57- MONUM ENTAL REMAINS. 



time, with expressions which were construed to be those of sorrow, 

 they returned (o the high road, which they had left about half a 

 dozen miles to pay this visit, and pursued their journey. There is 

 another barrow, much resembling this in the low grounds of the 

 south branch of Shenandoah, where it is crossed by the road lead, 

 ing from Hock-fish gap to Staunton. Both of these have, within 

 these dozen years, been cleared of their trees and put under cul- 

 tivation, are much reduced in their height, and spread in width, 

 by the plough, and will probably disappear in time. There is 

 another on a hill in the Blue ridge of mountains, a few miles north 

 of Wood's gap, which is made up of small stones thrown together. 

 This has been opened and found to contain human bones as the 

 others do. There are also many others in other parts of the 

 country." 



CAIRNS. 



These are to be seen in many places of Britain, particularly 

 Scotland and Wales. They are composed of stones of all dimen- 

 sions thrown together in a conical form, a flat stone crowning the 

 apex. 



Various causes have been assigned by the learned for these heaps 

 of stones. They have supposed them to have been, in times of 

 inauguration, the places where the chieftain elect stood to show 

 himself to the best advantage to the people; or the place from 

 whence judgement was pronounced ; or to have been erected on 

 the road side in honour of Mercury ; or to have been formed in 

 memory of solemn compact, particularly where accompanied by 

 standing pillars of stones ; or for the celebration of certain reli- 

 gious ceremonies. Such might have been the reasons, in some in- 

 stances, where the evidences of stone chests and urns are wanting; 

 but these are so generally found that they seem to determine the 

 most usual purpose of the piles in question to have been for se- 

 pulchral monuments. Even this destination mi^l.t r< mler them 

 suitable to other purposes ; particularly religious, to which by 

 their nature they might be supposed to give additional solemnity. 

 According to Toland, fires were kindled on the tops of flat stones, 

 at certain times of the year, particularly on the eves of the 1st of 

 May and the 1st of November, for the purpose of sacrificing; at 

 which time all the people having extinguished their domestic 

 hearths rekindled them from the sacred fires of the cairns. In ge- 

 neral, therefore; these accumulations appear to have been designed 



