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 Crabiticms connected fott| it. 



By John Thuenam, M.D., F.S.A. 



HE ruinous ortholithic chamber, known as Wayland Smith's 

 Cave, was doubtless a sepulchral monument of the same 

 general description as the chambered long-barrows at West Kennet 

 in this county, at Uley in Gloucestershire and at Stoney Littleton, 

 near Wellow, in Somersetshire. All of these have now been more 

 or less carefully examined, and have been found to consist of long 

 mounds of earth and stones, wider and higher at one end than the 

 other ; under which larger end is a chamber or series of chambers 

 built up of large stones ; the chambers, if more than one, arranged 

 transept-fashion, with a gallery or covered passage leading to them 

 from the edge of the tumulus. Such is likewise the construction of 

 the great chambered barrows of New Grange and Dowth, near the 

 Boyne in Ireland, and also of those in Caithness, in Scotland, 

 excepting that in all these the enclosing mounds are of a circular 

 and not of an oblong form. 1 



Professor Donaldson's description of the ruined chamber appears 

 to be a very accurate and careful one ; and his plan, so far as it 

 relates to this part of the structure, and to the original position of 



1 The sepulchral chambers of Du Tus and L'Ancresse, in Guernsey, explored 

 by Mr. Lukis, were also covered by round tumuli, and surrounded by circles of 

 standing stones. (Journ. Brit. Archeeol. Assoc., vol. i., p. 26, vol. iv., p, 329.) 

 The mounds covering the great chamber of Gavr Innis, in Brittany, (Ibid, vol. 

 iii., p. 269,) and the " Giant's Caves" of Scilly are also circular. The oblong 

 tumulus with chambers confined to its eastern or southern end, is, so far as we 

 know, peculiar to the counties of Somerset, Wilts, Gloucester and Berks. 

 Though with analogies to both, it corresponds more nearly with the "Giants 

 Chamber" than with the so-called "Cromlechs" of Denmark, as these are 

 described by Professor Worsaae. " Primeval Antiquities," 1849, pp. 78, 86. 



