HISTORY OF THE CALDERSTONES. 137 



they were set up in their present position . The roads at that time were 

 narrow country lanes. At this place there are four cross roads, and the stones 

 lay upon a large mound at the roadside, high above the road, on (as far as I 

 could make out the position) the south side. Only a few of the larger stones 

 could be seen lying fiat near the top, partly buried in the earth, and a few of 

 the points of the other stones. Upon this mound, in the summer, after 

 work, and on Sundays the boys and men from the neighbouring farms would 

 come and lie in the sun. It was the fashion for the boys to cut their names 

 and initials on the stones, and the patterns of their boots. He had marked 

 his own foot upon the stone. (In after life it was a large one, he being a 

 tall, powerful man.) He thought the naked feet marked on the stones were 

 done then ; he was not quite sure. Such marks are still visible on the 

 stones. He well remembered the mound being destroyed. They were 

 widening the road about the time it was done away with. When they dug 

 down into it they found more of the stones, and the marked ones were 

 among them. 



" For some time the stones were laid aside on the farm, and afterwards 

 some of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood had those now standing set up ; 

 others were taken away. Mr. Booker had the largest and set it up in his field, 

 where it now is for the cattle to rub on. He thought there were two more 

 large stones, but did not remember what became of them. When the stones 

 were dug down to, they seemed rather tumbled about in the mound. They 

 looked as if they had been a little hut or cellar. Below the stones was found 

 a large quantity of burnt bones, white and in small pieces. He thought 

 there must have been a cartload or two. He helped to wheel them out and 

 spread them on the field. He saw no metal of any sort nor any flint 

 implements, nor any pottery, either whole or broken ; nor did he hear of 

 any. He was quite sure the bones were in large quantity, but he saw no 

 urn with them. Possibly the quantity was enhanced by mixture with the 

 soil. No one made much of old things of that sort in his time, nor cared to 

 keep them up. Dr. Newton has obtained some records of the finding of an 

 urn ; also that the mound was of sand, which is a fact of interest as bearing 

 on certain other antiquities. The soil is clay. 



"This simple but very significant narrative gives us, in untechnical 

 language, a true and fully recognisable detail of the original character of the 

 Calderstones as a chambered tumulus, or a dolmen covered by a sepulchral 

 mound. These monuments were formed of large stones set up edgewise to 

 form the walls of a chamber, and covered in with large slabs; they were 

 sometimes made open upon the surface of the ground, at other times covered 

 by a tumulus. The stones were, in late examples, ornamented on their inner 

 surfaces with circles, curves, cupped hollows, and lines in great variety. 

 Fergusson has brought some Evidence to show that this class of monuments 



