Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
On Stanton Moor, four miles east from Kenslow, and about five miles
from Arbor Low and Minning Low respectively, there are many monuments,
both of earth and stone, which, though on a smaller scale, seem to
belong to the same age as those just described. They seem to have been
very much overlooked by the Batemans, but a very detailed account of
them is given by Mr. Rooke in the sixth volume of the 'Archæologia,'
in 1780. One of them, called the Nine Ladies, has been given already
(_ante_, p. 49); but westward of it stands or stood a stone, called the
King Stone, at a distance of 34 yards, thus suggesting a similarity to
the Salkeld circle. Half a mile west from this, nearer Arbor Low, is
another group of nine stones, the tallest 17 feet in height, and 75
yards southward two stones of smaller dimensions; 200 yards from this
an oval ring, the major axis of which measures 243 feet, the minor 156
feet. It has what Mr. Rooke calls a double ditch, a rampart outside the
ditch as well as one inside; it is, in fact, a less-developed example
of that form of which Arbor Low and Arthur's Round Table are finished
examples. On the east side of the Moor were three tall isolated stones,
which in Rooke's time the natives still called Cat Stones, showing
clearly that the tradition still remained of a battle fought there, but
when or by whom no tradition lingers on the spot to enlighten us.
All these monuments and many more which it would be tedious and
uninteresting to particularize, are contained within a circle, which
may be described with a radius of about three miles, the centre being
half way between Henty Grange and Stanton Moor. It would perhaps be too
much to assert that they are all of one age; but there is certainly a
very strong family likeness among them, and they cannot differ much
either in age or purpose. It may also perhaps be conceded that they
are not the tombs or temples of the inhabitants of the moors on which
they stand. The country where they are situated is a bleak inhospitable
tract, only not quite so bad as Shap, but hardly more able to support
a large population, if left only to their own resources, than the
Wiltshire Downs. These three localities could never consequently have
been so much richer in this class of monuments than settlements in the
more fertile parts of the island. Strangers must have erected them, and
to determine who these strangers were, is the task to which antiquaries
have now to apply themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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