Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/501

 STONE CIRCLES Three other writers who follow content themselves with reproducing this description: Bond's Looe (1823), Penaluna's Survey of Cornwall (1838) and Allen's Liskeard (1856) ; but Murray's Handbook for Devon and Corn- wall (1856) goes into detail and is more accurate. The writer says : A hedge bisects it, one stone lies prostrate in the ditch, five only stand upright, and three appear to be wanting to complete the circle. The stones, which are rough and unhewn, are principally composed of white quartz, and one is about 9 ft. in height. The hedge referred to crossed the circle between Nos. 5 and 6, i and 8 (see plan) ; Nos. i, 5, 7 and 9 were prostrate ; No. 3 leaned ; Nos. 4, 6 and 8 were erect. About the year 1858 the hedge was removed, and in 1 86 1 (or 1863) the fallen stones were set up, all but the largest (No. i), which was broken in the process. When digging to raise this stone the workmen discovered, at about 3 feet deep, a small cinerary urn, buried in loose earth by the side of the stone, and containing human bones, some entire and 3 inches long, which crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. 1 The urn itself was broken by the workmen and only one small portion was preserved, which passed into the possession of the landowner, the late Rev. T. A. Bewes of Plymouth, and is shown in Mr. Dymond's sketch. W. C. Borlase thought that it corresponded with an urn found by him in a barrow on Morvah Hill, with which was found a coin, a 'middle brass' of Constantine the Great. Mr. E. H. W. Dunkin, who has published a description of the circle, says : On my recent visit to the circle I was informed that a considerable quantity of charcoal was found within the enclosure when the bisecting hedge was removed, and that much still remains beneath the turf. 2 Mr. Dymond had occasion to remove some of the earth round the fallen stone and found no trace of charcoal ; it may have been absent from that spot, or Mr. Dunkin's informant may have mistaken the black peaty earth for charcoal. In addition to the before-mentioned works, Lukis and Borlase have published description, plan, and sketches of this circle. 8 There can be little doubt that this ancient monument, from its small area, the rude masses of quartz rock, the cinerary urn found within it, and the charcoal reported under the turf, was sepulchral in character and had little in common with the other circles which have been described. The late W. C. Borlase gave it as his opinion, in a private letter, that there never had been a tumulus within the ring. If the resemblance between the fragment preserved and the urn found on Morvah Hill can be taken as proving in any degree a like date for the two burials, then the Duloe circle may be of comparatively recent construction, but this in no way helps us to arrive at a date for the circles of a different type. 1 Ntfnia Cornubiif, 127, 247-52. ' 'On the Megalithic Circle at Duloe, Cornwall,' Arch. Camb. (1873), No. 13, p. 45. 1 Prehistoric Monuments, pp. 4, 30, pi. xiii. I 401 51