MONUMENTAL REMAINS. 575 



remove it from its present situation. It is called the Logan stone, 

 and it is such a height from the ground that no person can believe 

 that it was raised to its present position by art. But there are 

 other rocking stones, which are so shaped and so situated, that 

 there can be no doubt but that they were erected by human 

 strength. Of this kind Borlase thinks the great Quoit or Karn. 

 lehau, in the parish of Tywidnek, to be. It is 39 feet in circum. 

 ference, and four feet thick at a medium, and stards on a single 

 pedestal. There is also a remarkable stone of the same kind in 

 the island of St. Agnes in Scilly. The under rock is 10 feet six 

 inches high, 47 feet round the middle, and touches the ground with 

 ho more than half its base. The upper rock rests on one point 

 only, and is so nicely balanced, that two or three men with a pole 

 can move it. It is eight feet six inches high, and 47 in circumfe- 

 rence. On the top there is a bason hollowed out, three feet eleven 

 inches in diameter at a medium, but wider at the brim, and three 

 feet deep. From the globular shape of this upper stone, it is 

 highly probable that it was rounded by human art, and perhaps 

 even placed on its pedestal by human strength. In Sithuey pa. 

 rish, near Helston, in Cornwall, stood the famous logan, or rock- 

 ing stone, commonly called Men Amber^ q. d. Men an Bar, or 

 the top. stone. It was eleven feet by six, and four high, and so 

 nicely poised on another stone that a little child could move it, 

 and all travellers who came this way desired to see it. But Shrub- 

 sail, Cromwell's governor of Pendennis, with much ado caused it 

 to be undermined, to the great grief of the country. There are 

 some marks of the tool on it, and by its quadrangular shape, it 

 was probably dedicated to Mercury. 



That the rocking stones are monuments erected by the Druids 

 cannot be doubted; but tradition has not informed us for what 

 purpose they were intended. Mr. Toland thinks that the Druids 

 made the people believe that tney alone could move them, and 

 that by a miracle ; and that by this pretended miracle they con- 

 demned or acquitted the accused, and brought criminals to confess 

 what could not otherwise be extorted from them. How far this 

 conjecture is right we shall leave to those who are deeply versed 

 in the knowledge of antiquities to determine. 



[Encyclopedia BrHannica* 



