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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX
TILDEN FOUNDA IONS

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THE ROLL-RICH STONES.

245

As the early Christians in Britain were authorised to use the heathen fanes as places of worship, it may not be deemed an unreasonable conjecture that the enclosure at the east may have been added when the inhabitants were converted from paganism.

The monument called the Roll-rich Stones, near ChippingNorton, on the borders of Oxfordshire, has received so much notice from Camden and other antiquaries that it cannot be passed without remark. But it is of less size than the fanes already referred to. It is an oval of 105 feet by 99, and was defined by sixty stones of various dimensions, the largest being 171 feet in height. On the north-east, 250 feet from the oval, stood by itself the largest monolith of the group-apparently at the opening of the approach to the consecrated area-on the outside of which, on the south-east, were, in a group, five large stones, probably the remains of a dolmen or kistvaen. The legend attached to the Roll-rich Stones is like the legend attached to such remains in all countries-viz. that the stones are petrified human beings. Here there are some details, such as that the large detached column was the king; the group of five large stones, knights; the stones of the oval, royal attendants-soldiers who shared the fate of their leader.

Stone avenues, or lines of approach less prominently de

'I suggest, as a possible explanation of the name, a derivation free at least from some of the objections which have been taken to previous etymologies-viz. that Roll-rich may be from the Celtic-Gaelic words Roilig,

a burying-place, and Righ, a king. Roilig is synonymous with Reidhlic, a word derived from Reidh, a plain, and Leac, a stone. -Gaelic Dictionary of the Highland Society.

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