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THE FOUR STONES, OLD RADNOR. 

 [By Mr. Riohabd W. Banks]. 



Among the objects visited by the members of the Cambrian Archaeological 

 Association, on the occasion of the Kington Meeting in 1863, were the Four 

 Stones, probably the only existing remains of a cromlech in Radnorshire. A good 

 account is g^ven of them in the summary of the excursion (3rd Series, Vol. ix. ), 

 but no drawing was made, and the dimensions of the stones were not ascertained ; 

 there is, therefore, room for further particulars. The stones are placed at the 

 corner of a large arable field in the midst of the fertile level plain, which occupies 

 a great part of the parish of Old Radnor, and are approached by a road which 

 branches ofiE from the turnpike road to New Radnor at a farm house called the 

 Knap ; on the north side of the farm buildings is a large and elevated round 

 tumulus, covered with trees, and on the opposite side of the turnpike road, 

 nearer to Harpton Court, are two other circular mounds, much depressed, with a 

 large boulder lying by the side of one of them. The four stones are about half a 

 mile distant from the Knap. Their position will be better understood by a 

 reference to the drawing, which is taken from the south-west ; to the north 

 the high land of Radnor Forest bounds the view. The notion of the writer 

 of the former account, that the stones once formed some of the supports of a 

 covering stone of a large sepulchral chamber, appears probable. The prevalent 

 local tradition which he and the author of the History of Badnorshire record, that 

 the font in Old Radnor Church was hewn out of one of the missing stones, shows 

 that the supposed removal took place at a remote period, and is so far valuable ; 

 but an examination of the four stones does not support the tradition of the use 

 which was made of one of their missing fellows, for they are clearly erratic 

 boulders from the adjacent volcanic rocks of Hanter or Stanner, of which a very 

 truthful and picturesque sketch is given in Murchison's Silurian System. Any 

 local stone mason would, on examination, at once say that the four stones could 

 not be dressed or hewn into a regular form, as they would shatter into irregular 

 fragments when broken or dressed. The volcanic rocks referred to are about two 

 miles to the south of the four stones. The boulders which have proceeded from 

 them are plentifully strewed, intermixed with rocks of Old Radnor Hill, on 

 Bradnor Hill, and Hergest Ridge ; the current of the drift having set towards 

 the south-east. Notwithstanding the constant use of these boulders for road 

 materials, many of the larger ones remain ; boulders of a large size may still be 

 met with in the Whetstone, near the race-course on Hergest Ridge, and on the 

 Beastry, Grove, and Bage Farms on the northern and southern sides of the Ridge. 

 The builders may, therefore, have gone only a short distance to the south of the 

 site for their materials. How long they have borne their present name is 

 uncertain ; but it appears that a jury, at a Court held for the Manor of Burlinjob 

 and Ploughfield in 1767, presented the four stones as one of the bounds of that 



