1

fined, are common to the fanes of the Celtic countries in the north-west of Europe, and in some instances form the principal feature in existing remains-as at Carnac in Brittany. At Avebury, also, the avenues were especially remarkable. At Shap, formerly Heppe, in Westmorland, at the commencement of this century, an avenue of rude columnar stones extended nearly a mile; at one end was a circle of stones, and there was another about half a mile distant. One of the stones was perforated, the hole being near the ground, and on the uppermost corner of the same stone was sculptured a circle 8 inches in diameter. Nearly all these monuments have been destroyed. At Kirkmichael in Perthshire among the numerous Cyclopean remains there is an avenue bounded by stones upwards of 100 yards in length.2

Stonehenge may be taken as the best known, as well as the most distinct, specimen of the numerous fanes in which the lines of approach, although well defined, are not marked by rows of monoliths. In some cases it is probable that the stones have been removed; in others that they never existed, their purpose being served by erections of a perishable nature, such as generally sufficed for the dwellings of the early inhabitants of Britain.

An approach leading from near Kits-Cotty House in Kent to other Cyclopean remains at Addington, a distance of five miles, have been partly traced by vestiges of stone monuments;

1 Pennant's Tour in Scotland, vol.

iii. p. 279.

3

2 Old Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xv. p. 517.

Wright's Ancient Inhabitants of Britain, p. 64.

3

but, like other Celtic memorials on that side of England, nothing of their original form can with any certainty be now discovered. King1 describes the oval fane at Addington as being in length from east to west fifty paces and in breadth forty-two paces; some of the stones which defined the area being about 7 feet in height. On the east was the altar-stone, 9 feet by 7, and near it lay another stone 15 feet in height.

To the ancient monument in the parish of Lambourne in Berkshire, called Wayland-Smith, and the vestiges of extensive Cyclopean remains contiguous, there appear to have been two approaches through double rows of stones."

2

Of the multitude of circular columnar fanes in Scotlandand under that name I include all those having dolmens or table-stones, whether resting on the ground or raised on three or four detached blocks-few, I believe, are without traces of an approach, evidently part of the original design. The same remark applies to the circles which have in the centre a single pillar. Perhaps the most remarkable instance of this kind of monument now remaining in North Britain is at Classernish in the island of Lewis. Here a circle, defined by twelve stones, each of the average height of 7 feet above ground, has a diameter of 40 feet; the centre being occupied by a stone 13 feet high. Towards the north an avenue, defined by double lines of stones similar to those in the circle, is 270 feet in length; single lines, now consisting of five stones each, point from the circumference of the circle 1 King's Munimenta Antiqua, vol. i. 2 Britton and Brayley's Berkshire, p. 200. p. 130.

to the east and west; and a line of six stones points to the south. The number of stones now remaining is forty-eight. They are imbedded in the clay to a depth of 4 or 5 feet,1 and are entirely unhewn shapeless blocks of gneiss.

66

1

Description of Classernish," by

H. Callender, Esq., pp. 382, 383, in

vol. ii. part. iii. of Proceedings of Society

of Antiquaries of Scotland.