246 



NA TURE 



[July 13, 1905 



NOTES ON STONEHENGE.^ 

 VII. — On the Dartmoor Avenues. 



SOME years ago I referred in Nature to the 

 numerous alignments of stones in Brittany, and 

 I was allowed by Lieut. Devoir, of the French Navy, 

 to give some of his theodolite observations of the 

 directions along which the stones had been set up. 



The conclusion was that we were really dealing 

 with monuments connected with the worship of the 

 sun of the May year, a year which the recent 

 evidence has shown to have been the first recognised 

 after the length of the year had been determined; 

 thus replacing the lunar unit of time which was in 

 vogue previously, and the use of which is brought 

 home to us by the reputed ages of Methuselah ?"d 

 other biblical personages, who knew no other 

 measurer of time than the moon. 



There was also evidence to the effect that in later 

 times solstitial alignments had been added, so that 

 the idea that we were dealing with astronomically 

 oriented rows of stones was greatly 

 strengthened, not to say established. 



So long as the Brittany align- 

 ments were things of mystery, their 

 origin, as well as that of the more 

 or less similar monuments in Britain, 

 was variously explained ; they were 

 models in stone of armies in battle 

 array, or they represented funeral 

 processions, to mention only two 

 suggestions. I should add that 

 Mr. H. Worth, who has devoted 

 much time to their study, considers 

 that some sepulchral interest at- 

 taches to them, though he thinks it 

 may be argued that that was 

 secondary, even as are interments in 

 cathedrals and churches. ."^bout 

 burials associated with them, of 

 course, there is no question, for the 

 kistvaens and cairns are there ; but 

 my observations suggest that they 

 were added long after the avenues 

 were built, as some cairns block 

 avenues. Perhaps a careful study of 

 the mode of burial may throw light 

 on this point. 



The equivalents of the Brittany F 



alignments are not common in 

 Britain ; they exist in the greatest number on Dart- 

 moor, whither I went recently to study them. The 

 conditions on high Dartmoor are peculiar. 



Blinding mists are common, and, moreover, some- 

 times come on almost without warning. From its 

 conformation the land is full of streams. There are 

 stones everywhere. What I found, therefore, as had 

 others before me, was that as a consequence of the 

 conditions to which I have referred, directions had 

 been indicated by rows of stones for quite other than 

 ceremonial purposes. Here, then, was a possible third 

 origin. It was a matter of great importance to dis- 

 criminate most carefully between these alignments, and 

 to endeavour to sort them out. My special inquiry, of 

 course, was to see if they, like their apparent equiva- 

 lents in Brittany, could have had an astronomical 

 origin. The first thing to do, then, was to see which 

 might have been erected for worship or which for prac- 

 tical purposes. 



In doing this there is no difficulty in dealing with 

 extremes. Thus one notable line of large flat stones 

 has been claimed by Messrs. R. N. ^^'orth and 



^ Continued from p. 34. 



NO. 1863, VOL. 72] 



R. Burnard as a portion of the Groat Fosseway 

 (Rowe's "Perambulation," third edition, p. 63); it 

 has been traced for eighteen miles from beyond 

 Hameldon nearh' to Tavistock, the stones being about 

 2 feet thick and the road 10 feet wide. 



There are two notable avenues of upright stones 

 at Merrivale ; they are in close connection with a 

 circle, and could have had no practical use. These 

 stones, then, we may claim as representing the oppo- 

 site extreme of the Fosseway and as suggesting an 

 astronomical, as opposed to a practical, use; the 

 adjacent circle, of course, greatly strengthens this 

 view. 



It is between these extremes that difficulties may 

 arise, but the verdict can, in a great many cases at 

 all events, be settled without any very great hesita- 

 tion, especially where practical or astronomical use- 

 lessness can be established. But even here care is 

 necessary, as I shall show. 



The stones now in question, originally upright, are 

 variouslv called avenues, rows, alignments or 



17. — The Southern Av 



Photo, by Lady Lockye 

 Merrivale, looking East, 



parallelithons. Their study dates from 1S27, when 

 Rowe and Colonel Hamilton Smith examined those at 

 Merrivale (Rowe, op. cit., p. 31). Their number has 

 increased with every careful study of any part of the 

 moor, and doubtless many are still unmapped.' The 

 late Mr. R. N. Worth, of Plymouth, and his son, 

 Mr. H. Worth, have given great attention to these 

 monuments, and the former communicated a paper on 

 them to the Devonshire Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in 1892 (Trans., xxv. pp. 387-417). 



-\ word of caution must be said before I proceed. 

 We must not take for granted that the stone-rows 

 are now as they left the hands of the builders. The 

 disastrous carelessness of the Government in the 

 matter of our national antiquities is, I am locally 

 informed, admirably imitated by the Devonshire 

 County and other lesser councils, and, indeed, by any- 

 body who has a road to mend or a wall to build. On 

 this account, any of the rows may once have been 

 much longer and with an obvious practical use ; and 



1 Only yesterday (June 15) that excellent guide of the Chagford part nf 

 the moor, Mr. S. Perrott, showed me an avenue (Azimuth N. 20" E. true) 

 near Hurston Ridge which is not shown in the i-inch map. 



