THE RTJDE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 93 



Greoffrey of Monmouth says that Stonehenge was raised by 

 Aurelius Ambrosius, A.D. 490, to the memory of a number of 

 British chiefs killed by the Saxons, on the suggestion and by 

 the help of Merlin — the sole value of which statement consists 

 in the recognition of a sepulchral character, and is very small. 

 The attempt has been made to sustain this idea, specially as to 

 the date, by the character of the orientation. But that is a most 

 uncertain foundation for any hypothesis. The present-day fact 

 is this — that if any one looks from the so-called "altar stone " in 

 the circle towards a tall exterior menhir called the Friar's Heel 

 on the 21st of June, he will see, weather permitting, the sun rise 

 exactly behind that stone. But that this present-day fact is a proof 

 of original intention depends, for one thing, upon the so-called 

 altar stone — which is broken — occupying its original position ; 

 whereas Aubrey expressly states that "an altar stone found 

 in the middle of the area " had been carried away. It depends, 

 for another, on the original position of the big stone immediately 

 outside the outer circle, which is known as the " slaughtering 

 stone." When this was upright, if the present site is the correct 

 one, it blocked the view of the Friar's Heel from the "altar stone" 

 altogether. The only certain evidence of date, therefore, (in my 

 opinion), that Stonehenge affords, is that it was erected before or 

 during the Bronze Age, and this of itself is sufficient to dispose 

 of the Aurelian-Ambrosian myth, which would refer it to the days 

 of Iron. 



But Devon, if not Cornwall, yields evidence of far higher 

 value, and shows us that we are much more likely to err in 

 bringing down the date of these memorials than in carrying 

 them back. There is on Dartmoor ample proof, in more than 

 one locality, that the stone rows and the hut circles are generally, 

 if not wholly contemporaneous, while, as we have seen, the rows 

 are clearly coeval with the circles. Now during the past two 

 years, several exhaustive investigations have been made into 

 the hut circles of Dartmoor, chiefly by the E-ev. S. Baring-Gould, 

 and by Mr. Robert Burnard ; while in the present year an equally 

 exhaustive examination has been made of Grimspound, in which 

 I have had the pleasure of participating. And while refraining 

 from going into details fully set forth by our Committee elsewhere, 

 I may say at once that, without exception, these hut circles were 



