A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
The tau symbol of Egypt, the pine-cone of Assyria, the triangular-shaped stone of 
India, the cross of Christianity, outward expressions of that which has been in almost 
every religion its most sacred belief, may well have been, however different in form, 
yet the same in essence with these mysterious pits and circles.? 
CisTs 
In the list already given of local barrows, tumuli, and cairns, past 
and present, mention is made of cists. A cist is made of four or more 
stones set on edge, with a cover, and is in fact a stone box or coffin, 
which is not meant to be again opened, when once the body or bodies 
for whose reception it was constructed, has or have been placed within. 
Canon Greenwell suggests the word ‘cist’ should be strictly reserved 
for such stone boxes, and not extended to large chambers intended to be 
opened for future interments, and having frequently passages or galleries 
leading into them from near the exterior of the mound (see British 
Barrows, pp. 13, 479, etc.). Fergusson in his Rude Stone Monuments 
(p. 43, and his Index sub voce Kist-Vaens) applied cist or kist-vaen to 
both the stone boxes, and to the great galleried or passaged chambers. 
Other writers do the same, and this is apt to lead to confusion. Nothing 
has yet been found in the Cumberland district in the nature of a 
chambered tumulus; cists only have been found, but the long mound 
at Harras, near Birdoswald, might contain a chamber. The people who 
buried in these chambered mounds are an earlier race than those who 
buried in cists. 
Many barrows are fenced in or closed in some way or other ; thus 
two of the long barrows at Latter-barrow, under Muncaster Fell, are 
fenced in with large stones. ‘There is (or was) a large tumulus of stones 
in a field called ‘Grazing Land’ on the estate of Mr. Rowley, not far 
from the site of the tumulus at Old Parks, Kirkoswald. Standing upon 
the top of this tumulus, one can trace a stone circle or fence a little 
within the circumference of the mound. The suggestion may occur 
that the intervals between the stones forming the circle were once built 
up with loose stone walling, which has from time to time fallen and 
formed a sort of stone apron or extension of the tumulus, outside of the 
stone circle. It is, however, quite probable that the stone circle in this 
instance was within the tumulus from the very first. In other cases the 
fence or enclosure is a ditch. Thus the tumulus at Friar’s Moor is 
surrounded by a ditch, which is now partly interfered with by the 
road.” The tumulus on Baronspike, or Barnspike, in Bewcastle, 24 
* British Barrows, Greenwell and Rolleston, p. 343. For the general bibliography of 
this subject the reader should consult ‘ Notes on some Stones with Cup-markings in Scotland,’ 
by J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A. Scot., in Proc. S.4.8., vol. xvi. pp. 79-143; also a paper 
by W. Jolly, F.S.A.Scot., in the same volume, ‘On Cup-marked Stones in the Neighbour- 
hood of Inverness,’ pp. 300-401 ; see also The Sculptured Rocks of Northumberland, by Geo. 
Tate, Alnwick, 1865. 
® The latter supposition was found to be correct when the tumulus was opened in 1900 
(see note and reference on p. 236). 
; ee ee of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society, 
vol, iii. p. 248. 
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