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168
ENGLAND.
Chap. IV.

two holes that were pierced in the shab that closed the entrance. The upper part of this slab is now broken off, but so much remains that it is easy to see that they were originally circular and about 10 inches in diameter. Such holed stones are very frequent in Eastern dolmens, and are also common in Cornwall and elsewhere;[1] but what their purpose may have been has not yet been explained. Further on it may be attempted. At present it is the relation of this form of chambered tumuli to external dolmens that principally interests us.

Rude Stone Monuments 0194.png

49.
Dolmen at Pentre Ifan. From 'Archæologia Cambrensis.'

Almost all the so-called dolmens in the Channel Islands are of this class. One has already been given (woodcut No. 11), and it may safelv be asserted that all chambers which were wainscoted with slabs, so as to form nearly perfect walls, and all that had complicated quasi-vaulted roofs were, or were intended to be, covered with mounds—more especially those that had covered passages leading to them. There is, however, a very wide distinction between these sepulchral chambers and such a monument as this at Pentre Ifan, in Pembrokeshire.[2] The top stone is so large that it is said five persons on horseback have found shelter under


  1. For Rodmarton, see 'Proceedings Soc. Ant.' l. s. c.; for Cornish, see paper by M. Brash, 'Gent. Mag.,' 1864.
  2. 'Arhæologia Cambrensis,' third series, xi. p. 284.