Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/457

 STONE CIRCLES IF any excuse be sought for devoting a special article to stone circles in the history of a county so rich in prehistoric remains, it must be found in the great development of these particular monuments in Cornwall. Within the county area are found stone circles of several varieties, grouped in twos and threes, or standing singly, with stones wide apart or close together, with as few as eight and as many as seventy. The question immediately arises What is a stone circle ? and in trying to answer it we can hardly do better than accept the definition given by the late William Copeland Borlase, F.S.A., that when the stones are set up on end, at some distance apart, and enclose a level piece of ground, it constitutes a ' stone circle,' but when the stones are set on their edges, contiguous to each other, and enclose a rock, mounds, or an area of uneven ground, it is a ' ring barrow ' and sepulchral in character. Most of the Cornish circles belong to the former class, but whether they are sepulchral or not is still an open question, and though one indeed, that at Duloe, appears to be undoubtedly sepulchral, for the rest such evidence as there is points to a ceremonial use rather than to burial. BOSCAWEN-tTN No. Height Remarks Breadth Thickness No. Height Remarks Breadth Thickness ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. I 3 10 2 7 I 13 3 3 2 7 o 8 2 3 9 2 I I 9 14 4 3 quartz 3 3 3 10 3 3 5 2 8 I I 15 4 5 leans in 4 3 2 8 4 3 8 3 3 2 2 16 3 8 2 3 i 9 5 4 7 2 3 2 6 7 3 6 2 9 i 8 6 3 8 I IO IO 18 3 3 3 i i 3 7 3 5 III 3 19 3 5 2 7 i 8 8 4 3 2 3 7 20 9 centre 2 IO i 3 9 3 7 2 IO 8 stone, IO 3 8 2 7 7 leans out ii 3 8 2 7 6 3 8 12 3 2 3 4 IO (*) flat stone 3 IO 3 6

w

2 10 3 I* ^w Boscawen-un Circle is situated in the parish of Buryan, 4^ miles west of Penzance, on a farm of the same name, south of and near to the road to the Land's End, and having been restored and well cared for by a former landowner, and protected also by the present pro- prietor, Mr. T. B. Bolitho, it is now one of the most perfect examples 379