The vallum of the ditch which incloses the area, or court, is inwards, and makes a circular terras; walking upon which, we take the foregoing prospects. The lowest part of the area is towards the entrance. The tops of all the circumjacent hills, or rather easy elevations, are cover’d o’re, as it were, with barrows, which cause an agreeable appearance; adorning the bare downs with their figures. And this ring of barrows reaches no further, than till you lose sight of the temple, or thereabouts. Stand at the grand entrance by the stone that lies upon the ground, and the view of the temple presents itself as in the [Vth Plate], the front prospect of Stonehenge. Directly down the avenue, to the north-east, the apex of an hill terminates the horizon, between which and the bottom of a valley you see the Cursus, a work which has never yet been taken notice of. Being a space of ground included between two long banks going parallel east and west, at 350 foot distance, the length 10000 feet. This was design’d for the horse races and games, like the Olympic, the Isthmian, &c. of the Greeks. But we shall speak more particularly of this afterwards. In the valley on this side of it, the strait part of the avenue terminates in two branches; that on the left hand, leads to the Cursus; that on the right goes directly up the hill, between two famous groups of barrows, each consisting of seven in number. The farthest, or those northward, I call the oldest king’s barrows; the hithermost are vulgarly called the seven king’s graves.
If we walk a little to the left hand, [Tab. VIII.] is presented. See the northern long barrow: on this side of which, the eye takes in the whole length of the Cursus. Many barrows at the end and on both sides of it. That mark’d P. was open’d by my Lord Pembroke, those mark’d S. were open’d by myself. What was discover’d therein will be treated of hereafter. Further to the west, the highest ground of that spot whereon Stonehenge stands, eclipses a distant view, and there are the nearest barrows planted with rabbets, which do much damage too at Stonehenge, and threaten no less than the ruin of the whole. Upon the vallum of Stonehenge is one of the stones there, which seems to be a small altar, for some kind of libations, and at the letter A. the mark of a cavity; of which more particularly, in the next page. The next or south-west prospect, [Tab. IX.] from Stonehenge, takes in the country from Berwickbarn, and my Lord Pembroke’s wood of Groveley, to Salisbury steeple: a chain of barrows reaching a 6th part of the whole horizon. Many from the great quantity of these sepulchral tumuli here, injudiciously conclude, that there have been great battels upon the plain, and that the slain were bury’d there. But they are really no other than family burying-places, set near this temple, for the same reason as we bury in church-yards and consecrated ground. Salisbury steeple seen from hence, brings to my sorrowful remembrance, the great Thomas Earl of Pembroke, whose noble ashes are there deposited. He was patron of my studies, particularly those relating to Stonehenge. Virtue, piety, magnanimity, learning, generosity, all sublime qualities recommended and added to his illustrious descent. Glorious it will be for me, if these pages live to testify to another age, the intimacy he was pleased to honour me with.
————quis talia fando
Temperet a lachrymis—————!
In this Plate, the reader may remark another of the cavities within the vallum, to which that corresponds on the opposite diameter before hinted at.
The south-east prospect finishes the circle, [Tab. X.] looking towards the valley southward, where the rain-water passes, from the whole work of Stonehenge, the whole tract of the Cursus and the country beyond it, as far as north long barrow; and so is convey’d into the river Avon at Lake. That road between king barrow and the seven barrows is the way to Vespasian’s camp and so to Ambresbury. The barrow under those seven kings of later form, is that nearest to Stonehenge.
Doubtless in the sacrifices and ceremonies which were here practis’d, water was us’d, and I observe most of our Druid temples are set near rivers. The reason why Stonehenge was not set near a river, has hitherto effectually preserv’d it, this part being uninhabitable upon that account, and rather too far off a town for tillage. But when I curiously contemplated the beauty and convenience of this court, I observ’d two remarkable places, which plainly have a conformity with the two stones set upon the vallum; which stones puzzle all enquirers. These particulars seem to explain one another, and more especially by the help of a coin in Vaillant, tom. II. p. 240. for which reason I caus’d it to be engraven on that plate, [Tab. XXIII.] the area of Stonehenge. ’Tis a coin of Philip the Roman emperor, struck by the city of Heliopolis in Cœlesyria under mount Libanus, now call’d Baldec, where is an admirable ancient temple remaining, describ’d and pictur’d in Maundrel’s travels of the holy land. In the walls of it are two or three stones of an immense length, which seem to be the fragments of an obelisk, dedicated to the sun, whence the name of Heliopolis. The coin presents a temple built upon a rock: to which they ascend by steps. The temple is inclos’d in an area with a wall. On the left hand by the circuit of the area is a stone altar. A little further, is a great vase for water to be us’d in the sacrifices. The legend is COLonia IVLia AVGusta FELix HELiopolitana. Now the two cavities in the circuit of our area, very probably were the places where two great stone vases were set, and the two stones were two altars for some particular rites, which we don’t take upon ourselves to explain. See another coin II. in Descamp’s selectiora numismata, p. 23. which is to the same purpose. Those stones are set in their proper places in my scheme of the area of Stonehenge: and I leave them to the better conjectures of the learned in these matters. Mr. Webb fancies them the jambs of two portals of two entrances, besides the great entrance; and makes them favour his imaginary triangles, from which he forms the work of Stonehenge, upon a Vitruvian plan. And in order to bring this about, he draws one stone, that toward the east, or on the left hand, from the true and only entrance, no less than 120 foot out of its real place. No doubt, the reader will be surpriz’d at this, and the easier credit me, when I say his ground-plot in other parts, is very far from being exact. The reader will observe from my scheme, that the two semicircular hollows mark’d A A, wherein I suppose the water-vases were set, are plac’d alternatively, with the two stones: I don’t pretend to show why the Druids did so. But that stone standing, together with the upper A, and the center of the grand entrance by the stone that lies flat there, make an exact equilateral triangle; yet really have not the least relation to the scheme of the work of Stonehenge in general, or to the cell in particular. Nor do the stones, or those hollows, point out any other entrance cross the ditch into the area. So in the tabernacle of Moses and temple of Solomon, great vases in brass were set for water, in the court before the temple.
Stukeley delin.
Smith sculp