THE ETTDK STONE MONUMENTS OF COENWALL. 81 



them, is to examine such records as the ''Antiquities" of Borlase, 

 who certainly records the existence, in his time, of circles wholly 

 unlike any yet in being — to wit, atBotallack. But we need be 

 very cautious. This enthusiastic antiquary, apart from his 

 speculative tendencies, was not always too careful to discriminate 

 between things that differ. It is plain, alike from his drawings 

 and remarks, that he did not distinguish between the hut- 

 ring and the circle proper, or between either and what is 

 called, on Dartmoor, a pound. A circle, to him, was a circle ; 

 whether the enclosing stones were contiguous or apart. We 

 need only refer, in proof, to his figure of the Tredinek circle, 

 which he regarded as providing seats or standing places for the 

 chiefs of an assembly. It is simply such a big hut ring as is to 

 be found by the score on Dartmoor, with one of the door-jambs 

 standing. The Senor (Zennor) circle, which (in like manner) he 

 judged to have been a place of election, is but a small cattle-pen. 

 The Kerris Eoundago, regarded by him as a place of worship, 

 and as taking its name, probably, from the circlings of the Druids, 

 is a structure of precisely the same type, undoubtedly denomin- 

 ated from its figure. With these warnings before us, we should 

 not be hasty in drawing any conclusions from the plate of the 

 circles at Botallack ; which seems to me only too exact in its 

 detail. According to the scale, the diameters vary from five 

 paces to thirty — the use of paces instead of feet or yards does not 

 inspire further confidence, — and only three of the five larger are 

 complete, — viz. : the single example, and two of the supposed 

 intersecting groups. The whole arrangement indeed suggests to 

 me a cluster of enclosures for cattle and the like, with a hut circle 

 or two ; very much as may still be found, here and there, on 

 Dartmoor. Since every trace has disappeared, this, of course, is 

 sheer speculation ; but I am perfectly sure that the plate cannot 

 be trusted to add to our knowledge of the stone circles of the 

 county. 



Let us, now, see what light the kindred antiquities of 

 Dartmoor, — which clearly belong to the same time and race, — 

 can throw on our enquiry. 



Stone circles are far more common on Dartmoor than in 

 Cornwall, though, as a rule, smaller. Nevertheless the Forest 

 contains such fine examples as the twin Grey Wethers of 105 

 and 100 feet diameter ; the Scorhill of 90 feet, with one of its 



