STONE CIRCLES 



Three other writers who follow content themselves with reproducing this 

 description: Bond's Looe (1823), Penaluna's Survey of Cornwall (1838) 

 and Allen's Liskeard (1856) ; but Murray's Handbook for Devon and Corn- 

 wall (1856) goes into detail and is more accurate. The writer says : 



A hedge bisects it, one stone lies prostrate in the ditch, five only stand upright, 

 and three appear to be wanting to complete the circle. The stones, which are rough 

 and unhewn, are principally composed of white quartz, and one is about 9 ft. in height. 



The hedge referred to crossed the circle between Nos. 5 and 6, i and 8 

 (see plan) ; Nos. i, 5, 7 and 9 were prostrate ; No. 3 leaned ; Nos. 4, 

 6 and 8 were erect. 



About the year 1858 the hedge was removed, and in 1 86 1 (or 1863) 

 the fallen stones were set up, all but the largest (No. i), which was broken 

 in the process. When digging to raise this stone the workmen discovered, 

 at about 3 feet deep, a small cinerary urn, buried in loose earth by the side 

 of the stone, and containing human bones, some entire and 3 inches long, 

 which crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. 1 The urn itself was 

 broken by the workmen and only one small portion was preserved, which 

 passed into the possession of the landowner, the late Rev. T. A. Bewes 

 of Plymouth, and is shown in Mr. Dymond's sketch. W. C. Borlase 

 thought that it corresponded with an urn found by him in a barrow on 

 Morvah Hill, with which was found a coin, a 'middle brass' of Constantine 

 the Great. Mr. E. H. W. Dunkin, who has published a description of 

 the circle, says : 



On my recent visit to the circle I was informed that a considerable quantity of 

 charcoal was found within the enclosure when the bisecting hedge was removed, and 

 that much still remains beneath the turf. 2 



Mr. Dymond had occasion to remove some of the earth round the 

 fallen stone and found no trace of charcoal ; it may have been absent 

 from that spot, or Mr. Dunkin's informant may have mistaken the 

 black peaty earth for charcoal. In addition to the before-mentioned 

 works, Lukis and Borlase have published description, plan, and sketches 

 of this circle. 8 



There can be little doubt that this ancient monument, from its small 

 area, the rude masses of quartz rock, the cinerary urn found within it, 

 and the charcoal reported under the turf, was sepulchral in character and 

 had little in common with the other circles which have been described. 

 The late W. C. Borlase gave it as his opinion, in a private letter, that 

 there never had been a tumulus within the ring. If the resemblance 

 between the fragment preserved and the urn found on Morvah Hill 

 can be taken as proving in any degree a like date for the two burials, 

 then the Duloe circle may be of comparatively recent construction, 

 but this in no way helps us to arrive at a date for the circles of a 

 different type. 



1 Ntfnia Cornubiif, 127, 247-52. 



' 'On the Megalithic Circle at Duloe, Cornwall,' Arch. Camb. (1873), No. 13, p. 45. 



1 Prehistoric Monuments, pp. 4, 30, pi. xiii. 



I 401 51 



