STONE CIRCLES intelligent, from the sixteenth century onwards. The first to mention the Hurlers is John Norden, who visited them about 1584 : The Hurlers, c. 1 6, certayne stones raysed and sett in the grounde of some 6 foote high and 2 foote square ; some bigger, some lesser, and are fixed in suche straglinge manner as these Countrye men doe in performinge that pastime Hurlinge. . . . This monumente seemeth to impor'te an intention of the memoriall of some matter done in this kinde of exercise, thowgh time haue worne out the maner. 1 The illustration which accompanies this paragraph shows that he was unaware that the stones were arranged in circles. The next in order of date is William Camden, who says that the neighbours call them Hurlers, persuaded by a pious error that they were men changed into stones because they had profaned the Lord's day by throwing a ball. Others will have them to be, as it were, a trophy in memory of some battle, and some believe them to be placed as boundaries. 2 It will be seen that the legend of the Hurlers is very similar to that of Dawns Men and other Cornish and some German circles, only the game of 'hurling' is here pressed into service. Richard Carew (1605) men- tions also ' that a redoubled numbring neuer eueneth with the first.' 3 Mr. Dymond quotes from a History of the Parish of Linkinhorne (written by the Rev. W. Harvey, vicar of the parish, in 1727 and published in 1876) an extract from a Latin account of the district, published in Amsterdam (1661), which repeats the legend. Mr. Harvey him- self, however, manages to be original, for, after relating the usual tra- ditional story, he adds : But the truth of the story is, it was a burying place of the Britons, before the calling in of the heathen sexton into this kingdom. And this fable, invented by the Britons, was to prevent the ripping up of the bones of their ancestors, and so called by the name of The Hurlers to this day. Mr. Harvey's tally of remaining stones agrees very nearly with a drawing by Dr. Borlase (1769),* which depicts in the northern circle nine stones standing, seven fallen ; in the middle one eight standing and nine fallen ; in the southern circle three standing and nine fallen. A reference to the plan and table will show that there has been little alteration since that date, but that some of the fallen stones have been taken away. Several other writers, such as Hals, Thomas Bond of Looe, Britton and Brayley, C. S. Gilbert and John Allen, mention these circles, but con- tribute neither to our knowledge nor amusement. Next to Mr. Dymond's monograph the best description and plan yet published are those of Lukis and Borlase (1885).' DULOE Duloe Circle, in the parish of that name, is 4 miles north of Looe and near to Duloe church, the cluster of houses close by being called 1 Sfeculi Britannite Pars, Cornwall, p. 94. 3 ' Hurlers vicini vocant, pio persuasi errore homines fuisse in saxa transformatos qu6d pila iactanda diem Dominicum profanjlssent,' etc. (Britannia, ed. of 1607, p. 139). 3 Survey of Cornwall (ed. of 1605), p. 129. * Ant. o/Corniv.(ed. z),pp. 198-9, pi. xvii. 5 Prehistoric Monuments, pp. 4, 3 1 and pis. x. xi. xii. 399
