92 THE RtJBE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 



abodes of the living. Another link in the chain is the fact that 

 the common mode of interment in the kistvaen, so generally 

 associated with the circle, is that contracted form which recalls 

 the position of repose, and forcibly illustrates the line — 

 " Our little life is rounded with a sleep." 



The larger circles are of course far larger than any hut 

 circle ; but this might naturally arise from either of two causes : — 

 the desire to lend importance to the interment ; or, what we 

 know must have been the case in many instances, the reproduction 

 of a large enclosure which encircled a group of hut circles, 

 probably connected by the family tie. This view is sustained by 

 the fact that several of these large circles have been found to 

 contain groups of interments. And while the non-discovery 

 of interments in all cases is no proof that none exist, or have 

 existed, some allowance must be made for the vast length of 

 time over which circle buUding extended, which must have 

 carried with it some variations in method ; while it seems to be 

 absolutely clear that in certain of these rude monuments — again 

 paralleled in modern days — the work of construction was never 

 completed. There are rows that appear quite conclusive on this 

 head. 



I have stated that the practice of erecting these circles 

 extended over a vast length of time. This is easy of proof. 

 The worked stones of the outer circle at Stonehenge, are as 

 plainly indicative of more recent date, as the unworked "foreign 

 stones" of the inner circle are of earlier. Some of the barrows 

 near Stonehenge are undoubtedly of the Bronze Age ; but it by 

 no means follows that metal tools must have been used in 

 dressing the great trilithons and their imposts. The fact that 

 fragments of both the " native " and the "foreign" stones have 

 been found in a few of these barrows proves that the stones were 

 on the spot — in other words that Stonehenge, as we see it, was 

 erected — before these barrows were formed. The suggestion has 

 been made that the presence of the " foreign " stones, which may 

 have come from the Channel Islands, or Wales, or in part from 

 Cornwall and Devon, shows that Stonehenge must be a temple. 

 Their presence certainly indicates the importance of the 

 structure; but is the practice of bringing "foreign" stones, to 

 lend additional distinction or dignity to a sepulchral monument, 

 quite unknown even now ? 



