Stukeley del.
Vdr. Gucht. Sculp.
Near the arch-druid’s barrow, by that call’d the Kingstone, is a square plat, oblong, form’d on the turf. Hither, on a certain day of the year, the young men and maidens customarily meet, and make merry with cakes and ale. And this seems to be the remain of the very ancient festival here celebrated in memory of the interr’d, for whom the long barrow and temple were made. This was the sepulture of the arch-druid founder. At Enston, a little way off, between Neat Enston and Fulwell, by the side of a bank or tumulus, stands a great stone, with other smaller. ’Tis half a mile south-west of Enston church. A famous barrow at Lineham, by the banks of the Evenlode.
7. Mr. Camden writes further concerning our antiquity, that “the country people have a fond tradition, that they were once men, turn’d into stones. The highest of all, which lies out of the ring, they call the king. Five larger stones, which are at some distance from the circle, set close together, they pretend were knights, the ring were common soldiers.” This story the country people, for some miles round, are very fond of, and take it very ill if any one doubts of it; nay, they are in danger of being stoned for their unbelief. They have likewise rhymes and sayings relating thereto. Suchlike reports are to be met with in other like works, our Druid temples. They savour of the most ancient and heroic times. Like Perseus, turning men into stones; like Cadmus, producing men from serpents’ teeth; like Deucalion, by throwing stones over his head, and such like, which we shall have occasion to mention again, [chap. XIV.]
8. We may very reasonably affirm, that this temple was built here, on account of this long barrow. And very often in ancient times temples owe their foundation to sepulchres, as well as now. Clemens Alexandrinus in Protrept. and Eusebius, both allow it; and it is largely treated of in Schedius and other authors; ’tis a common thing among these works of our Druids, and an argument that this is a work of theirs. I shall only make two observations therefrom. 1. That it proceeded from a strong notion in antiquity of a future state, and that in respect of their bodies as well as souls; for the temples are thought prophylactic, and have a power of protecting and preserving the remains of the dead. 2. That it was the occasion of consecrating and idolizing of dead heroes, the first species of idolatry; for they by degrees advanc’d them into those deities of which these figures were symbols, whereof we shall meet with instances in the progress of this work.
Thus we pronounce Rowldrich a Druid temple, from a concurrence of all the appearances to be expected in the case; from its round form, situation on high ground, near springs, on an extended heath, from the stones taken from the surface of the ground, from the name, from the measure it is built on, from the wear of the weather, from the barrows of various kinds about it, from ancient reports, from its apparent conformity to those patriarchal temples mentioned in scripture. This is the demonstration to be expected in such antiquities. Nor shall I spend time in examining the notion of its belonging to Rollo the Dane, and the like. Mr. Camden had too much judgment to mention it. ’Tis confuted in the annotations to Britannia, and in Selden’s notes on Drayton’s Polyolbion, page 224. And let this suffice for what I can say upon this curious and ancient monument: the first kind, and most common of the Druid temples, a plain circle: of which there are innumerable all over the Britannick isles; being the original form of all temples, ’till the Mosaick tabernacle.
CHAP. III.
Abury, the most extraordinary work in the world, being a serpentine temple, or of the second kind, described. Now was the critical time of saving the memory of it. Account of the place. Natural history. The gray weathers, call’d Sarsens, a phœnician word, meaning a rock. Whence the name of the city of Tyre. Their weight and texture. The wear of the weather, more apparent here, than at Stonehenge, an argument of its being a much older work.
WHEN we contemplate the elegance of this country of Wiltshire, and the great works of antiquity therein, we may be persuaded, that the two atlantic islands, and the islands of the blessed, which Plato and other ancient writers mention, were those in reality of Britain and Ireland. They who first took possession of this country, thought it worthy of their care, and built those noble works therein, which have been the admiration of all ages. Stonehenge we have endeavoured to describe; and we are not more surpriz’d at the extraordinary magnitude of this work of Abury, than that it should have escap’d the observation of the curious: a place in the direct Bath-road from London. Passing from Marlborough hither, ’tis the common topic of amusement for travellers, to observe the gray weathers on Marlborough downs, which are the same kind of stones as this of our antiquity, lying dispers’d, on the surface of the ground, as nature originally laid them. When we come to this village, we see the largest of those stones in great numbers, set upright in the earth, in circles, in parallel lines and other regular figures, and a great part inclos’d in a vast circular ditch, of above 1000 foot diameter. And what will further excite one’s curiosity, the vallum or earth, which is of solid chalk, dug out of that ditch, thrown on the outside; quite contrary to the nature of castles and fortifications. The ditch alone, which is wide and deep, is a very great labour, and the rampart very high, and makes the appearance of a huge amphitheatre, for an innumerable company of spectators; but cannot possibly be design’d for offence or defence. This is twice passed by all the travellers: and its oddness would arrest one’s attention, if the stones escap’d it.