond the assertion that it is pre-Roman its age is a question of mere 
conjecture. 
The generally received opinion is that the name, Arthur’s Stone, is simply a 
