STONE CIRCLES 



The very first reference to this circle that we find is in a Welsh 

 triad, quoted by the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel. It runs as follows : 



The three principal Gorsedds of the Isle of Britain : 



the Gorsedd of Meriw hill ; 



the Gorsedd of Beiscawen ; 



and the Gorsedd of Bryn Gwyddon. 



or another version : 



the hill of Evwr ; 



Beiscawen ; 



and Bryn Gwyddon. 1 



This the author quotes as among the ' Triads of the Bards the 

 Triads of Privilege and Usage,' from the book of Llywelyn Sion. Sion 

 was born about 1516 and died about one hundred years later ; he had 

 access to the Welsh MSS. of the earl of Pembroke, stored in Raglan 

 Castle, which were destroyed during the wars of the Commonwealth, 

 and he is supposed to have compiled his book from these. There is no 

 certainty that he did not compose the triad himself, but its topo- 

 graphical character makes this unlikely, and without doubt this reference 

 to Boscawen-un is not later than the sixteenth century, probably much 

 earlier. Gorsedd means ' a great seat,' or ' a session,' such as is held by the 

 bards before an eisteddfod to declare it open, and the use of the word 

 here implies that Boscawen-un was a traditional meeting place for 

 secular or religious ceremonies, perhaps both. We find ourselves on 

 firmer ground when we read what William Camden had to say about 

 it in 1 586*: ' In the neighbourhood of this [Buryan], in a place which 

 they call Biscawe Woune, are to be seen nineteen stones arranged in a 

 circle, every one about twelve feet distant from another, and in the 

 centre rises one much larger than all the rest.' It is evident that 

 there can have been little change in the circle for 300 years at 

 least. Dr. Borlase's drawing (i754) 8 shows eighteen stones standing 

 in the ring, and one fallen. Britton and Brayley (1801) notice it, but 

 inaccurately : ' Another of these Druidical circles is named Boscanven- 

 Un. This also consists of nineteen upright stones, and is about twenty- 

 five feet [? yards] in diameter, having a single leaning stone in the 

 centre.' 4 William Cotton 6 gives an excellent plan of the circle, but 

 curiously enough substitutes north for east ; he shows a hedge crossing 

 it, occupying the present gap between Nos. 1 5 and 1 6 and enclosing 



1 Tair Priforsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain, 



Gorsedd Moel Meriw, "j ( Moel Efwr 



Gorsedd Beisgawen, j- or \ Beisgawen 



a Gorsedd Bryn Gwyddon. J (a Bryn Gwyddon. Barddas (1862), ii. 76-7. 



' ' In huius vicinia in loco, quern Biscawe Woune dicunt, vndeuiginti lapides In orbem dijpojiti cm- 

 fpiduntur, singuli xii quafi pidibus inuictm dtftantes, y In centn Ctfteris omnibus multo maior exfurgit' 

 (Britannia, p. 72). 



3 Antiquities of Cornwall, pi. xiii. 



4 Beauties of England and Wales, ii. 496. 



4 Illustrations of Stone Circles, etc. in the West of Cornwall (1826), pi. ii. 



38l 



