LOGAN, OR ROCKING-STONE. 613 
found in different parts of this island, some natural, some artificial, 
or placed in their position by human art. 
In the parish of St. Leven, Cornwall, there is a promontory called 
Castle Treryn. On the western side of the middle group, near the 
top, lies a very large stone, so evenly poised, that any hand may 
move it from one side to another ; yet it is so fixed on its base, that 
it was thought no lever, nor any mechanical force, could remove it 
from its situation. 
To triumph over this prevailing beljef, a naval officer and his men 
some few years since made the attempt, and succeeded in partially 
dislodging it. This, however, gave so much offence to the neighbour- 
ing inhabitants, that with incredible labour and great expense, he got 
it replaced, but it is not so easily moved as it was originally. It is 
called the Logan stone, and is at such a height from the ground, that 
no person can scarcely believe it was raised to its present position 
by art. But there are other rocking stones, which are so shaped and 
so situated, that there can be no doubt they were erected by human 
strength. Of this kind Borlese thinks the great Quoit, or Karnlehau, 
in the parish of Tywednek, to be. It is thirty-nine feet in circum- 
ference, and four feet thick at a medium, and stands on a single 
pedestal. There is also a remarkable stone of the same kind in the 
island of St. Agnes, in Sicily. The under rock is ten feet six inches 
high, forty-seven feet round the middle, and touches the ground with 
no more than half its base. The upper rock rests on one point only, 
and is so nicely balanced, that two or three men with a pole can move 
it. It is eight feet six inches high, and forty-seven in circumference. 
On the top there is a bason hollowed out, three feet eleven inches in 
diameter at a medium, but wider at the brim, and three feet deep. 
From the globular shape of this upper stone, it is highly probable 
that it was rounded by human art, and perhaps even placed on its 
pedestal by human strength. In Stithney parish, near Helston in Corn- 
wall, stood the famous Logan or rocking stone, commonly called Men- 
Aniber, q. d. Men-an-Bar, or the Topstone. It was eleven feet by six, 
and four high, and so nicely poised another stone, that a little child 
could move it, and all travellers who came this way desired to see it. 
But Shriibsal, Cromwell’s governor of Pendennis, with much ado 
caused it to be undermined, to the great grief of the country. There 
are some marks of the tool on it, and, by its quadrangular shape, 
it was probably dedicated to Mercury. There is a rocking stone in 
Perthshire, near Balvaird castle, in. the Ochil hills, on the estate of 
Mr. Murray of Couland. 
That the rocking stones are monuments erected by the Druids 
cannot be doubted ; but tradition has not informed us for what pur- 
pose they were intended. Mr. Toland thinks that the Druids made 
the people believe that they alone could move them, and that by a 
miracle they condemned or acquitted the accused, and brought crimi- 
nals to confess what could not otherwise be extorted from them. 
How far this conjecture is right, we shall leave to those who are deeply 
versed in the knowledge of antiquities to determine. 
