145 



ganlslj Cromlechs anb §nual Customs 



COMPARED WITH THOSE OF 



iuttang, tlje (Hmmtel island, anb <grat fgritam. 



By the Rev. W. C. LuKrs, M.A., F.S.A, 



Read before the Society during the Annual Meeting at Shaftesbury, August, 1861. 



** "We raised the mould around the stone and bade it speak to other years." 

 Ossian. 



g^p^IIE object of the following pages is to compare the Tombs 

 ^|J|| and Burial Customs of the early inhabitants of Denmark 

 with those of Great Britain, the Channel Islands, and Brittany, 

 and to show that a difference exists between them. This difference 

 is discoverable only by a close and careful comparison, for a cursory 

 observer would probably not perceive it. My attention has been 

 directed to this difference by reading a very interesting work on 

 f Primeval Antiquities," (English Edition by W. J. Thorns, 1849) 

 written a few years ago by a well known Danish Antiquary ; and 

 it is somewhat remarkable that the distinguished author, Mr. 

 Worsaae, hardly seems to have appreciated the difference. In the 

 Preface to this edition he says : "It will appear that there exists a 

 great similarity between the Danish and British Antiquities." 

 Again, at page 105, "In order that the Danish memorials may 

 appear in their true light and connection, it will be of importance 

 to enquire in what regions of other countries similar monuments of 

 antiquity have been observed. Without such a general examination 

 it would scarcely be possible to derive satisfactory historical con- 

 clusions from the enquiry. We first turn towards the south. Stone 

 chambers, or cromlechs, or low barrows, encircled with stones, 

 which completely accord with the cromlechs of our stone period, occur 

 in Tomerania, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Hanover, in fact in the 

 whole of the north of Germany, in England, Ireland, Holland, 

 (particularly in the northern part,) and m the west and south of 



