Aphricus or Phryxus we may very well suppose to be father of the Phrygians. And his expedition thro’ the propontis to the Euxine sea, the Greeks colour over with their Helle and Hellespont. But we cannot entertain too high a respect for him, because I see it no less reasonable, to refer the origin of the Britons to him. I mean that eastern colony that came hither with Hercules, upon the old possessors or aborigines Albionites, which gave the more famous name of Britain to the island. The Brigantes is the same name, says Mr. Baxter the common and more ancient name of this people: who being driven northwards by inundations of foreigners from the continent in after times, the name became more appropriate to the inhabitants of Yorkshire and the neighbouring counties. In Tacitus the Brigantes are called maxima Brittanorum natio. At the same time they forc’d the ancientest possessors, the Albionites or Albanians still more northwards. Likewise many of these Brigantes pass’d into Ireland, where they became a famous nation. The Bryges, Phryges, Phrixi, Brisones, Brigantes, Britones are intirely synonimous words in different dialects. And this assignment of the origin of our ancestors, very well accounts for that notion of their Phrygian or Trojan descent, so riveted in the minds of the old Britons. A notion which prevail’d among some of the Gallic nations on the continent, and they had retain’d the memory of it, in the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, who mentions it. Likewise in Cæsar’s time, some Gallic nations, claimed kindred with the Romans; probably upon this very account.
This is, in short, some presumptive evidence we have, of Hercules and Aphricus planting Britain, introducing the Druids with the patriarchal religion: and concerning the knowledge they had of the use of the compass. This whole matter will be further considered, when I come to treat of it expressly. At present we will continue the history of the compass, as it became more fully known to the world.
Martinius in his Atlas, and Gilbertus de magnete, Lib. I. 2. show us, the Chinese have us’d the magnetic needle from times immemorial: that they have a trick of telling fortunes with it: as the heathen afore-mentioned made it oracular. The Arabians likewise have us’d it, for travelling over the great and wild desarts, of weeks together, where there is no track to guide them; nor have they any notion of time when they began this practice. Herwartius published admiranda ethnicæ theologiæ, wherein he endeavours to prove that the old Egyptians had the use of the magnetic needle, and that the Bembin table contains the doctrine of it, invelop’d in hieroglyphicks. The learned Fuller in his Miscellanies Lib. 4. 19. asserts, that the Phœnicians knew the use of it, which they endeavour’d to conceal by all possible means, as they did their trading in general. That it was lost with them, as many other arts, their ars plumaria, the dying of purple, (the invention of our Hercules of Tyre) the Hebrew poetry, and other curious knowledge, which is perished.
’Tis not unlikely that the lodestone being applied to religious use, was one cause of its being forgot: together with the secrecy of the Phœnician voyages. Suetonius in Nero, speaks of a prophetic needle, which the emperor us’d to pay his devotions to. The learned Burman shews, that most, or all of the old MSS. and printed books, read it acuncula, acucula, or acungula; which, in my opinion, the criticks have causelesly corrected into icuncula: because they had no notion of the magnetic needle being understood by it.
Monsieur Fauchet, a famous French antiquary, in his antiquities of France, quotes some verses from a poet in that country, who wrote A. D. 1180, wherein is as plain a description of the mariner’s box, as words can make. The poet mentions it by accident, not as a thing new and strange. Osorius in his discourse of the acts of king Emanuel, refers the use of the compass among the Europeans, to Gama and the Portuguese, who found it among some barbarous pyrates, about the Cape of Good Hope; who probably were some remains of the old Phœnicians, or Arabians, or at least have preserved from them, this practice. About A. D. 1260. Paulus Venetus is said to have brought it from China; by the great author on the magnet, our countryman Gilbert. Genebrand in his chron. says, the use of the lode-stone reviv’d among us about A. D. 1303. by Fl. Melvius a Neapolitan, and others attribute it about that time to John Goia a Neapolitan. Joseph de Costa says, some Mahometan seamen whom Vasquez de Gama met with near Mosambick, who had sail’d those seas by the use thereof, taught it him. I observe our ancient Britons, the Welsh, call a steers-man or pilot llywydd, whence no doubt comes our English word lode-stone, and lode-star, the north-pole. Llyw is the helm of a ship in British. Lodemanage in Skinner’s etymology an old English word, signifying the price paid to the pilot. Our lords of the Cinque Ports keep a court at Dover, by that name. These things seem to indicate some memorial of the magnet left among the Welsh, from the oldest times: and of its application to sailing.
Thus have we given a kind of history of this prodigy in nature, the magnetic needle: to confirm, our suspicion, that the British Druids knew the use of it, and used it in these works of theirs, which we have been treating of. We learn in the Philosophical Transactions, Lowthorp, Vol. II. p. 601. that there are considerable veins of the magnet, in our own country, in Devonshire; where the Phœnicians and Druids must needs be very conversant.
We return now to our first subject Stonehenge, and apply what has been said, to the observation we there made. It is not to be thought, that the Druids, men who employed themselves in those noble studies, which Cæsar gives us an account of, and who were at the pains of bringing these vast stones together, from such a considerable distance of 16 miles: I say, it is not to be thought, but that they would be nice and exact in placing them. And this, not only particularly, in respect of each other, upon the projected ground-plot: but also in general, in respect of the quarters of the heavens. And this I found to be a just surmise, when I examined their works for several years together, with sufficient accuracy, with a theodilite. As I took notice before, the works of one place regarded the cardinal points, but with a certain uniform variation therefrom. Whence I grounded my conjecture, that they were set by a compass, which at that time varied, according to that quantity observ’d. Of which property of variation we may well suppose, the Druids were ignorant. This I now propose for the rule of investigation, of the time when Stonehenge was erected. Hoping the reader will judge as favourably of the attempt, as things of this great antiquity require.
Stukeley delin.
Prospect from Bushbarrow