CAME AND OWERMOIGNE. xlvii. 



Mr. BUTLER answered that there were said to be some founda- 

 tions, and there was a field bordering the road and called 

 Cemetery Field ; and, being regarded as sacred, it still remained 

 unbroken by the ploughshare. 



POXWELL HOUSE AND ClRCLE. 



Driving to Poxwell, the party had a peep at the front of the 

 picturesque manor house, with the charming feature of the 

 porter's tiny gatehouse, bearing the date 1634. 



The ASSISTANT SECRETARY reminded the club of the literary 

 associations of the house, this being, under the name " Oxwell 

 Hall," the home of Squire Derriman in "The Trumpet Major." 

 Climbing the windy hill, commanding a glorious view of the 

 Channel and of the full length of the Isle of Portland, the party 

 next inspected the reputed stone circle. 



The PRESIDENT said it was understood to be one of the 

 smallest stone circles known, and 



Dr. COLLEY MARCH pointed out that the constituent stones 

 were not sarsens, as at Littlemayne, but a cherty kind of Lower 

 Purbeck which happened to crop up just at this spot. The 

 stones corresponded no doubt to a burial place a small circle 

 inside a larger one. The stones may have had some ritual 

 meaning or purpose, and may have served at the outset as a 

 place for the primary disposal of interments. 



Mr. ALBANY MAJOR, as a London antiquary of some celebrity, 

 on being invited to speak, admitted that it was possible that they 

 had not seen any stone circle that day. 



The so-called Littlemayne circle might be a collection of sarsens. With the 

 eye that day no design could be made out ; and they could not say whether there 

 was a circle or not until they had surveyed the site, plotted out the position of 

 all the stones, and seen whether or not they had any coherent connection with 

 one another. The circle on the top of that hill at Poxwell was certainly a circle 

 of stones ; but whether it was a stone circle was a question. Mr. Whistler 

 suggested that the mound on which the circle stood looked uncommonly like a 

 grave mound. It may have been one, with a circle of stones around it ; but the 

 question could be decided only by digging. They were in danger of error in 



