EARLY MAN 
Paces in diameter, is surrounded by a trench 76 paces in circum- 
ference." Many authorities suppose that all barrows and tumuli were 
originally surrounded either by a ditch or by a stone circle. In the one 
case the ditch in many, nay, in most instances, silts up and is obliterated 
at a comparatively early date, leaving the earthen tumulus standing free, 
if it has not all been washed into the ditch by rains. In the other case, 
the earthen tumulus sometimes disappears under the influence of weather, 
and the stone circle alone survives, thus accounting for the smaller stone 
circles which occur here and elsewhere. The larger circles probably 
surrounded groups of barrows; or both large and small circles may have 
surrounded burials or groups of burials over which no mounds had ever 
been piled up. These enclosing circles, whether ditch or stone circle, 
are often found within and hidden by the tumulus; hidden or not 
hidden, they are nearly always incomplete, as if a place of exit or 
entrance had been purposely left. The idea of these surrounding fences 
with exits or entrances is probably that of preventing the ghosts of the 
dead from wandering about and doing mischief to the living. 
SToNE CIRCLES 
The principal stone circles in the Cumberland district are the one 
known as ‘ Long Meg and her Daughters,’ near Little Salkeld, in the 
Parish of Addingham ; the Keswick Circle ; the Swinside Circle, near 
Broughton ; and the Eskdale Circle situate on Burnmoor, near Wastwater.” 
The last, though the finest, is only one of several similar remains on the 
same moor, Burnmoor, which is a boggy elevated plateau. About 100 
yards to the west of the Eskdale Circle, are two smaller rings in an im- 
perfect state, each about 50 feet in diameter, and each inclosing one 
barrow. A quarter of a mile west, on Low Longrigg, are two others : 
one apparently perfect, about 50 feet in diameter ; the other imperfect, 
with diameters of about 75 feet and 65 feet, and inclosing two barrows. 
The Great, or Eskdale, Circle, for it seems to be known by that name, is a 
single irregular circle of 41 stones, with a long diameter of 103 feet 
west-north-west and east-south-east, and a short one of g5 feet north and 
south. Only eight of the forty-one stones are now erect ; the others are 
prostrate, and some are of very small size. A small erect stone or menhir 
stands as an outlier to the north-west. The circle encloses five barrows, 
each with a stone circle of its own round it. These barrows were 
opened long ago, in 1866, and it is said that each of them was found 
to contain a rude chamber formed of five stones, in which were found 
remains of burnt bones, horns of stags and other animals.“ What may 
1 Early Sculptured Crosses in the Diocese of Carlisle, by the Rev. W.S. Calverley, edited by 
W. G. Collingwood (Kendal : T. Wilson, 1890), p. 48. 
2 Very detailed accounts of these four circles are given in the Transactions of the 
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society, vol. v. pp. 40-57, by 
C. W. Dymond, F.S.A. These Burnmoor circles are at the head of Miterdale, and the 
Great or Eskdale Circle is rather more than a mile from the hamlet of Boot. 
8 Proc. S.A., 0.8. vol. iii, p. 225; Fergusson’s Rude Stone Monuments, pp. 159, 160. 
Fergusson, gives a purely imaginary plan of the circle showing an outer circle of fourteen 
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