7 b THE RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF OOKNWAIit. 



Cornwall, therefore, yields examples of stone circles varying 

 in diameter from twelve yards to fifty, the interval being filled 

 by circles — to render the dimensions more easy of comparison by 

 putting them roundly — of seventeen, twenty-two, twenty-three, 

 twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty-five, thirty-seven, 

 forty-five, forty-sis, and forty-nine yards. 



Beyond the fact that the circles of East Cornwall — the Duloe 

 excepted — are larger than those of West Cornwall, it is impossible 

 to glean any general deduction from these figures. There is 

 nothing to suggest that a difference in size indicates a difference 

 in origin or in purpose ; a conclusion we should never dream of 

 drawing — for example — from the varying sizes of the dwelling- 

 houses of the present day. There is nothing, in short, to justify 

 the hypothesis that the larger circles are " sacred circles," or 

 are in any way distinguished, save in size, from the smaller or 

 presumably " profane." We shall see, by and by, that Devon 

 will supply not merely still smaller circles, but fill up sundry of 

 the greater intervals in the Cornish list ; while Wiltshire will 

 yield the biggest circles known. 



Next, as to the number of stones forming the circles. In 

 many cases this is by no means clear ; but as a rule it can be 

 ascertained with sufficient accuracy for our present purpose. 

 There has been a frequent suggestion that these numbers have a 

 mystical meaning ; and because it so happens that there are, at 

 present, nineteen stones each, in the Boscawen-un circle and in 

 the Bolleit (Borlase claiming also Tregaseal and Boskednan), the 

 late Mr. E. Edmonds, with others, proposed a connection with the 

 Metonic cycle, which, if proved, would both indicate the approx- 

 imate date of the circles and reveal their object. But, were this 

 so, the number nineteen, singly or multiplied, would be essential^ 

 whereas the Bolleit circle is the only one in Cornwall in which 

 the nineteen stones are certainly original — the Boscawen being 

 manifestly incomplete, — nor is the nineteen more clearly indicated 

 elsewhere. Of none of the other West Cornwall circles can the 

 number be ascertained with accuracy, but there is no reason 

 whatever to suppose that it was nineteen rather than any other 

 figure. And on the other hand it is perfectly clear that the East 

 Cornwall circles all had more, ranging, in the case of Fernacre, 

 up to an observed sixty-four, and, in that of Stannon, to 76 ; 



