OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS.
125
in which nothing is done in the nature of preservation; and, on the other hand,
agricultural operations, building, and the like, are doing a great deal in the way
of destruction."
Mr. Read gave a very striking local Irish example of the
destruction of an ancient cairn, known as the "Giant's Grave,"
in co. Antrim, and pointed out that the protest of the Dartmoor
Committee showed that the law (under the Highway Act, 5 and
6, Wm. IV., c. 50) actually aids and abets public officials in the
systematic destruction of our prehistoric remains if, by chance,
stone be used in their construction! Mr. Read asks, "is it
possible to conceive of a situation more absurd than that shown
by the existence in the same statute-book of two such Acts as
the Ancient Monuments Act on one hand and this mischievous
Act on the other? The one rigidly protects the very same class
of monuments that may be destroyed with impunity by virtue of
the other."1
The writer continued:—
" The danger to other remains, however, which may not be made of stones is
equally great, though from other causes. The burial-mounds, mere heaps of
earth that are spread more or less over the whole country, are constantly being
destroyed, by accident or design, and their story is fully as important as that of
any other class of prehistoric remains. The operations of agriculture are daily
reducing such mounds to the general level of the surrounding land, and when the
burial is at last exposed by the plough the relics are, in almost every case,
scattered or destroyed, either in wanton mischief or from ignorance. It is a.
common thing for odds and ends from such sites to be brought to me at the
British Museum, with the story that there was a great deal more found, but that
they were divided among the farm hands or given to chance visitors.
" That such a state of things should be general in this country is not
creditable to our civilisation. Every modern state with any pretensions to
culture takes pains to preserve the memorials of its past, and takes a legitimate
pride in the preservation of its ancient monuments. In Britain we cannot claim
the same glories of architecture of early times that are to be found in the
Mediterranean area. Our modern history has its glories, architectural and of
other kinds, but these may safely be left to the guardianship of public opinion.
Public opinion, however, can scarcely be said to exist with regard to such of our
monuments as are contemporary with the classical period of Greece. They are in
the main neither generally known nor understood, and it cannot be said that they
are immediately attractive. Nevertheless they are all we have to represent a page,
or perhaps a volume, of our country's progress, and as such are deserving of
attention and of preservation,"
1 At the discussion at the meeting of the Conference, the Rev. J. O. Bevan said that
"it was monstrous, e.g., that on such an important area as Dartmoor the highway
authorities were permitted to appropriate valuable remains and break them up for the
metalling of roads! Such an Act of Parliament ought to be at once rescinded. Public
opinion should be roused in reference to the entire subject, and Local Societies, such as
those they represented, could do a great deal." A resolution, asking the Government to 
consider this matter, was passed. See page 123.