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Among memorials of the dead, dolmens take a prominent place in archæological records, not only on account of the large assortment of the relics of past humanity which they have yielded to explorers, but also for their imposing appearance and wide geographical distribution, especially in Western Europe.

A dolmen in its simplest form may be defined as a rudely constructed chamber of not less than three uprights, set a few feet apart, and so arranged as to support a megalithic Slab, called the capstone, such as may be seen in the well-known dolmen of "Kit's Coty House," near Maidstone. Between this simple structure and the Giants' Graves, Grottes des Fées, Allées Couvertes, Hunnebedden, Antas, etc., there is a graduated series proportionate in size to the number of supports and capstones used in their construction.

If England be the home of the great stone circles, France claims that position for the dolmens, the number of which is estimated at some 4000, distributed over 78 departments; and of this number there are no less than 618 in Brittany. Free-standing dolmens are by no means abundant in the eastern counties of England, but they are frequently met with in the south and west, and in Wales, Anglesey, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland. Although many of them show no traces of