A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
[19] Introduction to O'CURRY, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Irish_, 1873, i., p. cccxxix.
The various kinds of monument were the _Derc_, the _Fert_, the
_Leacht_, the _Duma_, the _Cnoc_, and the _Carn_.
The _Derc_ was a hollow, a pit, or hole, dug in the ground; in fact,
a simple grave.
The _Fert_ was a rectangular chamber, composed of stones set
upright, and covered horizontally with flags; in a word, a kistvaen.
The _Leacht_ seems to have been a larger-sized kistvaen, a cromlech
or dolmen, but a single upright stone was also called a leacht. When
a number of persons were buried in a single mound, then a stone was
set up in commemoration of each round the tumulus or cairn. A good
specimen may be seen beside the road to Widecombe from Post Bridge.
The cairn has been almost levelled, but the ring of stones remains.
The _Cnoc_ was a rounded, sugar-loaf mound of earth, and the _Duma_
was a similar mound raised over a kistvaen.
The _Cairn_ or _Carn_ was a mere pile of stones, generally made over
a grave, but sometimes having no immediate connection with one. Here
is a curious passage which will explain why some cairns contain no
interments:--
"The plunderers started from the coast, and each man took with
him a stone to make a carn, for such was the custom of the Fians
when going to plunder or war. It was a pillar-stone they planted
when going to give a general battle; and it was a cairn they
made this time, because it was a plundering expedition.... Every
man who survived used to remove his stone from the cairn, and
the stones of those who were slain remained in place, and thus
they were able to ascertain their losses."--_The Book of the Dun
Cow._
Sometimes, after a battle, when it was not possible to carry away a
body, the head of the man who had fallen was buried by his friends
under a cairn, because the ancient Irish were wont to carry off
heads as trophies; but to violate a cairn, even when raised by a
foe, was regarded as sacrilege.
On Dartmoor, in addition to prehistoric antiquities, numerous rude
stone crosses remain; some of these, if not all, indicate ways, and
were employed as landmarks. Only one bears an inscription, "Crux
Siwardi."
The whole of the moor, in the stream bottoms, is seamed with
streamers' "burrows" and deep workings. It is not possible to fix
their date. Throughout the Middle Ages stream tin was extracted from
Dartmoor. Fresh activity was shown in the reign of Elizabeth. Beside
the mounds may be seen the ruins of the old "blow-house," where the
tin was smelted, and very probably among the ruins will be found the
moulds into which the tin was run. I postpone what I have to say on
the tin-working to a chapter on that topic in the ensuing portion of
my book, on Cornwall.
Books on Dartmoor:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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