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Long Meg and Her
Daughters
Wigton July 1712.
I Went some days ago to examine that curious remain of
British antiquities called Long Meg and her Daughters, about
which it must be acknowledged all conjectures are extremely
uncertain.
They are situated upon an eminence on the east side of the
river Eden, near a mile from it, above a village called
Little Salkeld; this eminence appeared to have been all moor
formerly, but now about half ye stones are within
inclosures, placed in an orbicular form, in some places
double. I make 70 principal ones, but there are 1 or 2 more
disputable; several lie flat on the surface, their greatest
eminence not exceeding a foot, others yet less, and others
perpendicular to the horizon; the highest of those in the
circular range does not much exceed 3 yards, nor is it more
than 4 wide, and 2 deep; but none of them have a regularity
of shape, though the constructors seem to have aimed at a
parallelopipedon. Long Meg herself is near four yards high,
and about 40 yards from the ring, towards the southwest, but
leans much, it being of what they call the free-stone kind,
is more regular than those in the circle, and is formed like
a pyramid on a rhomboidal base, each side being near two
yards at the bottom, but a good deal narrower at the top.
(What I mean by the base is only the ground plan of the
stone itself, for as to what is in architecture called base,
it has none but earth). The others in the orbicular range
are of no kind of stone to be found in that neighbourhood,
and the four facing the cardinal points are by far the
largest and most bulky of the whole ring; they contain at
least 648 solid feet or about 13 London cartloads, and,
unless they are a composition, (which I am much induced to
believe) no account can be given what carriages could have
brought them there, nor by what means they could be placed
erect when they came. It is to be noted that these measures
are only what appeared above groound; we have reason to
suspect that at last a yard is left in the earth, which will
make the whole amount to a prodigious weight more. Others
are erect, but not of such enormous size, and others, as I
said before, lie flat along, not thrown down, as I think,
but so placed either by choice or design, and some of these
are also very large. In diameter the ring may be 80 yards or
more, and the circle is pretty regular, but how they came
there and their destination is the important question.
I am, Sir, Yours, &c. G.S.
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