244 THE RITUAL OF BARROWS AND CIRCLES. 



the ditch it might presently be found by those whose duty it 

 would be to visit the spot. 



■ It is needless to insist upon the fact that where round-barrows 

 abound, there also may be seen circles of earth and of stones. 

 But owing to the great and constant destruction of megaliths in 

 this country-, it may be well to point out, more particularly, the 

 association of circles with lines, alignments, or avenues of stone. 

 The remains of such circles and such alignments are to be seen 

 near Shap, in Westmoreland, where the rows of megaliths are 

 more than a mile in length and where " the whole aspect of the 

 country is that of a district used as a burying-place."* There are 

 avenues on Dartmoor, and one of them, which is 600 yards long f 

 " bends round the brow of a hill, so that neither of the ends can 

 be seen from the other, nor indeed from the centre," and there 

 are indications that it was terminated by a circle. 



Mr. Fergusson remarks that this avenue is only three feet wide, 

 and therefore was "not a procession path," forgetting that a 

 procession might circumambulate the whole. 



It is in Brittany, however, that the relation of avenues to circles 

 can best be studied, because there, large stones have always been 

 abundant and agriculture has not yet devastated pre-historic 

 monuments. There, "the alignments are narrower at the eastern 

 ends, and the dimensions of the stones are greater at the western 

 ends, where is found the terminating circle. The lines were 

 erected according to a plan which is nearly uniform and with an 

 orientation which corresponds in some measure with that of the 

 dolmens." J " The lines of Kerlescant are thirteen in number, and 

 form twelve avenues which are about a thousand feet long." At 

 Kermario the lines, ten in number, are about four thousand feet 

 long, but the terminating circle has vanished. At Menec the 

 lines, eleven in number, measure 3376ft. in length, and the 

 terminating circle is 300ft. in diameter. 



Rude Stone Monuments, p. 1 

 t Ibid p. 56. 

 Chambered Barrows, &c., pp. 17, 35, 



