The astronomical origin of the Mên-an-tol, which obviously has never been disturbed, is quite obvious. Fig. 56 (from Lukis) shews that it was arranged along the May year alignment, the advent of May and August, February and November being indicated by the shadows cast by the stones through the aperture on to the opposite ones. To the south-west the alignment for the February and November sunsets passes exactly over Chûn Castle. The “Tolmen” near Gweek, Constantine, another famous holed stone 7 feet 9 inches high and with an aperture of 17 inches, is according to a magnetic bearing I took last Easter parallel to the Mên-an-tol, and doubtless was used for the same purpose. [117] In Cornwall this is the name generally given to a monolith. CHAPTER XXVII SOME OTHER CORNISH MONUMENTS _Boscawen-un_, _N. Lat._ 50° 5′ 20″ My wife and I visited Boscawen-un on a pouring day, when it was impossible to make any observations. Mr. Horton Bolitho, who was with us, introduced us to the tenant of Boscawen-noon--Mr. Hannibal Rowe--who very kindly, in spite of the bad weather, took us to the circle and the stone cross to the N.E. of it. Lukis thus described this monument:[118]-- “The enclosed ground on which this circle stands is uncultivated and heathy, and slopes gently to the south. Twenty years ago a hedge ran across it and bisected the circle. “This monument is composed of nineteen standing stones, and is of an oval form, the longer diameter being 80 feet and the shorter 71 feet 6 inches. One of the stones is a block of quartz 4 feet high, and the rest, which are of granite, vary from 2 feet 9 inches to 4 feet 7 inches in height. On the west side there is a gap, whence it is probable that a stone has been removed. Within the area, 9 feet to the south-west from the centre, is a tall monolith, 8 feet out of the ground, which inclines to the north-east, and is 3 feet 3 inches out of the perpendicular. [Illustration: FIG. 59.--Photograph of the Ordnance Map.] “In 1594 Camden describes this monument as consisting of nineteen stones, 12 feet from each other, with one much larger than the rest in the centre. It must have been much in the same condition then as now. As he does not say that the monolith enclosed within it was inclined, it is possible that it was upright at that time. “Dr. Stukeley’s supposition was that it originally stood upright, and that ‘somebody digging by it to find treasure disturbed it.’ “On the north-east side there are two fallen stones which Dr. Borlase, in 1749, imagined to have formed part of a Cromlech. It is more probable that they are the fragments of a second pillar which was placed to the north-east of the centre, and as far from it as the existing one is. There are instances, I believe, of two pillars occupying similar positions within a circle. One of the stones, that marked C in my plan, on the eastern side of the ring, was prostrate in the Doctor’s time.