BTJDE STONE MONUMENTS OF CORNWALL. 199 



so-called Tolmen of Constantine, the destruction of wMch, a 

 few years since was so much lamented. All these, with the 

 Logan stones, and the rock-basins, and such quaint piles as the 

 Cheesewring and Bowerman's Nose, and the mural crests of the 

 Dartmoor Tors — I ascribe purely and solely to natural causes on 

 the one hand, and ignorance of those causes and their effects on 

 the other. Granite rock groupings and weatherings of this 

 kind literally teem in the west, and it is always the size — never 

 the conditions — that attracts attention. 



And I am afraid that '* holed stones" have been brought 

 into the series, claiming only a very matter-of-fact purpose and 

 origin. Dr. Borlase suggested that certain holed posts near 

 Eosmoddress circle were used for tying victims to, preparatory 

 to sacrifice. It is a great deal more certain that some such were 

 simply pierced to receive the bars of a fence, that others may 

 have been used for haltering, and others again in connection 

 with gates or mining operations. The holed gate-posts, for 

 example, at Buryan and Bosworton, figured by Mr. Lukis, are 

 absolutely identical with gate-posts through which I have seen 

 the shanks of hinges or catches passed and secured by nuts. 

 The line of holed stones at Tregaseal — 8-ft. 9-in., 21 -ft. 6-in., 

 and 6-ft. apart — need suggest nothing more than the passage 

 of fence rods ; holes of 5;^ to 3|^-inches in diameter are no way 

 remarkable. I have seen several fences so formed. While such 

 casual occurrences as the stones figured by Mr. Lukis, from 

 Trelew, Wendron, and Tregiffian might well have been used 

 for haltering. 



As for the holed slabs. Big flat stones are not infrequently 

 used for the stiles of foot-paths and fields ; and it is by no means 

 unusual to find holes broken through them to afford a stepping 

 place in climbing over. Removed from its connection, such a 

 stone, to the uninitiated, might well become a mystery, no less 

 remarkable say than the Tolven. 



So far therefore as I can see, the only holed stones that call 

 for consideration, as antiquities of the rude stone age in 

 Cornwall, are the Men-an-Tol and the Tolven. The latter is 

 simply a stone slab with a circular aperture, 16^ -ins. in diameter, 

 wrought equally from either side, which has been moved from 



