Stone avenue on the North Teign ([1848])

Rowe, Samuel. A perambulation of the antient & royal forest of Dartmoor. Plymouth: J.B. Rowe, 1848. pp. 78 - 79.The avenues, although presenting the same general features with those at Merivale, are in far less perfect preservation. If any of these parallelithons deserve the name of Cursus, which has been sometimes applied to them, from the supposition that they were designed as race courses, by our British forefathers, the Longstone Avenue certainly could not have been one. The ground is ill-adapted for the purposes of a hippodrome; and, on the other hand, the construction and arrangements (as shown in the accompanying plate) are all indicative of its character as a Via Sacra, or processional road of Druidical worship, according to the Arkite ceremonial. Beginning on the acclivity above Longstone Maen, the avenue passes over the hill, towards the Teign, in the direction of the great Sacred Circle, on Scorhill Down, above described. The Teign flows at the distance of about half a mile, and this avenue terminates in full view of another, near at hand, which runs down the declivity towards the river. At its southern extremity is a dilapidated cairn, the only example observed in the immediate neighbourhood. The avenue instead of being perfectly straight, as at Merivale and Stanlake, in the West Quarter, is, in some parts, slightly curvilinear. This is the only indication of an ophite feature, which I have been able to detect, in any of the Danmonian avenues, and it is so slightly serpentine, as scarcely to warrant the conclusion, that the vestiges of a Dracontium, or Serpent Temple, may here be traced. The avenue appears suddenly to stop; as it seems impossible to trace any connexion [sic] with another, whose course, if continued, would have made a right angle with the former. From its second commencement it runs nearly direct, and almost parallel to another, at a short distance down the declivity eastward. Of these avenues, the eastern line could be traced only forty-one yards, but the western is one hundred and forty yards in length, taking its commencement in a circle, adjoining which is another Maen, lying on the ground, ten feet long. This avenue runs down the hill, becoming more and more imperfect, until it disappears, for a considerable interval. There is, however, apparently, a distinct termination in two erect stones, which stand apart, although evidently in the same line.[Text may be taken from a different source or edition than that listed by the source by Somers Cocks.]

Lithograph

118x194mm