PREHISTORIC TOMBSTONES 
45 
to tell and may yet be told.” Condensing into a line or two 
an account which properly requires several pages, Stonehenge 
may be described as a compound cromlech, the constituent parts 
having apparently been erected at different times, but belonging, 
as evidenced by Mr. Gowland’s excavations in 1901, mainly to 
the Neolithic Age, perhaps about the period of 2,000 b . c . When 
perfect this monument comprised six orders. Reckoning in- 
wards, these were : (1) A circular mound with its avenue ; (2) a 
colonnade of sandstone triiithons, each consisting of two uprights 
with an impost or lintel ; (3) a ring of unhewn pillars of far- 
fetched syenite ; (4) an ellipse, or rather horsehoe, of huge 
triiithons ; (5) a second ellipse of syenite columns ; and (6) a 
recumbent block of micaceous sandstone placed centrally. Out 
of a score of speculations as to the intention of the first builders 
of Stonehenge, we select the one which supposes it to have been 
a sepulchral shrine, that is, a burial place which was afterwards 
devoted to religious uses. This is the view adopted by Mr. 
Edward Clodd, and it was further conjectured by Mr. Arthur J. 
Evans that the object of veneration was, at all events, in the 
later ages a sacred tree. Of the gigantic circles of Avebury, a 
few miles from Marlborough, only the ramparts and about thirty 
stones remain. Aubrey wrote of Avebury as “ exceeding in 
greatness the so renowned Stonehenge as a cathedral doeth a 
parish church ” ; but since his day, 650 stones have disappeared 
to build the modern village within the ramparts. Proceeding 
with our list, we next come to the dolmens, or “ table-stones,” 
which consist of two or more pillars surmounted by a capstone. 
Beautiful specimens are found, more or less intact, at Drew- 
steignton, Devon ; Lanyon, in Cornwall ; Kits Coty House, in 
Kent ; Capel Garmon, near Llanrwst ; and Island Magee, 
opposite the town of Larne, in Ireland. It is probable that 
many of the monuments of this group— some authorities would 
say all — are merely the underlying chambers of barrows, the soil 
above having been removed for agricultural needs. Besides the 
simple dolmens, long, chambered varieties are met with : a good 
example occurs in the barrow at New Grange, County Meath. 
The dolmen may be extended until it forms a covered way, or 
allee couverte, and again, a double row of menhirs may be roofed 
for the same object, but this structure is not typically British. 
Then we get the kist-vaen, or “ tombstone,” a small closed 
chamber, most commonly found in barrows and concealing the 
remains of the dead. The galgal, or cairn, is to be looked for 
on the elevated moorlands of Scotland and the south-west of 
England : a world-renowned specimen exists on the hill of Saint- 
Michel, Carnac. Lastly, a few rude stone bridges, justly in- 
cluded as megalithic, may be recorded as of probable Bronze Age, 
particularly Tarr Steps, which crosses the Barle at Winsford, 
on Exmoor. 
Having now shown that there are other ancient treasures 
besides Stonehenge which need guardianship, it simply remains 
