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speculation. The structure at present consists only of four stones, without reckoning the cap, namely the three supporters and one long slab which forms the northern side of the chamber, the side given in the cut. The whole of the southern side has been removed. It is situated on a farm called Plas Issa, near Criccieth.

Close to the village of Fourcrosses, near Pwllheli, is a cromlech which is remarkable for giving the name of "Cromlech" to the farm on which it stands. Inquiry has been made of gentlemen who have been for many years acquainted with the locality, and the result is the information that from time immemorial the farm has never been called by any other name but its present one of Cromlech. Now, as is well known, there has existed, and still does exist, much doubt concerning the real origin of the name. Rowlands, in his Mona Antiqua(p.47), says "these altars were, and are to this day, vulgarly called by the name of cromlech." He gives two reasons for the name, one of which is that it is a mere description of an inclined stone, crom and llech; but as some of the capstones of cromlechs are not so inclined, Rowlands seems to prefer the second explanation, namely that the name was, like many other names, imported from Babel, and was originally caremlech, that is, a devoted stone or altar! If Rowlands's statement, that these monuments were ordinarily known as cromlechs in his time, is correct, it is very curious that the name should have been lost, as a general rule, among the common people. That it was, however, a correct statement seems to be confirmed by the name being given to a farm at a period beyond memory. No assistance is likely to be rendered by any old deeds connected with the property, which was once an outlying portion of the Corsygedol estates.

The cromlech itself (cut 10) is remarkable also as shewing indications that the chamber was not entirely composed of the usual slabs, but that portions of the walls had been built up of dry rubble. Allusion has already been made to the entrance of the chamber being frequently thus built, or in some cases entirely of rubble.

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Dr. Griffith Griffith, during a late visit to Algiers, saw several cromlechs which had considerable remains of this rude masonry still remaining. On referring to the plan (see cut No. 11) it will be seen that the chamber is of unusual form, for the slab which partially closes the eastern side is not parallel to the opposite side. It appears to be in its original place, but still it is not impossible that it has been subsequently shifted to its present situation. But novever this may be, it is so low that to complete the eastern enclosure another slab or dry masonry must have been added so as to reach the capstone. The latter has 1 partially dislodged, and does not now cover the aber; which, if the eastern stone has been since to its present oblique position, was nearly a square, having its entrance, as usual, on the eastern side. Although this monument is not of

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large dimensions, yet it is probable, from the entrance having been partly of rubble, that it has been used as the place of burial on more than one occasion. There are no traces whatsoever left of the tumulus.

None of the cromlechs that have been briefly men

tioned seem to have traces of galleries leading to the chamber. This, as is well known, is one of the marked distinctive features of sepulchral chambers in Britany, as contrasted with those of this country. In the former country they are by no means uncommon; in the latter, particularly as regards Wales, they are extremely rare. Allusion has been already made to the gallery connected with the three chambers near Capel Garmon. Through the courteous indness Capt. Lukis we are enabled to present a copy of pian mate by that gentleman, accompanied with careful and accurate measurements of deta(cut 12), of the chamber of Bryn-celli Ddu, or, as it called in the Ordnance Map Yr Ogof, or the holere. It still retains some portion of the original carn, but is more remarkable from its having the greater portion of the original gallery leading to the chamber, in a tolerably perfect state. A view of the exterior of the chamber, showing the remains of the cairn and gallery together with an accurate description of the whole monument will be found in the Archæologia Cambrensis of 1847 (p. 3) Rowlands, in his Mona Antiqua, merely describes the remains of two carns near each other, one of which had been almost in his time entirely removed, and the other had been "broken and pitted into on one side." Two standing "columns" are also said to exist between the two carns. (Mona Antiqua, pp. 93, 100.) An extremely rude representation is also given, which represents the carns as composed of nothing but stones, without any admixture of earth, which was not the case. As Rowlands says nothing about the gallery, it is more than probable that although the carn had been "pitted into" on one side, the gallery had not been discovered, much less the chamber. When Pennant described it, one of the carns had vanished. At least he writes as if only one existed at the time. The upright stones are also passed over without notice, and were also probably no longer in existence. On the other hand, the late Miss Lloyd, in her account of the parish of Llan

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