160 Danish Cromlechs and Burial Customs, 8fC. 



shores of rivers and large lakes. To this period belong the crom- 

 lechs, giants' chambers, and the antiquities of stone and bone," 

 p. 134. " Then followed races who possessed metals and some 

 degree of civilization, and by them was agriculture first regularly 

 established. Among these races there were, in the west, the above- 

 named Celts " " It will at once be seen that the stone period 



must be of extraordinary antiquity " " It is therefore no 



exaggeration if we attribute to the stone period an antiquity of 

 at least 3000 j-ears," p. 135. 



I do not think that this is very convincing as regards the con- 

 structors of cromlechs. It is quite possible for their antiquity to 

 be as remote as this, and yet for them to be the work of Celtic 

 races. " Scholars and chronologists," writes Mr. Bateman, in his 

 ' Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire,' " generally agree in 

 stating that 2100 years B.C. the Celts passed the Thracian 

 Bosphorus, and gradually extended themselves over the western 

 parts of the old world, until they attained the coasts of Gaul, 

 whence they crossed over into Britain, an event supposed to have, 

 taken place about 1600 years B.C." This would seem to be a 

 sufficiently high antiquity to satisfy the most ardent and enthusi- 

 astic antiquary. When Scholars and Chronologists, like Doctors, 

 sometimes diflFer, who is the wise and skilful man who will reconcile 

 them ? Here, e.g. is another, and no mean scholar's, opinion : 

 " Druidism in Gaul and Britain were one religion, and almost one 

 system, and the ajdificia of both countries, Caesar says, were similar. 

 Therefore the whole argument applies to the megalithic works of 

 both countries," (Cyclops Christianus, p. 25.) " It is apparent to 

 every unprepossessed mind that the Armorican structures should 

 have no earlier founder (however later they may be) than Cynan 

 of Meriadawg, in the reign of Maximus and latter half of the 

 4th century. For it has never been pretended that any colony of 

 insular Britons took possession of that part of Gaul at any period 

 anterior to the expedition of Maximus," Ibid, p. 29. "The 

 subject is quite uncertain, but all that talk of a vague antiquity, 

 which is so freely hazarded, is gratuitous, and belongs to an 

 unscrupulous habit of assuming and asserting," p. 237. The 



