STONE CIRCLES Butter Tor (N. 58 E.), Catshole Tor (N. 69 E.), and Tolborough Tor (N. 85 E.), and which were, he suggests, associated in the minds of the circle builders with the sunrise. He also points out the alignment of Trippet Stones, Leaze, and Row Tor (N. I2E.), Trippet Stones being invisible from Leaze. KING ARTHUR'S HALL On King Arthur's Downs, about 800 yards north-west of Leaze, stands the curious enclosure known as King Arthur's Hall. It may be described as a rectangular enclosure 1 59 ft. long by 66 ft. across, formed by a solid bank of earth from 1 2 ft. to 20 ft. wide and 7 ft. to 5 ft. high ; this bank is kept in position within by a retaining wall of large stones set on end and embedded in the bank. About forty of these are now erect and in place, sixteen have fallen, and probably a large number have been removed ; they are far from being uniform in size, the largest is 5 ft. 8 in. high and others approach this in bulk. The axis of the enclosure is N. 5 W. A depression in the centre usually holds a pool of water, a feature of very old standing, and when this exceeds its bounds, as well it may in winter on these wet moors, it finds an exit by the south-western corner. The earliest reference that we find to this curious enclosure is by John Norden, who visited it about 1584 and wrote his work, Speculi Britanniae Pars, in 1610, though it was not published till 1728. He says : * Arthures Hall, d. 14. A place so called, and by tradition helde to be a place whereunto that famous K. Arthure resorted. It is a square plott about 60 foote longe and about 35 foote broad, situate on a playne Mountayne, wroughte some 3 foote into the grounde ; and by reason of the depression of the place, ther standeth a stange or Poole of water, the place sett rounde aboute with flatt stones in this manner.' Then follows an illustration showing it to have been very much as it is now, with the pool in the middle. Mr. A. L. Lewis has described it in the before- mentioned paper, 1 and the plan which illustrates it is, by his kind permission and that of the secretary of the Anthropological Institute, reproduced for the use of this volume. Many are the conjectures as to the origin of Arthur's Hall. It has been called ' a great cattle pound, a place of assembly, or an earthwork occupied by a small detachment of Roman troops.' 3 To this should be added a suggestion by Mr. A. L. Lewis that it may have been a place for cremation. 3 Enclosures of a similar shape were found in Brittany, which showed unmistakable signs of burning on specially prepared granite pyres and which yielded fragments of pottery and flint flakes. These rectangular enclosures are 110 ft. by 50 ft. and 120 ft. by 40 ft. respectively, and into the walls are built menhirs.* There are also, near the city of Guatemala, rectangular enclosures which bear a superficial resemblance to this, and which are associated with burial mounds and sacrificial stones. 6 After three visits to the spot the present writer is 1 Jount. Anthrop. Init., Aug. 1895. * Rev. W. Jago, Journ. Roy. Inst. of Cornwall, 1895. s Loc. cit. 4 Rear-Admiral Tremlett, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. (November, 1885). 5 Report ofSmithtmian Inst., 1876 ; A. L. Lewis, Journ. Roy. Inst. of Cornwall, 1896. I 393 50
