Note 728 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
W. Greenwell, Brit. Barrows, pp. 6-8; Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd ser., xi, 1885-7, p. 434. Canon Greenwell (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vi, 1867, p. 339), speaking of a cairn near Crinan in Argyllshire, surrounded by ‘a double circle of stones’, which ‘stood from 3 feet to 5 feet apart, except for a space ... where, in both circles, four stones were found placed close together’, says, ‘This is not an unusual feature in circles which enclose burials; in fact it is, in one shape or another, almost universal.... The object seems to be to make the circle incomplete.... When the circle is made of stones placed close together, or is formed of earth, then one or more openings occur in it.’ On the other hand, Mr. W. C. Borlase (Archaeologia, xlix, 1885, p. 183) found that in Cornwall the stone rings enclosing barrows were almost always continuous.