202 RUDE STONE MONTTMENTS OF CORWALL. 



and S.SE. of the kists at Chapel Carn Brea. The rule is not 

 absolute, for the Zennor cromlech is placed E. and W., and the 

 Pawton, N. and 8. But it is evident that the orientation of the 

 Men-an-Tol has a general relationship with the orientation of 

 these other memorials, which we cannot disregard. 



If then we are prepared to accept the view that the 

 Men-an-Tol is not a complete monument, but a ruin, we shall, I 

 think, have no difficulty in bringing it into general accord with 

 our older sepulchral monuments, and in placing it in the same 

 particular category as the chambered barrow with the holed 

 stones already cited. In this case the Men-an-Tol proper, with 

 the stones directly E. and W., would represent, lengthwise, the 

 chamber of a vanished barrow. The other stones, close by, might 

 well have formed part of that chamber, or indeed of an enclosing 

 circle. It is quite clear, also, that if the Men-an-Tol group is to be 

 regarded as original and complete, the Tolven stone is defective ; 

 while, if the hole alone is to be considered, there is no reason 

 why one should be treated as typical rather than the other. The 

 modern practices connected with either and with holed stones 

 elsewhere — and carried out in variant form with riven ash trees 

 — need have no direct connection with the original intention or 

 use, and in all likelihood have not. There is, after all, very little 

 difference in the spirit which prompts a modern antiquary to 

 invest a rude stone monument with a plausible hypothesis, and 

 that which led his equally ignorant, less cultured, but more 

 practical predecessors, to conceive that these memorials were 

 intended for some purpose, and to set about utilising them as 

 best they knew how. They could not write their theories, so 

 they Aid them. 



OoNCIiUSION. 



It seems, therefore, on a full and careful review of the "Rude 

 Stone Monuments" of Cornwall, that their main object and 

 intention is sepulchral. That such sacredness as attaches — or 

 rather did attach — to them, comes of their connection with the 

 spirits of the dead, regard for whom is an integral feature of 

 all primitive religions, so far as we have any knowledge. And 

 if it appear strange that we should be acquainted with a long 

 vanished race, chiefly through its customs of burial, we should 



