STONE CIRCLES 



intelligent, from the sixteenth century onwards. The first to mention 

 the Hurlers is John Norden, who visited them about 1584 : 



The Hurlers, c. 1 6, certayne stones raysed and sett in the grounde of some 6 foote 

 high and 2 foote square ; some bigger, some lesser, and are fixed in suche straglinge 

 manner as these Countrye men doe in performinge that pastime Hurlinge. . . . This 

 monumente seemeth to impor'te an intention of the memoriall of some matter done in 

 this kinde of exercise, thowgh time haue worne out the maner. 1 



The illustration which accompanies this paragraph shows that he was 

 unaware that the stones were arranged in circles. The next in order of 

 date is William Camden, who says that 



the neighbours call them Hurlers, persuaded by a pious error that they were men 

 changed into stones because they had profaned the Lord's day by throwing a ball. 

 Others will have them to be, as it were, a trophy in memory of some battle, and some 

 believe them to be placed as boundaries. 2 



It will be seen that the legend of the Hurlers is very similar to that of 

 Dawns Men and other Cornish and some German circles, only the game 

 of 'hurling' is here pressed into service. Richard Carew (1605) men- 

 tions also ' that a redoubled numbring neuer eueneth with the first.' 3 

 Mr. Dymond quotes from a History of the Parish of Linkinhorne (written 

 by the Rev. W. Harvey, vicar of the parish, in 1727 and published 

 in 1876) an extract from a Latin account of the district, published in 

 Amsterdam (1661), which repeats the legend. Mr. Harvey him- 

 self, however, manages to be original, for, after relating the usual tra- 

 ditional story, he adds : 



But the truth of the story is, it was a burying place of the Britons, before the 

 calling in of the heathen sexton into this kingdom. And this fable, invented by the 

 Britons, was to prevent the ripping up of the bones of their ancestors, and so called 

 by the name of The Hurlers to this day. 



Mr. Harvey's tally of remaining stones agrees very nearly with a drawing 

 by Dr. Borlase (1769),* which depicts in the northern circle nine stones 

 standing, seven fallen ; in the middle one eight standing and nine fallen ; 

 in the southern circle three standing and nine fallen. A reference to 

 the plan and table will show that there has been little alteration since 

 that date, but that some of the fallen stones have been taken away. 

 Several other writers, such as Hals, Thomas Bond of Looe, Britton and 

 Brayley, C. S. Gilbert and John Allen, mention these circles, but con- 

 tribute neither to our knowledge nor amusement. Next to Mr. Dymond's 

 monograph the best description and plan yet published are those of Lukis 

 and Borlase (1885).' 



DULOE 



Duloe Circle, in the parish of that name, is 4 miles north of Looe 

 and near to Duloe church, the cluster of houses close by being called 



1 Sfeculi Britannite Pars, Cornwall, p. 94. 



3 ' Hurlers vicini vocant, pio persuasi errore homines fuisse in saxa transformatos qu6d pila iactanda 

 diem Dominicum profanjlssent,' etc. (Britannia, ed. of 1607, p. 139). 



3 Survey of Cornwall (ed. of 1605), p. 129. * Ant. o/Corniv.(ed. z),pp. 198-9, pi. xvii. 



5 Prehistoric Monuments, pp. 4, 3 1 and pis. x. xi. xii. 



399 



