LEWIS. ANTIQUITIES. ] 87 



given to the public. It is true, that in some of the 

 cromlechs or smaller monuments, a disposition of the 

 stones resembling that of a cross has sometimes been 

 remarked, but it seems in all these cases to have been 

 the result either of accident or necessity. No monu- 

 ments in which that form is obviously intended, have 

 been traced higher than the period of the introduction 

 of Christianity ; nor was it indeed till a later age, that of 

 Constantine, that the cross became a general object 

 of veneration. From that time its use is common ; and 

 it is frequently found applied under a great variety of 

 structures and forms, to numerous objects, civil and 

 military, as well as ecclesiastical. Those cases in which 

 the figure of the cross has been found marked or carved 

 on stones of higher antiquity, which had served either 

 for the purposes of sepulchral memorials or Druidical 

 worship, appear to have resulted from the attempts of 

 the early catholics to convert the supposed monuments 

 of ancient superstition to their own ends ; either from 

 economical motives or from feelings of a religious nature. 

 But such attempts cannot be supposed to have given 

 rise to the peculiar figure of the structure here described. 

 The whole is too consistent and too much of one age 

 to admit of such a supposition ; while, at the same time, 

 it could not under any circumstances have been appli- 

 cable to a Christian worship. Its essential part, the 

 circular area, and the number of similar structures found 

 in the vicinity, equally bespeak its ancient origin. It 

 must therefore be concluded that the cruciform shape 

 was given by the original contrivers of the fabric, and 

 it will afford an object of speculation to antiquaries, who, 

 if they are sometimes accused of heaping additional 

 obscurity on the records of antiquity, must also be 

 allowed the frequent merit of eliciting light from dark- 

 ness. To them I willingly consign all further speculations 

 concerning it. 



The remains of one of those singular structures called 



