A description of the part of Devonshire bordering on the Tamar and the Tavy; its natural history, manners, customs, superstitions, scenery, antiquities, biography of eminent persons, etcin a series of letters to Robert Southey . the top of a rock, with a flat surface, a stone, ninefeet long, and six wide, is supported by two other XIII.] TOLMEN. 243 stones. One of the supports is placed on the veryedge of the rock. Neither point of bearing is aninch in thickness, so that, in all appearance, a slighteffort would remove it. Through this aperture Icrept, not without apprehension, and took especia
A description of the part of Devonshire bordering on the Tamar and the Tavy; its natural history, manners, customs, superstitions, scenery, antiquities, biography of eminent persons, etcin a series of letters to Robert Southey . the top of a rock, with a flat surface, a stone, ninefeet long, and six wide, is supported by two other XIII.] TOLMEN. 243 stones. One of the supports is placed on the veryedge of the rock. Neither point of bearing is aninch in thickness, so that, in all appearance, a slighteffort would remove it. Through this aperture Icrept, not without apprehension, and took especialcare not to touch its supporter even in the The tolmen is denominated by Borlase a stonedeity. By going under the rock, or through thepassage formed by it, he thinks one acquired adegree of holiness; or that it was used to preparefor, and initiate into, the mysteries of Druidism,their future votaries. Some, too, he says, mightbe resorted to by people troubled mth particulardiseases, who, by going through these passages, lefttheir complaints behind them.* After all, however, it is probable that this rockcannot come under such denomination, as tolmens ingeneral are large orbicular rocks, supported from thegiound by two small ones. And as nothing similarto it is to be found in Borlases account of Druidicalremains in Cornwall, I may be allowed, perhaps, toindulge my own conjectures. * ? Creeping under tolmens for Ihe cure of diseases is still prac-tised in Ireland, and also in the East, as is shown by Mrs. ColonelElwood in her travels,—Genl/emans Magazine, July, 1831. M 2 244 VIXKN TOR. [let. XIII. I am inclined, then, to think
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