110 RUDE STONE MONTTMENTS ON BODMIN MOOR. 



short measurements, would be largely reduced. The one 

 exception is in the distance between Stripple Stones and Fernacre 

 which thus measured would be in excess of the proportion above 

 stated (7^). The conception of such a proportioned arrange- 

 ment and the measurements necessary to carry it out, even with 

 the degree of accuracy attained, would seem only possible for 

 someone accustomed to the works and ways of a higher state 

 of civilisation than that of the people who lived in the stone huts, 

 and probably erected the stone circles, but the use of an oriental 

 measure would indicate intercourse with a more civilized people, 

 and the fact that the 25.1 inch cubit does not, so far as I know, 

 appear in connection with any other circles, seems to suggest that 

 that intercourse may have been of a casual rather than of a fre- 

 quent character. It may therefore not be unreasonable to 

 suppose that someone from some country bordering on the 

 Mediterranean may have visited Cornwall, perhaps three 

 thousand years ago, as a merchant, explorer, or refugee, or 

 possibly as a slave carried there for sale, and that, being 

 there, he was employed by the local chief in the construction 

 of his public works, and made use of a measure which he 

 happened to have with him. Still, as all these coincidences of 

 measurement and proportion may be accidental, I do not wish 

 to build any theory upon them, but I think it will be admitted 

 that they should be recorded. 



There are, however, some other facts regarding the positions 

 of the circles relatively to each other and to the hills around 

 them, concerning which I have formed a very decided opinion. 



It will be seen from the Ordnance map, and can be verified 

 on the spot, that the Stripple-Stones circle, Garrow-Tor, the 

 Fernacre circle, and Eough-Tor, are all in a direct line, nearly 

 due north and south ; and that the Stannon circle and Fernacre 

 circle are in a direct line with Brown-Willy, at a right angle to 

 the first line, that is nearly due east and west, while the Trippet 

 Stones circle and Leaze circle are in a line with Eough-Tor, 1 1 

 to 1 2 degrees east of north. A difference in the situation of any 

 of these circles, of one or two hundred feet, would put them quite 

 out of these lines, but there is no apparent reason why they 

 might not just as well have been put anywhere round about as 



