Carreg Samson

The Longhouse Cromlech, Pembrokeshire.

Mr. E. Owen Phillips, of the Cathedral Close, St. David's, writes thus to the Times:- I have just returned from visiting the celebrated Longhouse cromlech, which, I am glad to say, remains in its integrity, untouched by the rude had of the destroyer, and I am thankful to believe likely to remain so.

Mr. Griffiths, the owner of the farm on which the Cromlech stands, accompanied me to the spot, and I have his authority for stating that he takes the greatest interet in this magnificent monument of prehistoric archaeology and in its preservation. His father-in-law, a former tenant of the farm, spent much time and labour, in clearing away obstructing rubbish, in order to bring the cromlech into bolder relief and afford a better view of it all round - a great improvement, as it certainly presents a more grand and striking appeance at present than it did when I saw it some years since.

On my asking Mr. Griffiths for an explanation of the statement which appeared in a letter to The Times of September 6, that a labourer who was engaged in grubbing up stones near the monument to fill in a gap in a fence, said that he, the owner, "threatened to overthrow and demolish the monument altogether in order to construct a new bank across an adjacent field!" Mr Griffiths replied that "there was not a word of truth in it, nor any foundation for the statement, and that very probably the man was hoaxing the stranger."

Mr. Griffiths complains and feels aggrieved that, assuming the statement to have been made, Mr. Greville Chester did not call on him to ascertain the truth or otherwise of it; the more so as Mr. Chester must have passed within a few yards of his house on returning from the cromlech. The disturbance caused by the stones, which are now to be seen filling up a gap in a fence, does not in the slightest degree interfere with the stability of the cromlech, which the public will be interested to know the present landlord is as anxious to preserve as carefully as it has been in the past.

At the same time, I agree with Mr. Greville Chester that it was an oversight, at least, on the part of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners "not to insert a proviso in the deed of sale for the preservation of so important a monument of prehistoric archaeology;" since the farm might have found a purchaser in one whose conservative interest in this grand old monument was less than that of the present owner.