498 NOTES AND QUERIES. 



works is crossed, and the face turned towards the east. They are 

 very easy to visit, being so near the road ; and are in suthciently 

 good repair to well repay a leisured inspection. 



No. 4. 

 Opening of a Cairn on Ridge Hill. 

 On May 22nd, 1889, I received the following from Mr. Rodd, 

 of Trebartha Hall : — "We have been raising a wall round the old 

 plantation below Ridge Hill lately, and have driven an adit through 

 the cairn on the top, in order to get stone for the purpose. This 

 morning I see that the men have arrived at a central rock, around 

 which the cairn appears to have been built. The top of the cairn 

 appears to have been disturbed at some former time, and to have 

 been composed of a number (7 or 8) of irregularly shaped cells, or 

 chambers, very roughly built : I cannot conceive for what purpose ; 

 we hope to go up there again with two carts and clear away stone 

 to the centre of the ground-line : I should much like you to see 

 what we have done." Accordingly on July 3rd, I accompanied 

 Mr. Rodd and some friends, and found that a passage had been made 

 from the circumference at the north side to the centre, and beyond 

 the centre of the cairn, by removal of loose stones, and that the 

 original ground-level of this portion of it was exposed to view. In 

 the centre (or thereabouts) of the area on which the cairn had been 

 constructed was a large slab of granite, about 5 feet long, 2 to 3 

 feet square, partially embedded, and apparently as laid there by 

 nature. This block certainly seemed to have been the " nucleus 

 round which the cairn was formed, for it seemed to be the centre of 

 some concentric circles of stones, — on edge, — which, at some little 

 •distance, circumscribed the block. The surface of the ground, and 

 the faces of the loose stones all around in the " crater" of the cairn 

 were so coloured and scarred with tar and tire from the bonfires, or 

 beacon-tires of various generations, including the jubilee bonfire, 

 and the molten tar had penetrated between the interstices of the 

 stones, and permeated the soil to such an extent, that it was most 

 difficult to determine whether the burnt earth immediately above the 

 subsoil was due to this cause only, or was indicative of a funeral 

 pyre. However, on excavating round the granite-slab previously 

 divided into two parts for the more easy removal, it distinctly 



