22 HARLECH TO BARMOUTH. 



heaps of loofe ftones, which are fuppofed to Indicate 

 that feme men of ancient note were interred beneath 

 them. Thefe barrows, from the circumftance of 

 the cromlechs being erected on them, are evidently 

 of high antiquity ; but I am inclined to fuppofe, 

 (with a very judicious traveller through this country 

 in the year 1 774,) that many of the heaps of flones 

 with which this country abounds, and which are 

 ufually taken for barrows, or carnedds^ as they are 

 here called, " were originally piled together for no 

 other reafon than that the refl of the field might 

 afford the clearer pafture. In the melancholy wafte 

 between Pont Aberglasllyn and Llyn y Wenwn, I 

 obferved many modern carnedds, which had been 

 thrown up in large piles by the induilrious in- 

 habitants for that profitable purpofe*." — The mode 

 of forming the ancient carnedds in this country was 

 fomewhat fmgular. When the carnedd v.^as con- 

 Jidered as the honourable tomb of a warrior, every 

 one that palTed by threw on it an additional flone 

 as a mark of refpecl ; but when this heap became 

 difgraced by (hielding the body of the guilty, it was 

 flill the cuitom of every one that pafifed to fling his 

 ftone, but, in this cafe, it was done in token of 

 deteftation. — The original intention of heaping flones. 

 over the dead, was doubtlefs to defend the bodies 

 from being dug up, and devoured by the wolves, 

 with which the wild and mountainous parts of Britain 



* Wyndliam's Tour through Monmouthfhire and Wales. 



formerly 



