CROMLECHS, OR DRUIDICAL ALTARS.
Who raised the wondrous pile? I asked and sighed,
And paused for a reply; but none replied.
Time passed me by, and answered with a frown,
Whoever raised it I will pull it down.
There is perhaps no subject on which antiquarians have more employed their learning and industry, on which their theories have been so fruitful, or their discussions so endless, as on the origin and history of those ancient stones generally denominated Druidical. But, who were the founders—when were they founded—and what was the immediate object of their foundation, are questions which at this period we cannot fully answer. At the same time the undoubted antiquity of these remains, the tolerably accurate glimpses of their original condition which the antiquarian writers afford us, and the very mystery in which they are enveloped, altogether make their study peculiarly attractive. But more than all this, there is one fact connected with these antique monuments, which renders them of very high interest indeed, and that is, their dispersion over every part of the world, bearing evidently a common impress of the ideas and habits of their founders, even in places so remote from each other as to make it appear impossible that there should have been any mutual intercourse in those ancient times. Monuments of large and rude stones, disposed in the forms known respectively in our country by the names of circles, cromlechs, kistvaens, and stones erect, are found extensively dispersed through Great Britain, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Gaza, Phœnicia, Malabar, Bombay, and other parts of India, Palestine, Persia, Northern Africa, North America, and in the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, and of the South Sea. What conclusions then can we draw from these phenomena, but that those common ideas and habits of which we have spoken must have existed prior to the dispersion of the great family of man, of which the Scriptures tell us? If the identity of the monuments known as Druidical in this country with those existing in Palestine and other parts mentioned in the sacred writings be acknowledged, this important result follows:—that whilst, on the one hand, “the form of existing monuments illustrates the form of those mentioned in Scripture;” on the other, “the uses of those described in Scripture illustrates the uses of those now existing.” The Sacred Scriptures furnish us with many indications as to the use of the altar and circle of stones. (Gen. xx. 24, 25, Josh. v. 5–7, 1 Sam. vii. 16, 17–x. 8.)
The general opinion is that the cromlechs were altars on which the priests offered their dreadful sacrifices. On this subject Cæsar has the following remarks:—“The whole nation of the Gauls, (whom Cæsar describes as imitators of those of Britain, and as deriving from the latter their customs) is much addicted to religious observances, and on that account, those who are attacked by any of the more serious diseases, and who are in danger of warfare, either offer human sacrifice or make a vow that they will offer them, and they employ the Druids to officiate at their sacrifices; for they consider that the favour of the immortal gods cannot be conciliated, unless the life of one man be offered up for that of another; they have sacrifices of the same kind appointed on behalf of the state.” To which we may add, that Tacitus, in his account of the Roman attack on the Isle of Anglesey, the then great stronghold of the British Druids, states—that “they held it right to smear their altars with the blood of their captives.” It is a striking corroboration of the theory that the cromlechs were the altars on which these dreadful sacrifices were performed, to find that in this very Isle of Anglesey are yet existing about thirty, among which are some of the largest and most magnificent our country possesses. It is well known that, at a very early period, this Island was the great school of Druidism—the chosen retreat and asylum of the Druidical Priests. No wonder, therefore, that travellers are particularly struck with the great absence of trees, having naturally enough supposed that the former scene of Druidical superstition, the horrors of which were carried on in the dark recesses of consecrated groves, would not be so bare and destitute of timber. Nor did Anglesey always wear this naked appearance. Classical authors tell us it formerly had its venerable woods and shady groves, and the ancient British appellation Ynys Dywyll, or the Shady Island, intimates the same fact; and bodies of trees are constantly met with in the pits from which the inhabitants get their peat.
Having made these remarks we shall now direct the attention of the tourist to the