80 THE RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 



With regard, however, to either the Cornish or Devon circles 

 I fail to find such evidence. There is, to the best of my observation, 

 no circle in Cornwall so placed, relatively to the menhirs which 

 at times accompany them, as to indicate more than a vague and 

 very inaccurate orientation, so far as summer sunrise is concerned, 

 at the best. 



Mr. Lewis's hypothesis, however, allows of the use of 

 hill tops and hill gaps and other prominent points of the 

 landscape, for its support ; and, this being so, it seems to me 

 matter of some surprise that his efforts to establish the position 

 are not more successful. It surely must be evident, on the smallest 

 consideration, that a circle can be made capable of orientation, in 

 some form or another, on any and every day in the year. And 

 this is the more easy, where, as in Cornwall and in Devon, 

 these circles follow the general rule of the hut rings of the 

 ancient villages, and lie on the southern slopes of the high 

 moorlands. 



The reason for this will be evident as we proceed, and with 

 it the reason for the undoubted orientation of such circles as 

 Stonehenge, Stanton, and Arbor. And it may even be that 

 orientation does exist to some extent in the West, and that minor 

 variations may have arisen from precisely the same cause as the 

 discrepancies in the orientation of our older churches, the fact 

 that east was taken from the sunrise at different periods of the 

 year. It is impossible, however, to prove that orientation is an 

 essential feature, as we shall see most plainly when we come to 

 deal with stone rows in connection with circles. 



The last feature to be considered, in this connection, is the 

 area of the circles. Are there any inclusions to yield indications 

 of purpose ? Here the great majority of the Cornish circles are 

 dumb. The Boscawen-un and the Stripple Stones circles, however, 

 contain menhirs ; and the Duloe, the remains of a barrow. 

 None of the others give any certain suggestion of contents ; and 

 all that can be said further, under this head, is that in most cases 

 the circles are associated, more or less closely, with barrows, 

 cairns, kistvaens, menhirs, and other memorials of a sepulchral 

 character. But there is no further fixed or general rule. It 

 will have been observed that we have only been dealing with 

 existing Cornish circles ; some, perhaps many, have disappeared ; 

 but the only means of carrying enquiry further, with regard to 



