Stone circle

“ Both of these examples, if denuded of their mounds, would form striking and very perfect stone circles, and would be among the best remaining examples of small “Druidical circles,” as they are commonly called.
Fig. 68.
Where the circles have been formed of upright stones, they have not, certainly, always been covered with the mound, but have formed a kind of ring fence, a sort of sacred enclosure, around the barrow. A great number of examples of this kind exist in different districts, and will easily be recognised by the zealous archæologist. The circle next shown, on figs. ”

“ Then turning my gaze again towards the earth, I saw a vast circle of stones, moss-grown like that on which I sat, and ranged in a circle such as that of Stonehenge. It occupied an open space in the midst of the forest; and the grasses and climbing plants of the place had fastened on the crevices of the stones.
One stone, larger and taller than the rest, stood at the junction of the circle, in a place of honor, as though it had stood for a symbol of divinity. I looked at my guide, and said, " Here, at least, is an idol whose semblance belongs to another type than that of the Hindus." ”

“ Such, then, are the facts which meet the eye when standing within Stonehenge. Each minute the stones appear to increase in bulk, and the problem of their coming grows more inscrutable. Then if wearied with such vastness, the eye may wander over the surrounding plain, broken in almost every direction by the sepulchral mounds, or Barrows, which cluster to the number of two hundred or more about the venerable stone circle. ”

“ Meanwhile it may be well to point out, before going further, that this class of circles is peculiar to England. They do not exist in France or in Algeria. The Scandinavian circles are all very different, so too are the Irish. The one circle out of England that at all resembles them is that at Stennis, or rather Brogar, in the Orkneys, which will be described in detail further on. There we have a great 100-metre circle, with a ditch (but no rampart) , a smaller 100-foot circle, with a ruined dolmen in its stone circle, as at Stanton Drew, and we have the Maes Knoll for the Maes How. ”

“ In several instances the interment was not in the centre of the circle, but was made in different situations within its area. For instance, in the next example (fig. 74) , from Trewavas 77 Head, the cist is near to the circle of stones. The outer diameter of the mound is thirty-five feet, the diameter of the circle of stones being nineteen feet six inches. Other examples, similar in arrangement, might be adduced. Fig. 75 shows a totally different construction. In this instance the circle is composed of a number of stone cists, 78 or sepulchral chambers, pretty close together, end to end. ”

“ The finest kistvaens are—one at Merrivale Bridge, one adjoining a pound near Post Bridge, one on Lake-head Hill, one near Drizzlecombe, one on Hound Tor, and two on the slope of Bellever. One is near the Powder Mills. There are several, also, about the Plym.
3. The stone circle is called by the French a cromlech. The name means curved stone. The circle, of which Stonehenge is the noblest known example in Europe, consists of a number of stones set up at intervals in a ring. The purport is purely conjectural. ”

“ Fourteen of the stones composing this circle are still standing, and the tallest are about 11 feet in height, but others are lying on the ground more or less broken. The circle is about 50 feet in diameter, and there are appearances of an outer circle of smaller stones at a distance of about 50 to 60 feet from the inner one. [Pg 453] The natives have no tradition about its erection, except the same myth which we find in Somersetshire, that a wedding party, passing over the plain, were turned into stone by some powerful magician. [528] ”

“ Around Aberdeen we find the third type of circle. It consists of a cist-tomb covered by a low mound, often with a retaining wall of small blocks, but there is no entrance passage leading into the cist. Outside the whole is a circle of large upright blocks with this peculiarity, that between the two highest—generally to the south or slightly east of south—lies a long block on its side, occupying the whole interval between them. The uprights nearest this 'recumbent' block are the tallest in the circle, and the size of the rest decreases towards the north. ”

“ The circle in front would then represent the grave of a chief; the long stone, 40 yards in front, the grave of another of the "menu" people; and the circles and cromlech in front of the first line the burying-places of those who fell there. ”

“ The circle is the largest specimen of primitive stone monuments in Britain, measuring on the average 1200 ft. in diameter. The stones are all the native Sarsens which occur everywhere in the district, and show no evidence of having been hewn. ”

