I50 



NATURE 



[December 19, 1907 



NOTES Oy ANCIENT BRITISH MONVMENTS.' 

 in. — Some Measurements in Soutfi Wales. 



THANKS to the kindness of the Rev. John Griffith, 

 Col. Morg;an and other friends, I was enabled last 

 August to visit several monuments in South Wales. 



I had previously inquired of persons living in North 

 Wales about the existence of cromlechs and other 

 memorials of the past in that region, and had been 

 informed that they were very rare; but before my 

 visit to Swansea the Rev. J. Griffith had told me 

 that he personally knew of forty cromlechs in South 

 Wales, so one would suppose that the conditions are 

 very different in different parts of the Principality; 

 but this does not appear to be so, for I have since 

 found that Anglesea is richer in these monuments 

 than Glamorgan. Perhaps the explanation is that 

 there is little general interest taken in these matters. 



The most important cromlech I visited under the 



auspices I have mentioned was that of Maen Ketti, 

 or Arthur's Stone, in Gower, whither we motored 

 from .Swansea. 



The antiquities in this region, which are very 

 numerous and important, and include the remains of 

 one or more avenues as well as the cromlech, were 

 carefully studied by Sir Gardner \\'ilkinson.^ 



In his most interesting account of them he begins 

 by pointing out the important place the cromlech 

 itself occupies in \\'elsh tradition : — 



"If the Greeks recorded the ' wonders of the 

 world ' in their time, under the mystical number 

 seven, four of which might be claimed as their own, 

 th; Cymry have also recorded the wonders and mighty 

 labours of the Britons in one of their Triads under 

 their favourite, an equally mystical, number three : 

 namely i, raising the Maen Cetti ; 2, erecting the 

 work of Emrys ; and 3, heaping the pile or mound, of 

 Cyfrangon. The first of these is the stone of Cetti, 

 or ' .\rthur's -Stone '; the second, Stonehenge ; and 

 the third, apparently, the mound called Silbury Hill, 

 near Abury. " 



^ Continued from p. 84. 



■■; "Avenue.s and Cairns about Arthur's Stone in Go 

 Wilkinson (" Arch. Cambrensis," fourth series, vol. i., pn 



NO 1990, VOL. y'^'] 



' by Gardn 

 43)- 



For Sir Gardner the cromlech was a great tomb, 

 as his description will indicate : — 



" The great cromlech, called Arthur's Stone, stands 

 on that part of the hill called Cefn Bryn in Gower. 

 which is an outlying branch projecting from the north 

 side of the main ridge Cefn, or ' backbone '; and the 

 great number of earns in that locality show that it 

 was selected as the most appropriate spot for the burial 

 of the dead in early British times. For though 

 several earns, or tumuli, are found on other parts of 

 the hill, they are more scattered, and evidently occupy 

 positions not so peculiarly chosen for the purpose." 

 He next refers to the avenue. 



" Near to the great cromlech is a line of four, or 

 perhaps five, stones, standing at irregular distances 

 from each other, and in a direction nearly east and 

 west, which has every appearance of being the remains 

 of an avenue. If so it passed a little to the north of 

 tha cromlech ; and though these stones only form a 



portion of one 

 side, or of one row 

 of that avenue, 

 some of the corre- 

 sponding stones 

 may be traced on 

 the other side, 

 and give the 

 avenue a breadth 

 of about 49 feet. 

 The five most con- 

 spicuous stones on 

 the north side may- 

 be the isolated re- 

 mains of a great 

 number which 

 once stood there, 

 the intervals be- 

 tween them being 

 respectively 165 

 feet, 79 feet, 149 

 feet, and 107 feet ; 

 and the whole 

 length of the line, 

 from the most 

 easterly to the 

 westernmost 

 stone, nearly op- 

 posite or to the 

 north of a drive 

 or grass road ap- 

 p;irently made there in later times, which passes to 

 the north of the cromlech ; and as the stone opposite 

 the cromlech (the westernmost of the five above men- 

 tioned) is distant from it about 60 feet, this alone 

 suffices to show that the avenue did not run direct to 

 that monument. It is difficult to determine whether 

 a corresponding line of stones formerly stood on the 

 opposite or south side, so as to form a real avenue ; 

 but even if this were so, the avenue would not, as we 

 have already seen, lead to, but past, the cromlech, 

 as the grass road does at the present day. It is also 

 difficult to decide whether the road has taken the place 

 of an older one, once the centre of the avenue, or is 

 a drive of entirely recent origin made for the purpose 

 of passing near the cromlech, and round the great 

 earn beyond it to the west; whence it continues over 

 the adjoining part of the hill. It certainly has the 

 usual appearance of old paths, such as we find in the 

 vicinity of ancient ruins, the grass being short and 

 smooth ; though this mav have been caused by the 

 removal of the fern and furze, and the constant use of 

 the road after it was formed into a drive. It is, how- 

 ever, reasonable to suppose that the few stones, which 

 stand here and there to the south of the grass road, 

 constituted part of the corresponding side of the 



