318 Wayland Smith's Cave or Cromlech. 



at the top, surrounded by an outer ditch ; the top of this mound 

 having a circle of stones, in the centre of which is a cruciform 

 chamber in the shape of a Latin Cross, there being one arm to the 

 south decidedly longer than the others. On examining the ground 

 opposite the north end, it appeared to me as though there was a 

 continuous embankment, calculated for an alley of stones, or a dromos, 

 as at Avebury, near Marlborough, And here, possibly, was an 

 opening in the outer ring affording access to the enclosure. The 

 whole of the mound and a considerable distance, where I suppose 

 the avenue to have been, were some years since closely planted with 

 fir-trees, so that it is not without considerable care that the precise 

 form of the whole can be guessed. The species of gallery with 

 the two lateral chambers, which the general form presents, is very 

 like the galleries of New Grange, Wellow, Pornic, and the Qalgaloi 

 Gavrennes: but these were all embedded in mounds, which Wayland 

 Smith's Cave has never been. The outer circle of stones immedi- 

 ately raises it to the dignity of those gigantic Cromlechs [magna 

 componere parvis) of Stenness in the Orkneys, Landaoudec in Crozon, 

 at Carnac near Auray, in Morbihan, France, 20 miles to the S.E. of 

 rOrient, Stonehenge and Avebury in Wiltshire, with this exception, 

 that the inner constructions were there circular, instead of being 

 cruciform as in this instance. (See Gailhabaud, " Monumens 

 Anciens et Modernes," article "Monumens Celtiques," 1840 — 50.) 

 I leave it to others, more versed than myself in Celtic antiquities, 

 to decide the actual destination of this monument of our forefathers. 

 May I presume to suggest, that the centre may have contained the 

 remains of one or more deified persons held in high veneration ; 

 that the whole enclosure was dedicated to public worship ; and that 

 perhaps the covering stones themselves served as altars, and on 

 them were possibly offered the human victims, sacrificed to propi- 

 tiate the manes of the dead, or to appease by their bloody rites the 

 wrath of the savage gods of the Druid Priests. T. L. D. 



At the conclusion of the paper Mr. Lukis said that, while 

 expressing what he felt sure was the sense of the meeting, viz., 

 that the best thanks of the Society were due to Professor Donaldson 



