Rude Stone Antiquities of Brittany. By Miss Russell. 515 



A long underground chamber, with a narrow passage leading 

 into it, near Quiniper, must by the description (I am not sure 

 how far it has been preserved) have much resembled the Picts' 

 House at Crichton, in which there are cut stones which must have 

 been brought from some Roman building. (The usual form of 

 the dolmen in Brittany is a small square or oblong room, roofed 

 with one or more great slabs, with a good-sized passage of some 

 length leading into it). 



This Picts' House at Crichton is built of comparatively small 

 stones ; four squared stones were observed in the building when 

 it was being cleared ; I imagine when the paper on it was written 

 by the gentleman best known in the archaeological world as Lord 

 Rosehill, the sloping entrance passage had not been cleared out ; 

 the entrance, like a well about three feet deep, is square, formed 

 neatly with four more Roman-cut stones. The downward sloping 

 passage, entering from one side of the well (which has a pro- 

 jecting step in it, broken by use) is as small as it can be for a 

 man to be able to enter without actually crawling ; I should say 

 it was about three feet four or six inches square, like the passages 

 of the Great Pyramid. There is another entrance at the north 

 end, but the passage has been long destroyed ; the people of the 

 neighbourhood call it a fireplace. 



Large stones do not seem to have been available ; there are, I 

 think, only a few stone roof-beams remaining ; it is not unlikely 

 that the rest may have been roofed with trunks of trees. This 

 part is now a modern drystone arch ; when once the plough- 

 horses had fallen through the roof, there was probably only the 

 choice between partial restoration and ultimate destruction. The 

 building is entirely subterranean. It has been objected to the 

 theory of the weems being hiding-places, from this particular 

 case, that the square entrance could not be mistaken for anything 

 natural ; but as a matter of fact it is not at all easy to find it, 

 even in an open field, as it is now, and the rising- ground was 

 covered with " weeds and bushes " till it was ploughed. 



The well-entrance being sunk on the top of a low elevation, it 

 is not seen till it is actually reached. Like the weems of Aber- 

 deenshire, which come nearer to the French dolmens in the way 

 of large blocks, the Crichton weem does not exceed five feet in 

 breadth ; it is about thirty feet long, and high enough for a man 

 of ordinary height to stand upright in. The weem at Edrom, 

 which I believe is destroyed, is said, I think, to have been of the 



