86 THE RTTDE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 



exceptions in both. And we find tlie same thing elsewhere — 

 Avebury, north-west and south-east, Stanton Drew east and west, 

 Carnac east and west, while at Ashdown in Surrey and in 

 Caithness, the direction is generally north and south. It is im- 

 possible to draw any general conclusions from orientations which 

 box the whole compass in this fashion. The most we can say is 

 that certain tribes, or residents in certain localities, had, for some 

 reason or another, their special preferences. Clearly there was 

 no common expression. The Dartmoor kistvaens indeed almost 

 universally lie north and south. There is no evidence of 

 orientation, however, in connection with the greater circles 

 unconnected with rows — such for example as the Grey Wethers, or 

 Throwleigh. There is a menhir about 8 deg. E. of S. of the 

 Raybarrow circle, but that is a boundary stone and may be 

 comparatively modern. 



Now, whatever the precise meaning and intention of the 

 stone rows may be — which we will not discuss at present — it is 

 clear that their nature is funereal. Wherever they are found 

 all their identifiable associations are sepulchral — cairns, barrows, 

 kistvaens, cromlechs, and, I will add, menhirs. It is impossible 

 to exclude the circles from the category. The wild idea of 

 Mr. Fergusson that the rows represent battle plans, would only 

 apply, if at all, in the case of double rows, and is utterly 

 irreconcileable, even on the vaguest hypothesis, with by far the 

 greater number of instances. Real enemies must have been 

 utterly absent in most instances, and the event depicted an idle 

 parade. It is, in short, purely a flight of the fancy, like the 

 druidical assumptions of the antiquaries of the elder school. 



The circles thus fall into place, as part of one great series. 

 In the majority of cases indeed their sepulchral character is quite 

 evident. They enclose barrows, cairns, kistvaens, cromlechs^ 

 menhirs ; while, not infrequently, interments have been found 

 where no surface indications of them were visible. Now this is 

 fully admitted with regard to the smaller circles. It is the larger 

 that have been dubbed "sacred," and so regarded as mysterious, 

 simply because they are larger. Yet the largest known, that of 

 Avebury, has stone rows attached, and can be none other than 

 sepulchral. And, in the foot-by-foot gradation of these monu- 

 ments, from the very smallest, whose sepulchral character no 



