A HISTORY OF CORNWALL of Liskeard. In a description of these circles and a survey of their history very little can be added to the paper by Mr. C. W. Dymond, F.S.A., in the "Journal of the British Archaeological Association (30 Sep- tember, 1879), and it is with his kind permission that this article is illustrated by his admirably drawn plan, which though made in 1877 is still (1902) a correct representation of the monument. The three circles lie north-north-east and south-south-west, but not in line, for we may put it that the northern circle is slightly east of the axis of the other two. The diameters are: N., 114 feet; middle, 140 feet; S., 108 feet. The following stones remain: N., 6 standing, 6 fallen ; middle, 8 standing, 5 fallen ; S., 2 standing, 9 fallen ; and in addition several of the so-called erect stones are leaning. The ground within the circles is rent and torn by numerous trial-pits dug in search of tin or copper, and by the removal of masses of moor- stone lying on or near the surface. Besides this many stones have been removed from the rings themselves. Without the line of circles, 386 ft. west of the centre of the middle one, are two large stones so placed that a line drawn through both and produced would be tangential to the southern limb of the middle circle. These two stones are both leaning and look as if they might fall before long. What they were for, or what their relation to the Hurlers, it is impossible to say. They may have formed part of another circle or of a stone row or avenue. The moors around, like the Bodmin moors, furnish many examples of early habitation. On the Cheesewring Hill is an ancient hill-fortress; several barrows are found in the neighbourhood, from one of which came a most interesting gold cup, found in 1818 j 1 further north are numerous hut-circles. A suggestive parallel may be established between these circles and those at Stanton Drew in Somersetshire ; 2 in each case there are three circles lying in a north-north-westerly direction, not quite in line, but deviating in the same way ; in each case the central ring is the largest ; in each case there are two outlying stones. There are considerable discrepancies also which may be noted : (a) the Somersetshire circles and the individual stones which compose them are on a much larger scale ; (b) the northern circle is there the smallest ; (c) the outlying stones at Stanton Drew, the ' cove and a monolith are aligned with the centres in a remarkable manner' ; (a 1 ) there are two short avenues attached to the circles. It is nevertheless curious that these two prehistoric monu- ments, so far apart geographically, should yet have so much in common. Why stone circles should be grouped in twos and threes is a mystery, and greatly complicates the problem of their origin and object. Whereas on the Bodmin moors we had to deplore the absence of records of the past state of the various circles, we are met here by a literary embarras de richesse, a crowd of commentators, more or less un- 1 Ntfnia Cornubitf, pp. 37-41. 1 C. W. Dymond, The Ancient Remains at S.'anton Drew (1896). 393
