ENGLAND AND WALES 



quite impossible to determine. It may be that 

 some at least were built near the graves of deified 

 heroes to whose worship they were consecrated. 

 On the other hand, it is possible that they were 

 temples dedicated to the sun or to others of the 

 heavenly bodies. Whether they served for the 

 taking of astronomical observations or not is a 

 question which cannot be decided with certainty, 

 though the frequency with which menhirs occur 

 in directions roughly north-east of the circles is 

 considered by some as a sign of connection with 

 the watching of solar phenomena. 



Dolmens of simple type are not common in 

 England, though they occur with comparative 

 frequency in Wales, where the best known are 

 the so-called Arthur's Quoit near Swansea, the 

 dolmen of Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire, and that 

 of Plas Newydd on the Menai Strait : in Anglesey 

 they are quite common. In England we have 

 numerous examples in Cornwall, especially west 

 of Falmouth, among which are Chun Quoit and 

 Lanvon Ouoit. There are dolmens at Chagford 

 and Drewsteignton in Devonshire, and there is 

 one near the Rollright Circle in Oxfordshire. 



Many of the so-called cromlechs of England 

 are not true dolmens, but the remains of tombs 

 of more complicated types. Thus the famous 

 Kit's Coty House in Kent was certainly not a 

 dolmen, though it is now impossible to say what 



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