A group of Cumbrian megaliths / by C.W. Dymond.

  • Dymond, Charles William
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A group of Cumbrian megaliths / by C.W. Dymond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    A GROUP OF CUMBRIAN MEGALITHS. BY C. W. DYMOND, ESQ. “ These antiquities are so exceedingly old that no bookes doe reach them, sc. that there is no way to retrive them but by comparative antiquitie, which I have writt upon the spott from the monuments themselves.”—John Aubrey. The four plans^ which illustrate this short paper have been selected for publication as representing the most important megalithic antiquities in the county, and as the only ones connected with that part of England in my possession which have been accurately surveyed. At the same time, they are remarkable as exhibiting most of the distinctive peculiarities which characterise various classes of these remains in Britain. For instance, we have—1st, a fine specimen—taking rank as the fourth in England—of the great stone-circle, with the added feature of a gateway or rudimentary avenue, and an external menhir ; 2nd, an excellent example of the smaller circle, with stones in close order, and with a perfect entrance gateway ; 3rd, an instance of a circle, partly in open and partly in close order, with some sepulchral indications, and with an inclosed chamber on the eastern side ; 4th, a typical specimen of an irregularly inclosed cemetery, with no marked peripheral feature. To the memoranda written on the plans I will add the following particulars :—• Long Meg and her Daughters.—The earliest published account of these remains is that of Camden, who made a survey of Cumberland in 1599. He says :— “ At Little Salkeld there is a circle of stones, seventy^seven in num- ber, each ten foot high : and before these, at the entrance, is a single one by itself, fifteen foot high. This the common people call Long Megg, and the rest her daughters : and within the circle are two heaps of stones, under which they say there are dead bodies bury’d.” A little later we find Aubrey writing of the same at about the middle of the seventeenth century. His information, 1 Of Long Meg and her Daughters, the circles at Swinside and Keswick,and the principal circle on Eskdale Moor.
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