A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 263 



fome parts about four feet in thicknefs, 

 refts upon five upright fupporters. 



The cromlech * feems to have been in- 

 tended for nothing more than a fepulchral 

 monument, for under feveral of them in 

 Cornwall and other parts of England, bones 

 have been found buried. They appear to 

 have been the originals of our prefent altar 

 tombs, which are but a more diminutive 

 and regular kind of cromlech. 



That they mould ever have been ufed 

 as altars in the Druidical facrifices, as moft 

 perfons have fuppofed, is impoffible, for 

 the upper ftones were generally too fmall, 



* The word Cromlech is Britifh, and fignifies a 

 ftone that/is of a flat or concave form, or thatjin- 

 clines or bends downwards. Mr. Row lands, with- 

 out any other apparent reafon than to fupport his 

 hypothefis of the cromlech being conftru&ed for the 

 Druidical facrifices, derives it from the Hebrew 

 Ccerem luach, a devoted ftone or altar. See Mono. 

 Ant i qua Reft. p. 207. 



S 4 and 