“ Others consider the circles of standing stones to be merely the remains of the circular walls of large stone towers, but that idea hardly requires serious notice. On Dartmoor there are also numerous long rows of small standing stones, which frequently have a small circle, with or without a barrow inside it, at one end of the line, or it may be a barrow without a circle. ”

“ The circles reared at the annual Eisteddfod by the neo-Druidic cult are arranged similarly. Besides the twelve pillars, three outstanding menhirs were fixed at the North-East, East, and South-East respectively so that the sun’s rays at the solstices, or the equinoxes, as might be, fell on the central stone, or “chair” within the circle. And, by a strange coincidence—or is it due to imitation?—another plan of the Gorsedd circle, as preserved in ancient manuscripts, gives nineteen stones, with a gap towards the East. ”

“ When the circle was constructed, the “pointer,” instead of being a point to the west of south as it is now, a variation owing to the obliquity of the earth’s axis, stood exactly due south; therefore the seer, sighting from the point of the central monolith, knew that when the sun was directly over it the time was mid-day—the greater distance assisting the accuracy. Similarly the east stone is now a point to the southward, so when the sun rose over the horizon in line with it and the central monolith, it was the May festival, and so on for every phase of the sun. ”

“ Here in a circle, about one hundred feet in diameter, are reared a series of great pillars of granite, a stone which cannot be found within hundreds of miles from the spot, in fact the north of France is the nearest. Each slab is about twenty feet in height and they are fashioned rudely in the form of a temple. ”

“ As the curve is the true line of beauty, and as the circle in Egyptian hieroglyphics is ever used as the symbol of renewed life—the type or sign of the generative principle—so the motion produced by the centripetal and centrifugal forces, seems to be that of nature. ”

“ The platform is laid with marble stones, forming nine concentric circles, the inner circle consisting of nine stones, cut so as to fit with close edges round the central stone, which is itself a perfect circle. Here the Emperor kneels and is encompassed, first by the circles of the terraces and surrounding walls, and then by the circle of the horizon. He thus seems to himself and his court to be in the centre of the universe," and so on, the same symbolism being carried on throughout the details of the altar. ”

“ The lunar circle betokens a tempest;—modern writers on pneumatics affirm every breeze that blows, from the gentle-breathing zephyr to the rude northeastern blast, to be a whirlwind; and the beautiful hues of the iris, bright with hope and promise, play upon the melting clouds in the segment of a circle. ”

“ Indeed, with most of our race the journey of human life would be circular, were it not that it has both a beginning and an end,—and so has a circle, if you could find them. From all which it follows, that by the laws of the universe, all things, animate and inanimate, move in revolutionary harmony; and though complex in their machinery as the wheels of Ezekiel's vision, are yet so perfect and beautiful in their order, as to have suggested to the ancients the poetical idea of "the music of the spheres." ”

“ As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes The sinking stone at first a circle makes; The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd, Spreads in a second circle, then a third; Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance, 440 Fill all the watery plain, and to the margin dance: Thus every voice and sound, when first they break, On neighbouring air a soft impression make; ”

“ Stone-Circles or Standing-Stones are groups of stones, sometimes two or three standing alone and sometimes arranged in circles, found in Britain, Scandinavia, France and elsewhere. They were called druidical circles in Britain, cromlechs in France and dom-rings in Scandinavia. Sometimes they are bowlders rolled into place, and sometimes pillar-stones, fastened in position by smaller ones at the base. ”

“ Sketch Plan of King Arthur's Round Table, with the side, obliterated by the road, restored.
several more forming a small circle in the centre. [19] In his day also he learned that there were four stones—two pairs—standing in a gap in the vallum looking like the commencement of an avenue. The place, however, is too near Penrith, and stone is there too valuable to allow of such things escaping, so that nothing now remains which would enable us to restore this monument with certainty. Close by this is a third circle known as Arthur's Round Table. ”

