England -- Antiquities; England -- Social life and customs; Villages -- England
The last class of rude stone monuments is composed of dolmens, or
chambered tombs, so named from the Welsh word _dol_, a table, and _maen_
or _men_, a stone. They are in fact stone tables. Antiquaries of former
days, and the unlearned folk of to-day, call them "Druids' altars," and
say that sacrifices were offered upon them. The typical form is a
structure of four or more large upright stones, supporting a large flat
stone, as a roof. Sometimes they are covered with earth or stones,
sometimes entirely uncovered. Some antiquaries maintain that they were
always uncovered, as we see them now; others assert that they have been
stripped by the action of wind and rain, and snow, frost, and thaw,
until all the earth placed around them has been removed. Possibly
fashions changed then as now; and it may console some of us that there
was no uniformity of ritual even in prehistoric Britain. Dolmens contain
no bronze or iron implements, or carvings of the same, and evidently
belong to the time of the Neolithic folk.
Among prehistoric remains none are more striking than the great camps
and earthworks, which hold commanding positions on our hills and downs,
and have survived during the countless years which have elapsed since
their construction. Caesar's camps abound throughout England; it is
needless to say that they had nothing to do with Caesar, but were made
long years before the Conqueror ever set foot on British land. These
early camps are usually circular in shape, or follow the natural curve
of the hill on which they stand. Roman camps are nearly always square
or rectangular. They consist of a high vallum, or rampart of earth,
surrounded by a deep ditch, and on the _counterscarp_, or outside edge
of the ditch, there is often another bank or rampart. The entrance to
these strongholds was often ingeniously contrived, in order that an
enemy endeavouring to attack the fortress might be effectually resisted.
Chun Castle, in Cornwall, is an interesting specimen of ancient Celtic
fortress. It consists of two circular walls separated by a terrace. The
walls are built of rough masses of granite, some 5 or 6 feet long. The
outer wall is protected by a ditch. Part of the wall is still about 10
feet high. Great skill and military knowledge are displayed in the plan
of the entrance, which is 6 feet wide in the narrowest part, and 16 in
the widest, where the walls diverge and are rounded off on either side.
The space within the fortress is about 175 feet in diameter. The
Herefordshire Beacon on the Malvern Hills is a fine example of a
triple-ramparted Celtic camp.
[Illustration: PLAN AND SECTION OF CHUN CASTLE]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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