152 



NA TURE 



[December 19, 1907 



myself made measures of other monuments, but space 

 fails me to refer to them now ; still, I must make one 

 exception. 



VVe measured still another cromlech of very con- 

 siderable interest, as in it we dealt with a presenta- 

 tion to the rise of a clock-star, and no longer to the 

 sun. This is the remaining- interior of a four-cham- 

 bered barrow situated at Pare y Braose, or Pare Cwm, 

 or the Green Combe. It was excavated by Sir John 

 Lubbock, now Lord Aveburv. The true azimuth is 

 N. 8° E., the height of the' horizon 6°. These data 

 give us Arcturus 2600 B.C., a little earlier than the 

 Cornish monuments with somewhat similar orienta- 

 tions. 



It will be very instructive at some future day to 

 compare the plans of the Castell Corrig cromlechs and 

 that of .Arthur's Stone with a view of determining 

 the e.Kact alignments of the supporters. I have 

 already done this work on the plans of the Cornish 

 cromlechs. 



A study of Lukis's plans, especially of the stones 

 still upright, brings out many interesting points, 

 among them the fact that there were two general 

 methods of building. One was to plant one or two 

 stones in the e.xact direction of the alignment. The 

 location of the other stones did not matter so long 

 as the quoit was properly supported, but in many 

 cases they were set up parallel to the directing stone, 

 as we may call the first one erected. Another system 

 was to support the quoit on a tripod. When this 

 was done its greatest length was sometimes at right 

 angles to the direction of orientation, this direction 

 being indicated by the alignment of the single stone 

 at one end. 



It often struck me in Cornwall that the exact 

 alignments, especially to the May-year sunrises, which 

 really required a knowledge of the number of davs 

 which had elapsed since the last solstice, were the 

 work, not of each local druid, but of peripatetic astro- 

 nomer-priests who went from place to place establish- 

 ing and orienting the circle and' the priests' house 

 (cromlech), and then leaving subordinate priest-druids 

 — curates — in charge, who could not go far wrong 

 when the alignment of both circle and cromlech fixed 

 the May, August, November and February festivals ; 

 the solstices they could easily fix for themselves, be- 

 cause then the sun rose in the same place on three 

 successive mornings. 



The study of Lukis's plans shows that the work of 

 the peripatetic priest might really have been limited 

 in the first instance to the setting up of the single 

 directing stone. Of course he would examine the 

 finished work in his tours of inspection, probably at the 

 critical times of the year — the quarter days. 



I sent this suggestion some little time ago to the 

 Rev. J. Griffith, who has greatly helped me by per- 

 mitting me to draw upon his vast store of Welsh 

 tradition. His reply really supplies us with a new 

 line of evidence as to the tenancv of cromlechs by 

 living men, in addition to those I have already put 

 forward. 



" I have spotted your travelling time-keeper, though 

 1 seem never to see anything until vou point out 

 what to look for. He is very conspicuous in W'elsh 

 cave legends. There is the lonely watchman — your 

 ' curate ' — waiting and waiting for him. AH over 

 th? country a couplet is known as having been uttered 

 by the ' curate.' 



' Long the day and long the night, 

 .And long it is to wait for .Aaron.' 

 " Sometimes his name is Noah. It is clear why 

 the pagan should have a Bible name ; Aaron is the 

 rationalised form of the name of a Welsh legendary 

 hero — .Arawn. 



NO. 1990, VOL. yy] 



"In two cave legends the curate is heard exclaim- 

 ing : — 



'The hour is come, but the man is not.' 



In one case it is the eve of New Year's Day. 



" Who could the mysterious man be if not your peri- 

 patetic astronomer-priest? He was evidently very 

 much wanted for the great festival. Your surmise or 

 conclusion has lit up a round dozen tales I now re- 

 member, and doubtless I can find many more." 

 Norman Lockyer. 



THE INCREASED ENDOWMENT OF 

 UNIVERSITIES. 

 Wl L are glad to see that the Press is again direct- 

 * • ing attention to the importance of an increased 

 endowment of our universities, not so much, at the 

 present moment, of the older universities as the 

 younger ones. It is, in fact, the Government action 

 in regard to Manchester University which has directed 

 attention to the subject. That opinion is getting 

 more enlightened is evidenced by the fact that it 

 is now beginning to be recognised that the real 

 gainer by such endowment as this is not any par- 

 ticular locality or university, but every student 

 throughout the lengm and breadth of the land who 

 is debarred by high fees from attending university 

 courses, the university being compelled to charge 

 high fees in order to go on at all in consequence of 

 the absence of adequate income from any other 

 source. 



Here are some extracts from a recent article Ln 

 the Morning Post, to take one instance : — 



" It is necessary if the nation is to continue to be an 

 independent Power to have a Navy able to defeat and 

 destroy its rivals, and an .Army able to do all such fight- 

 ing, in case of war, as the Navy cannot do. But this 

 necessity, of which no one is enamoured, does not absolve 

 the Government from the duty of doing the very best it 

 can for the training not only of the rank and tile, but of 

 the leaders of its population. Mr. Asquith will provide 

 in his estimates some fifty million pounds for the needs 

 of the Navy and of the .Army. This of course cannot be 

 reduced. For the modern universities and colleges that 

 represent a great popular effort towards providing a better 

 training for leaders than existed for the fathers of men 

 now at work, and for many of those men themselves, 

 Mr. Asquith cannot imagine that he ought to provide more 

 than ioo,oool. But this sum might be increased without 

 reducing the other. The fifty millions are unproductive 

 expenditure. They are mere insurance, a disagreeable 

 necessity. But the money spent on educating young people 

 is the most remunerative outlay possible to a nation. 



" The University of Manchester is the means, in most 

 cases the only means, open to the inhabitants of a great 

 area in South-east Lancashire, Cheshire, and part of A'orU- 

 shire, a population numbered by millions, of obtaining an 

 education going beyond school work. It is admittedly 

 among the best of modern universities, with a large staff 

 of first-rate professors, an admirable set of buildings, and 

 an assiduous, devoted, and capable governing body. It 

 represents the chance of South-east Lancashire providing 

 itself with leaders in industry, commerce, the sciences, and 

 the humanities. 



" Manchester may have to compete with some place 

 like Berlin, the centre of a comparatively small population. 

 Berlin does not limit its Government grant to university 

 and other forms of higher education to such a sum as ten 

 thousand a year, therefore, and Berlin tends to eclipse 

 Manchester in the fields of industry, trade, science, art, 

 and the humanities. 



" Mr. Asquith knows as well as anyone else how many 

 millions such men as .Sir Robert Giffen and Sir Norman 

 Lockyer think the British Government will have to spend 

 on universities and colleges if England is to keep her place 

 among the nations. They may talk, but he draws the 



