218 THE BRIGANTES. 



because in many instances natural phsenomena have been re- 

 ferred to the Druids, ' rocking-stones ' derived from erratic 

 blocks, and ' altars ' from cliffs wasted by the atmosphere. The 

 'Cow and Calf/ near Ilkley, are natural objects; so are most 

 of the picturesque crags and standing stones of Brimham ; evi- 

 dences of operations which began long before the Druids exer- 

 cised their spells. Some of the 'rocking-stones' near Settle are 

 blocks of the slate of Ribblesdale, drifted by the force of water 

 or floated by ice, and dropped on the bare surface of the lime- 

 stone. Among many such some are so shaped, and may be so 

 placed, as to be easily moved backward and forward, through 

 small spaces, and thus become ' rocking ' stones (PI. 5). 



Still, after omitting these exceptions, cases of arrangement of 

 stones in groups of three or four, and in rude circles or rings, 

 remain to prove the respect, if not veneration, with which these 

 durable memorials of forgotten events and banished creeds were 

 formerly regarded. Mr. Wright views the circles of stone as 

 being often but the remains of a cairn or mound, the earth of 

 which has been removed. This suggestion, though it can sel- 

 dom be applied to the wild and deserted moors on which many 

 of these stones are placed in Yorkshire, ought not to be lost 

 sight of. It is extremely probable that the two classes of works 

 are based on the same fundamental idea an enclosed space for 

 assemblies for families and for the dead, and this increases 

 the probability that they may have been constructed by the 

 same people. 



This idea is not characteristically Celtic ; for it is fully recog- 

 nized in Scandinavia, in the conical earth-mounds, cairns con- 

 taining one or two circles of stone, and in such circles inde- 

 pendent of mounds. Nor are single memorial stones, or en- 

 closures marked by four stones, uncommon there. Nor are the 

 contents of their earlier tumuli the work of their age of stone 

 when opened, different in general characters from what we find 

 ours, skeletons, in similar position, surrounded by the same 

 materials, ashes, urns, instruments of bone, the animals killed 



