STONE CIRCLES 



IF any excuse be sought for devoting a special article to stone circles 

 in the history of a county so rich in prehistoric remains, it must be 

 found in the great development of these particular monuments in 

 Cornwall. Within the county area are found stone circles of several 

 varieties, grouped in twos and threes, or standing singly, with stones 

 wide apart or close together, with as few as eight and as many as 

 seventy. The question immediately arises What is a stone circle ? and 

 in trying to answer it we can hardly do better than accept the definition 

 given by the late William Copeland Borlase, F.S.A., that when the 

 stones are set up on end, at some distance apart, and enclose a level piece 

 of ground, it constitutes a ' stone circle,' but when the stones are set on 

 their edges, contiguous to each other, and enclose a rock, mounds, or 

 an area of uneven ground, it is a ' ring barrow ' and sepulchral in 

 character. Most of the Cornish circles belong to the former class, but 

 whether they are sepulchral or not is still an open question, and though 

 one indeed, that at Duloe, appears to be undoubtedly sepulchral, for the 

 rest such evidence as there is points to a ceremonial use rather than to 

 burial. 



BOSCAWEN-tTN 



Boscawen-un Circle is situated in the parish of Buryan, 4^ miles 

 west of Penzance, on a farm of the same name, south of and near to 

 the road to the Land's End, and having been restored and well cared 

 for by a former landowner, and protected also by the present pro- 

 prietor, Mr. T. B. Bolitho, it is now one of the most perfect examples 



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