“ View of Circle 27, Northern Moytura. From a photograph.
Another of these circles, No. 7, is thus described by Petrie:—"This circle, with its cromlech, are perfect. Its diameter is 37 feet, and the number of stones thirty-two. The cromlech is about 8 feet high, the table-stone resting on six stones of great magnitude: it is 9 feet long and 23 feet in circumference." Its general appearance will be seen in the annexed view from a photograph (woodcut No. 61) ; though this, as in the last instance, is far from doing justice to its appearance. [11]
61. ”

“ The stone circles in Europe appear to have been introduced in supercession to the circular earthen mounds which surround the early tumuli of our Downs. These earthen enclosures still continued to be used, surrounding stone monuments of the latest ages, but, if I mistake not, they first gave rise to the form itself. ”

“ SOME PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF MR. DANIEL WHEELWRIGHT.
CHAPTER I.
A DISQUISITION ON CIRCLES.
"In circle following circle."
The horse at the cider-mill; the mules in the press-room of the American Tract Society; and the watchman who walks his drowsy round until he falls asleep; are not the only beings that spend their lives in traversing a circle. ”

“ Those German principalities which are represented in the Diet, are denominated circles; and if a man is so ignorant as not to know that the moss always grows on the north side of a tree, and consequently gets lost in the woods, he invariably makes the discovery by finding that he has been unconsciously traversing a circle. ”

“ Temples, or stone circles corresponding to temples, might face either to the north-east or south-east, for the Summer or Winter Solstice, marking the end of the sun's journey, or they might be directed towards the east, when the sun would appear in the appointed spot twice in the year ”

“ Aspatria, 156; barrow, ib.; find, 156-7; circle of cists in Isle of Man, ib.; Mule Hill, ib.; view and plan of, 158; openings to circle, 159; Burn Moor, Cumberland, ib.; find there, ib.; square enclosure there, 160; plan, 160; Boscawen not Temples nor "Things," ib.; plan of, 161; at Moytura, 183; triple, ib.; sculptured, enclosing crosses, 304, 315; mysterious concentric circles, with lines traversing them, 304; the use of circles and Viking graves continuous in Ireland and England, 317; singular arrangement at Aschenrade and in Algeria, 317-8; circles with stone in centre at Bajard, 318 ”

“ Maes Knoll, 153; meaning of word Maes, ib.; similarity to Stennis, 256-7.
Stanton Moor circle, 48, 49.
Stanley, Hon. W. C, circles enumerated by, 162; cist found by, at Plas Newvdd, 166.
Stawell, Lord, excavation directed by, at Avebury, 74-5.
Stennis, 241; dolmen, ib.; great circle like English ones, 161; like Stanton Drew, 257; date, ib.; countless barrows, ib.; magnificent effect of group, ib.; circles and barrows belong to different and what races, ib.; dates thereof, ib.
Steppes, importance of exploring with reference to Turanian origin of dolmens, 447 et seq.; tumuli, 448-9 ”

“ Under the flaming yellow stars it stood out luminous, marking the exact center of an enormous circle; a circle roofed by the radiantly flecked heavens, bounded by mountains which rose against the sky-line, abrupt as a wall, black as ink. ”

“ A line of sight taken over the stones west and east within the circle exactly touches the eastern horizon, where there is a small artificial mound of stones, and this system of levelling the vallum and stones of a circle to the plane of the horizon seems to be general, and is especially in evidence at Ford. ”

“ A short distance to the north of the northern entrenchment is another circle about fifty-three feet in diameter. Here short upright stones have been embedded in a rather wide ring of earth, and in this respect the circle differs from the one near Lady Bower called Seven Stones, which will be described in a subsequent chapter. Most of the upright stones are buried in the circling mound. It is possible that the circle near the Bar Dike may have been a doom-ring [9] in which men were sentenced. ”

“ He affirms therefore, that though it be true in the Theory, that a Circle, whose Plain is inclined to the Axis of the Sphere by an Angle, whereof half the Diameter is the Sine, and which touches the Sphere in its Pole, will touch in all its parts a spherical Surface, that shall turn upon that Axe. But that it is true also, that that must be but a Mathematical Circle, and without Breadth, and which precisely touches the Body in its middle: Whereas in the practice, a Circle capable to keep Sand and Putty, must be of some breadth ”