I reminded my uncle of the singular temple which cousin Hertford saw in the Isle of Lewis.
“Yes,” he said, “it is evidently the remains of a great Druidical work; and Maurice, in his ‘Indian Antiquities,’ observes that Stonehenge, a model of which I once shewed you, Bertha, plainly alludes in situation, number of stones, and other circumstances, to the Asiatic Astronomy, and resembles in every respect the ancient style of temple used by the Persians before the time of Zoroaster. It was he who first covered in the Persian temples to preserve the sacred fire; and therefore the arrival of the colony here, who introduced the fire-worshippers, must have been in a very early age. But,” he continued, “I must not lead you into this maze of antiquarian difficulty; it has been a very interesting object of research to a few learned people, though it can only perplex the half-informed.”
“But tell me, uncle, is this idea of an eastern colony a very new one?”
“Oh no,” said he, “it has long existed in tradition, and is alluded to in one of the Druid’s odes in Caractacus.
Hail, thou harp of Phrygian frame!
In years of yore that Cambria bore
From Troy’s sepulchral flame;
With ancient Brute, to Britain’s shore,
The mighty minstrel came.”
I asked then if there were any traces of the Eastern languages amongst us, besides the few detached words he had once mentioned to me; though I thought there was but little chance that any could have been preserved in a country where so many nations had successively settled.
“Yes,” said he, “a celebrated antiquary has proved that there is really a strong resemblance between the Irish language and the Hebrew, which is considered the original, or first of all languages. In the Welsh also, or British, which is of the same nature as the Irish, many words appear to be of Eastern origin; and a gentleman of Bristol having lately collected the common old British names of the indigenous plants, has found several of them to be in sound and sense pure Hebrew.”
“Pray, uncle, what is the meaning of the word Druid—would not that throw some light on the subject?”
“It is impossible,” he said, “now to determine its original meaning; and indeed the derivations of that kind of words are in general only fanciful guesses. By some, Druid has been derived from a Greek word drus, signifying oak; and by others from an old British word dree, which has the same meaning. It has also been supposed to come from a Saxon word dryth, which means magician; and, according to others from a Celtic word druis, a doctor or learned man. There is a curious circumstance which seems to corroborate its derivation from oak,—namely, that in every country where the worship of the sun has prevailed, the oak has been venerated. It is also singular that the two names by which that tree is still known in Persia and India, had the same meaning in the ancient British and in Irish, gaur and bahk.”
The conversation was interrupted by our arrival at this inn, where my uncle has determined on passing the night, as we were occupied a much longer time than he had expected, in examining the magnificent chain bridge, lately suspended across the straits of Menai. I have made a little sketch of it for you, dear mamma, which shall be accompanied by as good a description as I can give; but in the mean time I must tell you, that this “wonderful piece of work,” as my uncle calls it, is almost two hundred yards long from pier to pier, and so high above the water, that large vessels pass under it with all their sails set.