110 Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments. 



of Beowulf and Themistocles, it was a solitary pile, conspicuous 

 from afar*. Its singleness might have been occasioned by the 

 stones within its precincts being exhausted in rearing it. It was 

 surrounded by a coarsely-piled ring-fence, described as resem- 

 bling an old fold. Its diameter was about 96 feet, and its area 

 804f square yards. The height equalled that of St. David's. 

 It was begun to be demolished in the same year as that cairn. 

 A few remnants of bone, described as being like pieces of chalk, 

 were all that repaid the proprietor for his labour. Most of it 

 was led away to fill up drains and erect stone fences. The quan- 

 tity of stones contained in it must have been immense. It was 

 popularly reported that this was one of the spots where the 

 plague was buried, and that if the cairn was lifted, the pesti- 

 lence would reappear. It was believed that the plague, like 

 other mysterious distempers, was some gross matter that " flew 

 in the air," from which it was possible to attract it by means of 

 some substance, to which, from some elective affinity, it would 

 ally itself. The most popular of these was a piece of raw meat 

 carried up into the atmosphere by means of a paper-kite, which 

 collected and brought down all the virus in a concentrated state 

 to the ground, where, for the common preservation, it was carefully 

 smothered with stones. Such places are not uncommon in 

 various districts of Scotland. Dr. Leyden mentions that the 

 plague is frequently represented as having combined its virulence 

 with a pot of goldf. When the great plague raged in London, 

 it was recommended to have large quantities of onions exposed 

 in boats "on the Thames, to withdraw from the air "the vast 

 number of minute, unwholesome " animalculse, which were sup- 

 posed to be the occasion of it J. A great sickness, we are told, 

 prevailed in Paris in the early part of 1754; for which the phy- 

 sicians could not assign any adequate cause. Some accused the 

 water, but at length it appears to have been agreed that the air 

 was corrupted. The following experiment was devised by " these 

 gentlemen " : — " One morning at eight o'clock they fastened to 

 a very long pole at the top of the observatory, a piece of the 

 freshest and soundest meat ; at nine it was taken down and in- 

 spected, when it was entirely vitiated in colour, taste, smell, and 

 touch I" § 



Such are the memorials of the ancient inhabitants of this part 

 of Britain, of which, blotted from the landscape, and fading from 



* " Wrought then the people of the Westerns a mound over the sea, it 

 was high and broad to the sea-faring men, to be seen afar." (Beowulf.) 

 The tomb of Themistocles overlooked the Piraeus (Plutarch, in Vit. The- 

 mist.). Vide Wright, Biograph.Britan.Literaria: Anglo-Saxon Period, 11, 12. 



t Scenes of Infancy, note to Book II. 



X Bradley on Planting and Gardening; Gentleman's Magazine, April 

 1838, p. 379. § Newcastle General Magazine, June 1754, p. 329. 



