XXlll 



whole being covered with a cairn, or heap of loose stones, the use 

 of the circles being merely to mark out the shape of the cairn. 

 The large circles M^ere probably erected outside the cairn, as a 

 fence. — The visitors were gratified to find that not a stone had 

 been removed since Borlase wrote of them in his " Antiquities," 

 120 years ago. Their number now, as then, was 22.* 



Descending the old cairn, a short visit to the habitation of 

 Daniel Gunib, built of granite boulders that have now fallen into 

 a ruin. On one of the stones was still the inscription, " D. Gumb, 

 1736"; and upon the surface of another which had formed the 

 roof, was a diagram, intended probably to illustrate a problem of 

 Euclid. 



Time did not allow of the purposed visit to the interesting 

 remains at Smallacombe ; t and after the Cheesewring had been 

 photographed with numerous visitors and natives grouped about 

 its base, the party hastened to South Caradon Mine, — some in 

 carriages, whilst others, preferring to make a short cut on foot 

 along the railway, visited the barrow, at Stowes Mine, in which 

 was discovered, in 1837, the unique Gold Cup:|: which, by permis- 

 sion from the Queen, was exhibited by Mr. Smirke at a special 

 meeting of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, in August, 1867. |j 



In the Account-house at South Caradon the excursionists par- 



* This remark applies, of course, only to the three circles visited. Mr. 

 Blight, in his recently published 



'^ Notes on Stone Circles," speaks »*'*•» 



of two upright stones of a fourth • » 



circle — distant about 120 yards • ; 



north-westerly from the group of *•_»,.•♦' 



three circles. He says : " Three ) 



■were placed in a line running about 

 N.N.E. by S.S.W. The northern- 

 most is 37 yards from the centre 

 one, from which to the southern- 

 most the distance is 31 yards. 120 

 yards N.W. of these are two stones 

 of the fourth circle. The spaces 



between the uprights must have ^. •"■'.. .'•*» 



averaged about 10 feet when the ,' « •' • •' *"*, 



circles were complete. Their height \ • • : « / 



is from 2 feet to 5 feet 6 inches. '>— -'•' *••••** •»i-* 



The diameter of the north circle is 

 97 feet ; the centre one, 136 feet. There are no traces of internal works." 



f An illustrated notice of the "Enclosures at Smallacombe," by Mr. 

 J. T. Blight, is published in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Corn- 

 wall, No. IX. 



+ Now in the Museum of the Eoyal Institution of Cornwall, at Truro. 



II See Journal of the Boyal Institution of Cornwall, Nos. VIII and IX. 



/- 



