There were then no publick roads, or common high-ways to passe from one place to another, no constant habitations, Nec mœnia, nec urbes, Nor towns nor walls (as DionDion li. 76. out of Xiphiline hath it) much lesse Temples, or other buildings made of stone, composed by Art, with Order, and Proportion.i
Moreover, who cast their eies upon this Antiquity, and examine the same with judgement, must be enforced to confesse it erected by people, grand masters in the Art of building, and liberall sciences, whereof the ancient Britans utterly ignorant, as a Nation wholly addicted to wars, never applying themselves to the study of Arts, or troubling their thoughts with any excellency therein. Omnis arbor domus.Dion lib. 62. Every tree being in stead of a house to them.
In the wars which Bunduica (whom Tacitus cals Boadicia) Queen of the Iceni, undertook against the Romans, wherein seventy thousand of their Citizens, and allies perished; in disdainfull contempt of the experience in Arts, wherein the Romans flourished, She accounted it her chiefest glory (saith Dion Cassius)Dion lib. 62. to command over the Britans, in regard, a people they were, who had not learned, or knew, what belonged to the cultivating and manuring of lands; or the practice of Arts, or to be craftsmen in any thing, save war. Qui non agros colere, non opifices esse, sed bella gerere optimè didicerunt. Where you see, their having nor experience nor practice in any kinde of Sciences, war excepted, was enforc’d, by Bunduica, as redounding greatly to the Britans honour, much advantage being made thereof by Her, towards advancing Her designs, as the Historian plainly tells us.
But certain it is, however barbarous in other affairs, a most warlike people they were. Never, untill the forces of the whole world united in the Roman Empire conspiring to subdue them, liable to conquest: neither could all that power, till after numbers of years spent in the attempt, with infinite expence of men and treasure, ever prevail against them. Now, as their sole skilfulnesse was in war, so they idoliz’d principally what had relation thereunto, their Dea optima maxima, being Victoria, whom they worshipped under the name of Andates. Another Goddesse they had in much esteem, called Adraste, which some imagine (as the Nemesis amongst the Greeks) was their Goddesse of Revenge. These, according to their savage manner of living, they adored in groves, and woods, the only Temples in use amongst them, to perform their Sacrifices, and divine mysteries in. (as from severall Authors I have already proved) Neither find I any particular place mentioned, to which any of these their Temples (if they may so be called) were assigned; only Andates (it seems from Dion Cassius) had a grove sacred to her in the Countrey of the Iceni, anciently containing Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon Shires, farre enough from Stoneheng.
Besides, it is not to be past over in silence, how Tacitus expresseth himself in the before cited fourteenth Book of his Annals, telling us; The Romans overthrew not the Temples, or razed to the Foundations, any of the sacred structures of the Druid’s and Britans made of stone, or other materials, which he might as readily have done, if they had used any such: but positively, the Romans cut down the Britans woods and groves, amongst them reckoned holy, and consecrated to their execrable superstitions. True it is, other Temples, of greater magnificence then already spoken of, I find none: Ornaments of Art to enrich them they were not acquainted with: such orderly composed works as Stoneheng, they had not any: yea, no kind of sacred structures of stone were in use amongst them: their idolatrous places being naturally adorned, only with wild, and overgrown shades, designed and brought to perfection by Dame Nature her self, she being Architect generall to all their Deities. Nor did it consist with their vain Religion to use any other, they making their worship, performing their Ceremonies, offering their Sacrifices in dark and obscure groves, most conformable unto their barbarous, and inhumane, humane oblations.
Neither must it seem strange, they used no other Temples then these, it not being their custom alone; for the ExcelsiMayer. 1 K. 1. Ch. or high places mentioned in the sacred Story, wherein the Heathen performed idolatrous rites unto their Idols, were commonly groves, affectedly sited upon some mountainous place, without any House or Temple. The Persians of old, (of whom Herodotus)Herod. li. 1. Neque statuas, neque templa, neque aras extruere consuetudo est, Erected neither Images, nor Temples, nor Altars: quinimo hoc facientibus insaniæ tribuere, accounting it great folly and madnesse in those that did: but ascending to the tops of the highest, and most lofty hils, on them offered sacrifices to their Gods. From hence, Xerxes, in his expedition, burnt down the Temples of the Greeks, because they shut up their Gods therein, to whom all things are open and free, and to whom the whole Universe serves for a Temple. The Abasgians also (inhabiting Mount Caucasus) did worship, even till Procopius his time, groves and woods; and in a barbarian simplicity esteemed the very trees themselves to be Gods. In like manner, the Northern and Southern people of America, made all their Invocations and Exorcisms in woods. The ancient Germans likewise consecrated woods and forests. Lucos ac nemora consecrant, saith Tacitus of them. And the like places for idolatrous superstition, did divers other barbarous Nations use, before reduced to order, and civility of life, Tacitus giving this reason for it: They thought it a matter ill beseeming the greatnesse of their Deities, to enclose them within Temples made by Art. His words are, Nec cohibere parietibus Deos arbitrantur, They thought it not fit to restrain their Deities within compacted walls: id est, neque templis, neque domibus, viz. neither within Temples or Houses made with hands, as C. Pichenas commenting thereon more fully interprets.
Touching the manner of the buildings of the ancient Britans, and of what materialls they consisted, I find them so far short of the magnificence of this Antiquity, that they were nor stately, nor sumptuous; neither had they any thing of Order, or Symmetry, much lesse, of gracefulnesse, and Decorum in them, being only such as OvidOvid. Met. lib. 1. (relating to the first Age of the world) makes mention of.
———————domus antra fuerunt,
Et densi frutices, & junctæ cortice virgæ.
Thus Englished by Arthur Golding.