The Orthographic Section of Stonehenge upon the Chief diameter
The last trilithon, that on the right hand of the entrance into the adytum, has suffer’d much. The outer upright being the jamb of the entrance, is still standing, the other upright and impost are both fallen forwards into the adytum, and broke each into three pieces. I suppose from digging near it. But from one piece of the impost lying loose, in the middle, between the jambs of the adytum, Mr. Webb in the plan of his ruins of Stonehenge (being his 6th Scheme) forms the remains of his imaginary 6th trilithon, supposing it one of the stones of the inner or lesser hexagon, as he calls it. Yet if this fragment was really a stump of such a stone, as he would have it, still it would not create an hexagonal form of the cell, but stand just in the middle of the entrance, and block it up in a very absurd, unseemly, and incommodious a manner. And nothing can be more certain, than that there never was such a thing in being. That stone of the trilithon which is standing, has a cavity in it which two or three persons may sit in, worn by the weather.
Stonehenge is compos’d of two circles and two ovals, respectively concentric. At the distance of two cubits inward from the greater oval, describe another lesser oval, on which the stones of the inner oval are to stand: 19 stones in number, at about the central distance of 3 cubits. This lesser oval is to be describ’d by a string and the 2 centers, as before. Or by 2 circles from a 10 cubit radius, and the 2 centers a and b, as of the other before was spoken. Mr. Webb says, p. 60, “the stones of the hexagon within, 2 foot 6 inches in breadth, one foot and a half thick and 8 foot high, in form pyramidal.” His two foot and a half is our cubit and half, for the breadth of these stones; being but a third of the breadth of the stones of the greater oval. And the interval between stone and stone, the same. Their height is likewise unequal, as the trilithons, for they rise in height as nearer the upper end of the adytum. Mr. Webb’s 8 foot assign’d, is a good medium measure, for it is just 4 cubits and 4 palms, the third part of the height of the medium trilithon. From the ruins of those left, we may well suppose, the first next the entrance and lowest were 4 cubits high; the most advanc’d height behind the altar might be five cubits, and perhaps more. The stones are somewhat of what Mr. Webb calls a pyramidal form, meaning that of an Egyptian obelisk, for they taper a little upwards. They are of a much harder sort than the other stones, as we spoke before, in the lesser circle. The founders provided that their lesser bulk should be compensated in solidity. They were brought somewhere from the west. Of these there are only 6 remaining upright. The stumps of two are left on the south side by the altar. One lies behind the altar, dug up or thrown down, by the fall of that upright there. One or two were thrown down probably, by the fall of the upright of the first trilithon on the right hand. A stump of another remains by the upright there, still standing. Their exact measures either as to height, breadth or thickness, cannot well be ascertain’d. For they took such as they could find, best suiting their scantlings, but the stones were better shap’d and taller, as advancing towards the upper end of the cell.
CHAP. VI.
Of the number of the stones. Of the altar-stone. Of what has been found in digging, about the temple. A plate of tin of the Druids writing. A plate of gold, supposed to be of the Druids writing.
THUS have we finished the work, or principal part of this celebrated wonder; properly the temple or sacred structure, as it may be called. Tho’ its loftiest crest be compos’d but of one stone, laid upon another. “A work, as Mr. Webb says justly, p. 65. built with much art, order and proportion.” And it must be own’d, that they who had a notion, that it was an unworthy thing, to pretend to confine the deity in room and space, could not easily invent a grander design than this, for sacred purposes: nor execute it in a more magnificent manner. Here space indeed is mark’d out and defin’d: but with utmost freedom and openness. Here is a kebla intimating, but not bounding the presence of the Deity. Here the variety and harmony of four differing circles presents itself continually new, every step we take, with opening and closing light and shade. Which way so ever we look, art and nature make a composition of their highest gusto, create a pleasing astonishment, very apposite to sacred places.
The great oval consists of 10 uprights, the inner with the altar, of 20, the great circle of 30, the inner of 40. 10, 20, 30, 40 together, make 100 upright stones. 5 imposts of the great oval, 30 of the great circle, the 2 stones standing upon the bank of the area, the stone lying within the entrance of the area, and that standing without. There seems to have been another stone lying upon the ground, by the vallum of the court, directly opposite to the entrance of the avenue. All added together, make just 140 stones, the number of which Stonehenge, a whole temple, is compos’d. Behold the solution of the mighty problem, the magical spell is broke, which has so long perplex’d the vulgar! they think ’tis an ominous thing to count the true number of the stones, and whoever does so, shall certainly die after it. Thus the Druids contented themselves to live in huts and caves: whilst they employ’d many thousands of men, a whole county, to labour at these publick structures, dedicated to the Deity.
Our altar here is laid toward the upper end of the adytum, at present flat on the ground, and squeez’d (as it were) into it, by the weight of the ruins upon it. ’Tis a kind of blue coarse marble, such as comes from Derbyshire, and laid upon tombs in our churches and church-yards. Thus Virgil describes an ancient altar, after the Etruscan fashion, and which probably had remain’d from patriarchal times.
Ædibus in mediis nudoque sub ætheris axe