WESTMOKELAND. 



THE county of Westmoreland, like its neighbour Cumberland, 

 as it is rich in memorials of the Roman dominion, abounds also in 

 still earlier remains ; and it is probable that the number of camps 

 constructed by the Roman invaders was due to the necessity of 

 holding in check a large and organised native population, which 

 was rendered all the more formidable from the opportunities of 

 defence afforded by the natural formation and condition of the 

 country. Cairns and barrows are abundant, and circles of stone and 

 other megalithic structures still exist, the scanty remains of a 

 much larger number, some of which have disappeared within the 

 limits of living memory. The great circle of ' Long Meg and her 

 Daughters ' is still almost entire, and on one of the stones 

 composing it are several of the pits and circular markings which 

 have been already referred to. Arthur's Round Table near Penrith \ 

 and the adjoining circular mound of Mayburgh with the standing 

 stone in the centre, are both remarkable works, the latter of which, 

 though it has suffered to some extent by persons who have applied 

 to other purposes the stones originally belonging to it, still 

 presents its general features sufficiently well defined to allow its 

 form and size, if not its use, to be determined. The large series of 

 standing stones at Shap however, once consisting of at least a 

 circle and an avenue, is now almost entirely destroyed ; but from 

 such parts of it as are left, and from old accounts and the traditional 



1 It consists of a mound about 300 ft. in diameter, within which is a broad plat- 

 form, and beyond it a ditch enclosing a flat space 175 ft. in diameter. It is now partly 

 destroyed by a road, which cuts off a portion of it, but was complete a hundred years 

 ago, when it had two entrances opposite each other. Three similar constructions (one 

 perfect, the others more or less destroyed), almost identical in shape with Arthur's 

 Hound Table, still exist at Thornborough, near Tanneld, in the North Riding of York- 

 shire ; and two more are to be seen on Hutton Moor, near Ripon, not many miles from 

 those at Thornborough. 



