338 
landmarks, after having long failed to detect them, as to 
be in itself a source of pleasure ; and this is enhanced on 
learning that the author of the work before us is not only 
a namesake, but a great-grandson of Dr. Borlase, the 
author of “Ohservations on the Antiquities, Historical 
and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall,” published 
at Oxford in 1753. 
Whilst we have read the book with much pleasure, we 
have now and then had to regret a lack of distinct method, 
a tendency to digress, and a tone somewhat too judicial 
when dealing with questions on which the author differs 
from older and more experienced antiquaries. As we 
learn from the Dedication that the author is young, we 
have little or no doubt that such blemishes will be less 
conspicuous in the “second series” he contemplates, and 
which we hope to see at no distant period. 
He declines to accept “the hypothetical distinctions 
drawn between stone, bronze, and iron periods,” on 
account of a few facts he has met with, but which do not 
appear to contain any danger to the distinctions in ques- 
tion. He lays down the excellent law that the antiquary 
“should never be ready to sacrifice a fact merely because 
it is hard to explain, upon the altar of a much more inde- 
fensible theory,” and soon after reminds us of the well- 
known maxim—“ Do as I say, not as I do ;” for when 
mentioning two instances of graves in each of which, he 
says, “the monument has consisted of two pillars of un- 
hewn granite, placed at no great distance apart,” he adds 
that “Graves adorned in this manner are the common 
property of all ages and all religions,” and then slides 
into an attempt to make Homer support the converse 
proposition—that such pillars are to be always regarded 
as indications of a grave. For this purpose he quotes 
the Ziad, xxxiii. 329, and gives the following as Mr. 
Wright’s translation :— 
‘*On either side 
Rise two white stones, set there 
To mark the tomb of some one long since dead.” 
We are afraid that Mr. Borlase has here been willing 
to sacrifice a fact rather than his ¢#eory. The passage in 
Homer and its bearing on the question had been pre- 
viously mentioned by Sir John Lubbock,* who also uses 
Wright’s translation, At the burial of Patroclus, Nestor, 
pointing out to his son the course for the chariot race, 
says :— 
‘Plain is the goal 
That now I tell thee of ; nor canst thou miss it— 
Upraised four cubits high above the ground 
There stands a wizen stump, of oak or pine, 
Not rotted by the rain. On either side— 
Where narrowest is the way, and all the course 
Around is smooth—rise two white stones, set there 
To mark the tomb of seme one long since dead, 
Or form the goal for men in ages past, 
But now the goal of Peleus’ god-like son.” 
It is obvious, from the last line but one, that Homer 
was by no means certain that such stones invariably 
marked a grave, 
Having pointed out the few defects of the book which 
struck us, we now proceed to the more agreeable duty of 
giving a brief summary of its contents. 
Mr. Borlase rejects unconditionally the hypothesis that 
the megalithic remains in Cornwall are druidical. To Sir 
J. Lubbock’s remark that “A complete burial place may 
* Prehistoric Times,” 2nd edition, 1869, pp. 109, TTo. 
NATURE 
NN. 
1S OR ts PTD Pp ere we ae 
ae our 
[ Mar. 6, 1873 
be described as a dolmen, covered by a tumulus, and sur- 
rounded by a stone circle; often, however, we have only 
the tumulus, sometimes only the dolmen, and sometimes 
only the circle,” he proposes to add, “sometimes only 
two adjacent menhirs, and sometimes only the single 
standing stone,” and states that “under the one or the 
other head may be classed every mode of interment 
hitherto discovered in Cornwall.” \ 
He divides European Cromlechs into three classes: 
1. The Dolmen, or “ table-stone” proper, where the ver- 
tical supports do not enclose a space, or form a continuous 
wall. 2. The Larger Kist-Vaen, or stone chest, where 
the vertical supports and the covering stone form an en- 
closed chamber, designed to hold the body, and covered, 
sometimes very slightly, with a mound. 3. Monuments 
similar in structure to the Kist-Vaen just described ; but 
instead of receiving the body are merely cenotaphs raised 
over the actual grave, There is in Cornwall no instance 
of the third class. 
The first, or dolmen, is much higher than the others, 
and is comparatively rare, there being but two examples 
in the county. Lanyon Cromlech, in the parish of 
Madron, near Penzance, consists entirely of granite, and 
was described by Dr, Borlase. It fell in 1815, and was 
set up again in 1824, but some of the stones had been 
broken. The covering stone, or quoit as it is termed in 
Cornwall, measured 47 ft. in circumference, and averaged 
20 in. in thickness. It was supported by three thin un- 
hewn pillars, at a height sufficient to permit a man on 
horseback to sit under it. Caerwynen Cromlech, near 
Camborne, resembles that just described in construction 
and material. The quoit measures 12°75 ft., and its 
three supporters varied from 5'17ft. to 49ft. high, 
This monument has also fallen and been replaced. A 
simple, but unoccupied, grave cut in the soil was found 
under the quoit at Lanyon, but it does not appear that 
any search has been made at Caerwynen. 
Of the second class of cromlechs, or larger kist-vaens, 
Mr. Borlase describes no fewer than eight examples— 
five near the western extremity, two near the centre of 
the northern coast, and one in the south-east of the 
county ; but no more than one in each division is now 
perfect or approximately so. They all consist of the rock 
of the district or its vicinity, and six of them are of 
granite, whilst two are of a “sparry rock.” One is in a 
valley, but at least five occupy conspicuous positions 
on high ground. There are distinct indications that 
several of them were covered with a barrow of 
earth or stones, and one, Lower Lanyon Cromlech, 
was so covered when 
parish of Morvah, near Penzance, the distinction of 
being the most perfect and compact now in the county, 
and ventures on the following speculation respecting the 
process of its erection :—The east and west ends, each © 
63 ft. high and 39 ft. and 4 ft. broad respectively, 
were first set up 6 ft. apart. Against their western edges 
a flat block of granite, 8°3 ft. long, was placed in a 
slanting position. On this northern side, probably over 
this sloping stone, with the assistance of an embankment 
and rollers, a rough slab of hard-grained granite, convex 
on one side, 12 ft. in length and breadth, and from 14 in. 
, to 2ft. in thickness, was raised as the covering-stone. 
it was found. The author 
claims for the Chywoone or Chitin Cromlech, in the 
ee 
