Abstract
IN Mr. Fergusson's “Handbook of Architecture,” published in 1854, one chapter of about fifty pages is devoted to Megalithic, or, as he prefers to call them, Rude Stone, Monuments. Ever since that period he has been collecting materials on this interesting subject, and the result is now before us, in the work which forms the subject of this notice. In it he confines himself to the classes of monuments indicated in the title, omitting all reference to hut circles, Pict's houses, brochs, and other buildings composed of smaller stones; not because he doubts that they belong to the same period, “but because their age being doubtful also”it would only complicate the argument to introduce them. He limits himself-therefore to tumuli, menhirs or stone pillars, stone circles, avenues, and dolmens. All these we find sometimes singly, some times in combination, the tumulus containing a dolmen, being surrounded by one or more stone circles, and surmounted by a menhir. Fig. liii., representing the celebrated tumulus of New Grange, near Drogheda, gives a good idea of the large barrows; it was originally surrounded by a circle of stones, most of which, however, have disappeared. Fig. 3 represents the stone circle, known as the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor.
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LUBBOCK, J. Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments . Nature 5, 386–389 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/005386a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/005386a0