'^if^$ m i%i ^u4u\ 9t l^wij^liattt. 



HE Cromlech at Portisham (commonly called Possimi) 

 would seem to deserve more than the passing notice of 

 a visit which was made by the Club on June 20, 1876. 



Therefore, as Miss CoKox has so kindly made drawings of 

 this Cromlech, together with one by way of comparison at 

 Morbihan, in Brittany, in presenting our readers with copies of 

 these we propose to add a few notes upon these structures. 



The Cromlech at Portisham, which rejoices in the name of the 

 Hellstone, is situate upon an eminence to the north of the 

 village, the foot of the hill being approached along the banks of 

 a rivulet which runs through and over a picturesque mass of 

 boulder stones, which, as they occur on the hills around the 

 Cromlech in question and another in its vicinity, may doubtless 

 have been derived from the heights above, having formerly 

 belonged to that sandy deposit of the tertiary formation which 

 rested on the chalk, and is perhaps of the same age as the grey 

 wethers of Wiltshire, of which stones the ancient monument 

 known as Avebury circles, and also some of the huge masses of 

 Stonehenge, are formed. 



It is likely then that the Cromlechs were formed from stones 

 found handy for their purpose, and more especially when these 

 occurred in commanding sitviations. 



Much speculation has been hazarded as to the use and object 

 of the Cromlech ; but all experience confirms the view that they 

 were cementaries built to contain the remains, sometimes of a 

 single individual, and at others of a whole family ; thus Mr" 

 Lukis in his " Observations of the Primaeval Antiquities of the 



