160 Danish Cromlechs and Burial Customs, fyc. 



The cromlech of Llanfaelog is now denuded. "If then," 

 remarks Mr. Longueville Jones, "this cromlech could have been 

 so stripped since the end of the last century, what may we not 

 expect to have taken place in other instances ? " 



Numerous earns containing stone chambers may still be seen ia 

 Wales. It would be needless to multiply instances. Enough has 

 been advanced in support of my assertion,— that all cromlechs, of 

 whatever form, tvere originally enclosed in mounds of earth or stone. 



Cromlechs, by their very form, must naturally become denuded 

 of earth, so as in course of time to expose the upper or covering 

 stones, even where wanton destruction has not been inflicted. 

 Every body knows how rapidly rain will carry the finer particles 

 of earth down the many channels which are formed within any 

 artificial heap, particularly if the heap contains stones of various 

 sizes. A fissure in the ground will also gradually become filled 

 with fine earth. In like manner the superincumbent earth will be 

 carried by rain through the interstices of the cap stones and their 

 supports, and in process of time fill up the chamber of the tumulus. 

 The action of the elements will also tend, in course of ages, to 

 carry the earth down the sides of the mound. This will account 

 partly for two facts which are apparent to us now, viz.— the denu- 

 dation and exposure of many cromlechs, and their being, in some 

 cases, more or less filled with earth or silt. 



This buried chamber is a primitive people's rude attempt to 

 construct a sepulchral vault. And there is good reason for its 

 being buried. They held the dead bodies of their relations and 

 friends in great reverence, and sought to protect them from dese- 

 cration and insult, and from the destructive effects of wind and 

 rain. They desired also to shield them from the attacks of wild 

 beasts, and they erected such sepulchres as they thought would 

 best afford them this security. If as has been advanced by some 

 antiquaries (among them Sir G. Gardner Wilkinson, in his account 

 of the "British Remains on Dartmoor, Journal of Brit. Association," 

 March, 1862), many of these stone chambers had been always 

 uncovered, this security would not have been attained. The simple 

 unchambered tumulus would have been much more secure, and 

 would have been adopted in preference. 



