Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/54

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ON THE CROMLECHS EXTANT IN THE ISLE OF ANGLESEY.

antiquarian affairs been more strikingly demonstrated: and we consider the public to be most especially indebted to Mr. Lukis for his interesting researches in this line in the Channel Islands.

There are numerous cromlechs extant in the Isle of Anglesey, though, we believe, not so many above ground as Bingley (a second hand and superficial observer) would have us suppose. He assigns twenty-eight, according to the number furnished by his informants, for he never went near most of the localities, upon which he places them; but several of them he puts down under different names twice or thrice over:— and in some instances they have no existence. It is probable that the number of cromlechs actually visible in Anglesey may approach to twenty: but we suspect that there are many others, which have never seen light since their first interment, and we know that the ranges of the Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire mountains are full of them,—subterraneous, if not on the surface,—for we have found and seen many ourselves.

The judicious Pennant mentions none but those that he had actually seen, and hazards few conjectures as to their use and destination; all other writers follow either Pennant or Bingley.

One of the most stupendous cromlechs, if it be a cromlech, in this or any other island, is that which is commonly so called on the lands of C. Evans, Esq., at Hên Bias, not far from the Mona Inn in the middle of the county. Here there are two rocks, each about seventeen feet high, by nearly as many in thickness and breadth, standing upright; and between them, partially resting on that to the eastward, is another flattish mass, a little smaller in size, which certainly looks as if it had slidden from off the tops of its neighbours. There are no other rocks within a mile or two of the place, except at a small range of rocky hills separated from it by a stream:—and we can hardly imagine how such great masses, of nearly 5000 cubic feet each, could have been moved in remote ages. We are inclined to look upon this assemblage of rocks, which however tradition calls "the cromlech," as the disintegrated ruin of some hill which once existed here. The only thing that staggers us in this hypothesis is a further tradition of smaller stones, apparently forming a kind of avenue, having once stood close by. If this tradition be allowed to have authority,—and tradition is very often no unsafe guide,—then this