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mutationes, and the various Inn names used by Romans, have to be looked for in field and place names, now unintelligible to Welshmen, or indeed most men of any nationality. They are not infrequent, and show that the Roman occupation was extended.

Place names have a certain confirmatory valuesuch as Gwaedllyd-the name of a field (the bloody field) near Ffrith Ivan on Ffordd Las, and in the same district Pen y Fyddin, which may mean ambush-a troop or an army.

HADRIAN'S MILESTONE.

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The accompanying illustration of this cylindrical stone, now in the British Museum, will give interest. It was found at Rhiwan, Llanfairfechan, North Wales, buried in a field adjoining the lane. It is about 6 ft. 9 in. long, with a diameter of 19 in., tapering to 16 in. at the top, bearing incised Roman letters 24 in. to 24 in. in size.

IMP. CAES. TRAI
ANUS. HADRIAN .
AUG. PM. TR P

PP COS III
A KANOVIO
MP VIII.

This stone, of the third year of the Emperor Trajan. (119 A.D.) is one of the earliest known examples of Milliaria found in Britain, and gives the distance from the spot where it was found to Kanovium, as 8000 paces-about the exact length of the road.

Curiously another, but broken milestone of the time of Septimius Severus and Marcus Aurelius, towards the end of the second century A.D., was subsequently found only 10 yards away. Such stones are of great archæological interest, and, seeing how Wales is covered by a net-work of Roman roads and tracks, there should be others in existence-broken and mutilated perhaps― that have escaped the vandal house and wall-builders; so far, only ten Milliaria have been found in Wales.

PREHISTORIC REMAINS, LLANBEDR,

MERIONETHSHIRE.

THERE are at present in existence near Llanbedr, in Merionethshire, numerous prehistoric remains lying between the hills on the east and the sea on the west. Among these the most numerous are the series of circular heaps of stones, of which there are four or five groups not so very far from the village. For our present purpose let us consider three.

The most southerly, and most extensive group, lies a few hundred yards or so west of the old road to Dolgelly, in a field

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called Bwlch y Cae, on the top of a hill overlooking the village which is about a mile away. The heaps continue at intervals nearly as far as a farm called Bron y Foel. In close proximity is a ruined dolmen and two solitary menhirs. There are also further groups of stones higher up on the hillside.

The second group, which the owner, Mr. Griffith, kindly permitted me to examine, is on the top of a tiny hillock above Plas Gwynfryn, and the third on the heights between Llanfair and Harlech.

To discuss the first group. We were first attracted to explore them partly by their general appearance and partly by the expressions of the farmer of the land, who suggested that they were "very, very old," and hinted darkly at little

people. The heaps are distinct in character, usually having a margin of ground about a foot in diameter, which seems to have been levelled for them. They are of two very distinct sizes, the larger being about 12 ft. to 14 ft. in diameter, the smaller about half as big. They seemed to be mixed indiscriminately. We opened two of the larger heaps, one partially, the other thoroughly. There were traces of a small opening towards the west. A trench, however, extending to nearly 6 ft. below the surface, failed to disclose any remains which would enable the mounds to be dated, nor were there any traces of human habitation. Indeed, as far

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as I could gather from local opinion, nothing ever had been found in any circles opened. Possibly they were never used as habitations. (Fig. 1 shows the circle excavated.)

The following description of the remains above Plas Gwynfryn I take from my working notebook. All the remains are on the top of a steep spur of the hill, the ground on three sides forming almost a cliff. The general appearance of the whole circle is egg-shaped, the smaller end including smaller circles with well-marked but ruined. walls, in the centre of which there is a circular erection with a hole in the middle, and to the north-east, still within the outer wall, a larger circle. The wall is scarcely noticeable at the larger end of the camp, but the ground

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general nature of the description will be understood at a glance on the plan (Fig. 2). There are traces of a lower wall on the south. The two smaller groups of stones immediately suggest the larger and smaller circles on Bwlch y Cae and the neighbouring fields: the resemblance has only to be seen to be appreciated. On the other hand the site is totally different, for at Gwynfryn the remains are on the steep little spur of a hill and cover all the spur; those at Bwlch y Cae are scattered along the top of a ridge.

The third series of stone circles presents a different char

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slopes away rapidly on the south, and the plateau is well marked all round. This part contains a wall running from the south and across the entrance to the smaller end, and gradually melting away into a heap of loose stones. The northern part of this is a large grassy area, quite flat, while the southern part is scattered with loose stones, and a mound suggests the stones in the centre of the larger half. The

acter in that they seem much more connected with one another than those on Bwlch y Cae, which they resemble in position, and to a certain extent in form (cf. Figs. 4, 5, and 6). The group which is most traceable has the form which can be best studied on the plan (Fig. 3).

A point which is especially noticeable is that the road which passes the Llanfair circles has quite a number of menhirs still standing along it, and that there are also one or two on the other road by Bwlch y Cae. We were also struck in exploring these monuments, both this year and last, that the menhirs seemed to point to the hill Rhinog Fach, and also that there are stone remains in spots whence the top of this hill is visible. There are however, as far as I know, no monuments of any kind on or in the neighbourhood of this hill, and the alleged standing stones on its base are natural, though it is possible there may be others. In any case, attention may be called to the apparently symmetrical arrangements of the menhirs, the presence of menhirs near the Llanfair stone-heaps, and of a dolmen and menhirs near the Bwlch y Cae heaps.

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