CASTLE HILL, CBANBORNE. 149 



" the fine Cor at Knolton, and with others called c the Rounds ' 

 in Cornwall, and with Stonehenge, with the mound at Marlborough, 

 Silbury Hill, and with the Tinwald Hill in the Isle of Man, which 

 is a sample of a ' cruc y Gorsedd ' still in use." The mound was 

 called the " cruc y Gorsedd " (Bench Mound), though the word 

 " gorsedd was applied to the Meeting itself as a court, &c." 



Now here we have classed together under the same denomina- 

 tion earthworks of a very different character, but all of them 

 assimilated by the purpose to which they were appropriated, as 

 places of meeting or assembly gorsedd. I do not demur to this 

 definition, for if they were all places of public assembly a point I 

 have no wish to contest they would all be spoken of by the Cymri, 

 or those who use the Cymric language, as " Gorsedd," without any 

 distinction as to their constructive characters, which might be very 

 different. I may, however, remark that the " cruc" or mound, is 

 " conspicuous by its absence " in most of the given localities, and it 

 is only the Tinwald Hill that is a " sample of a c cruc y gorsedd ' 

 still in use." To this may be added Cranborne Castle as being, in 

 Mr. Barnes' view, a " cruc y gorsedd " of that rare class. 



Here, in my humble opinion, a confusion or mistake has arisen 

 in consequence of including all such places, to which the Cymri 

 give the appellation of "gorsedd" as places of Ancient British 

 origin or construction ; whereas the name is simply that by which 

 they are known in the Cymric language. For instance, the 

 Tinwald Hill is not a mound of Celtic construction, but was most 

 probably the work of the Norsemen who preceded the Cymri in its 

 occupation. And so as regards our Castle Hill, it is probably a work 

 of much later date, although the Cymri may give it the appellation 

 of "cruc y gorsedd" correctly enough, without any reference to its 

 origin as a British work. I think, then, it is a mistake for us to 



passed very near this spot, and was perhaps the ancient boundary 

 between this Parish and Sydling. ..." vide Hutchins, "The 

 Hundreds of Cerne, Totcombe, and Modbury." [It would be interesting 

 to enquire whether this were an Ancient British mound, sepulchral or 

 not, or a "Moot" mound of Saxon construction ? W. S.] 



