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earth ' and turf, which once lay over the covering stone of the 

 Cromlech, having been long ago removed or levelled by time, 

 these ancient depositaries of the dead have become exposed and 

 left in detached portions, standing like giant spectres deprived of 

 those accessories which completed their original form. Neglected 

 throughout many generations, their once venerated site and 

 hallowed use forgotten, their very name lost or doubtfully 

 preserved amid the changes which the soil has undergone, they 

 are left standing in solemn ruin, to the gaze of ignorant wonder, 

 and the perplexity of the antiquary. Attracted by the magnitude 

 of their dimensions and peculiar forms, our forefathers regarded 

 them as the work of super-human agency. Their various names 

 have thus become associated with fairies, hobgoblins, giants, and 

 dwarfs, in all countries where they exist. The ' Cromlech,' or 

 inclined stone, of Britain, the ' Grotte aux Fees,' ' La chambredu 

 Diable ' of the French, and the Celtic ' Ponquelaye ' of these 

 islands, all designate certain localities under elfin influence, and 

 from which the vulgar mind is yet apt to recoil with feelings of 

 superstition and dread. These terms are, however, significant ; 

 for they testify to that ignorance of their original use which 

 followed the extinction of the race which erected them. Those 

 structures which have resisted the effects of time and remain 

 entire owe their preservation in many instances to their remote 

 distance from the haunts of man, or to that superstition which 

 has in after ages paralyzed the hand of wanton destruction. 



The names, ' Druid's Altar,' ' Temple des Druides,' convey a 

 definite meaning when applied to the Cromlech, properly so 

 called, and probably owe their origin to the generally received 

 opinion, and the incorrect translation of the word Cromlech, or 

 inclined stone, affirmed by certain writers as disposed to permit 

 the blood of the victims to flow from west to east ! all which is 

 mere conjecture and equally untenable. The more approximate 

 derivation of the word, if ever it was originally applied to these 

 structures, would be from the ' corum ' (Breton), or ' cromen ' 

 (Welch), signifying a dome or vault- and ' lech,' a stone, or ' lie,' 

 a place or room (lieu, Fr. ; locus, Xat.), or, as in these islands, 



