STONE CIRCLES 



Butter Tor (N. 58 E.), Catshole Tor (N. 69 E.), and Tolborough Tor 

 (N. 85 E.), and which were, he suggests, associated in the minds of the 

 circle builders with the sunrise. He also points out the alignment of 

 Trippet Stones, Leaze, and Row Tor (N. I2E.), Trippet Stones being 

 invisible from Leaze. 



KING ARTHUR'S HALL 



On King Arthur's Downs, about 800 yards north-west of Leaze, 

 stands the curious enclosure known as King Arthur's Hall. It may be 

 described as a rectangular enclosure 1 59 ft. long by 66 ft. across, formed 

 by a solid bank of earth from 1 2 ft. to 20 ft. wide and 7 ft. to 5 ft. high ; 

 this bank is kept in position within by a retaining wall of large stones 

 set on end and embedded in the bank. About forty of these are now 

 erect and in place, sixteen have fallen, and probably a large number have 

 been removed ; they are far from being uniform in size, the largest is 5 ft. 

 8 in. high and others approach this in bulk. The axis of the enclosure is 

 N. 5 W. A depression in the centre usually holds a pool of water, a feature 

 of very old standing, and when this exceeds its bounds, as well it may in 

 winter on these wet moors, it finds an exit by the south-western corner. 



The earliest reference that we find to this curious enclosure is by 

 John Norden, who visited it about 1584 and wrote his work, Speculi 

 Britanniae Pars, in 1610, though it was not published till 1728. He 

 says : * Arthures Hall, d. 14. A place so called, and by tradition helde 

 to be a place whereunto that famous K. Arthure resorted. It is a square 

 plott about 60 foote longe and about 35 foote broad, situate on a playne 

 Mountayne, wroughte some 3 foote into the grounde ; and by reason of 

 the depression of the place, ther standeth a stange or Poole of water, the 

 place sett rounde aboute with flatt stones in this manner.' Then follows 

 an illustration showing it to have been very much as it is now, with the 

 pool in the middle. Mr. A. L. Lewis has described it in the before- 

 mentioned paper, 1 and the plan which illustrates it is, by his kind 

 permission and that of the secretary of the Anthropological Institute, 

 reproduced for the use of this volume. 



Many are the conjectures as to the origin of Arthur's Hall. It has 

 been called ' a great cattle pound, a place of assembly, or an earthwork 

 occupied by a small detachment of Roman troops.' 3 To this should be 

 added a suggestion by Mr. A. L. Lewis that it may have been a place 

 for cremation. 3 Enclosures of a similar shape were found in Brittany, 

 which showed unmistakable signs of burning on specially prepared 

 granite pyres and which yielded fragments of pottery and flint flakes. 

 These rectangular enclosures are 110 ft. by 50 ft. and 120 ft. by 40 ft. 

 respectively, and into the walls are built menhirs.* There are also, near 

 the city of Guatemala, rectangular enclosures which bear a superficial 

 resemblance to this, and which are associated with burial mounds and 

 sacrificial stones. 6 After three visits to the spot the present writer is 



1 Jount. Anthrop. Init., Aug. 1895. * Rev. W. Jago, Journ. Roy. Inst. of Cornwall, 1895. 



s Loc. cit. 4 Rear-Admiral Tremlett, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. (November, 1885). 



5 Report ofSmithtmian Inst., 1876 ; A. L. Lewis, Journ. Roy. Inst. of Cornwall, 1896. 



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