CHAPTER II. THE MONUMENTS THEMSELVES. IN travelling through the British Isles, if we find in our way here a huge pillar of stone, and there an assemblage of them,-here again, a heap of stones with a large flat one placed upon it, and there rough and massy stones placed upright in a circular form, and evidently in an artificial way, -it becomes an obvious inquiry, "how came they there, and for what purposes were they so placed?" Now, if, in a course of scripture reading, we find information that may supply us with a solution of such inquiries, or whereby, at least, some light might be thrown upon the subject, not only must it be a legitimate source of gratification to us as antiquaries, but as the friends of revelation. And the pleasure will, of course, be augmented, should it be found that profane or common history is perfectly accordant with these scriptural statements. Now these remarks will apply to the pillars or obelisks, the carns, the cromlechs, the circles of stones, or, as some call them, the circular temples, that are found in great numbers in our British Isles. Moreover, if, by the discussion we can throw light on that celebrated monument of antiquity in Wiltshire, Stonehenge, that has occupied the attention of so many of our antiquaries, from Jeffery of Monmouth downward to Sir R. C. Hoare, assuredly, we must feel our obligation to sacred Scripture: nor can an essay on the subject be deemed uninteresting. To accomplish our object, we shall, in the first place, treat of the monuments themselves, their design, and the mention made of them in Scripture, particularly as existing in those countries where the Scriptures were written, such as Phœnicia or Palestine, including Tyre and Sidon, and the nations of Canaan. We shall, then, since it might well excite inquiry how Phoenician customs should obtain here, shew that there was not only an intercourse between Israel and the Phoenicians, but that the Phoenicians had intercourse with, and formed settlements, in these British Isles; and, moreover, that those Phonicians, and particularly their Magi, here called Druids, introduced their religion where they thus formed their settlements; and then we shall be prepared, in the third place, to account for, and to explain, the design and use of that ancient and remarkable structure, Stonehenge. We begin with treating of the MONUMENTS themselves; and first, of Altars. An altar is composed of stones, placed together for the purpose of offering upon it slain animals in sacrifice. They originally were commanded to be of earth; or if of stones, such were to be used in their rough, unhewn state. Such at least, was the direction given to Moses three thousand three hundred years ago. "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."* It was of no consequence, we presume, in what form they were made, but it is obvious that they must be so constructed as that the wood and sacrifice might be placed upon them. Those now seen ordinarily consist of four stones, three being hard flags, or large though thin stones, set up edge-wise, two making the sides, and a shorter one the end, with a fourth stone of the same kind on the top; for the other end was commonly left open; and the altars were all oblong. "There are a great many of those altars to be seen yet entire in Wales, particularly two in Kerig y Drudion parish, in Denbighshire, and one in Lhan Hammuleh parish, in Brecknockshire, with abundance elsewhere." So * Exod. xx. 24, 25. See also Deut. xxvii. 5, 6. says Toland, in his "History of the Druids."* These altars, according to the same author, were placed commonly in the middle of the temples, near some great colossus, a prodigious stone, which he says was to serve 66 as a pedestal to some deity." This colossus might, more probably, be the idol itself. Besides these more common altars, there are others for the same purpose of a larger kind, which are called Cromlechs. These consist of several stones, some of them supporting the others by reason of their enormous bulk. Thus in Wales "there is a cromlech in Nevern parish, in Pembrokeshire, where the middle stone is eighteen feet long and nine broad toward the base, growing narrow upwards. There lies by it a piece broken off ten feet long, which seems more than twenty oxen could draw." But perhaps the most remarkable in the principality is that in Anglesey, a little distance from the Marquis of Anglesey's house. According to Evans, in his tour, "it is double, and consists of a greater and a less. The greater is twelve feet long by twelve feet broad, six feet high, and at the upper edge two feet thick. This cromlech rested originally on five stones, but one being detached or thrown down, four only bear its weight at present, leaving a space * Toland, pp.126,127; and Owen's Hist.of the Ancient Britons. † Ibid. p. 130. Ibid. p. 130. between of five feet high and six square. The smaller one adjoins closely to the narrow end of this, and is six feet square, resting on three stones, the fourth having fallen down. Not far from it is a large carn, part of which being removed, discovered a cell seven feet long and three wide, covered with two flat stones, and lined with others;" probably a place from whence an oracle proceeded, or a receptacle wherein were laid the remains of the human sacrifices that had been offered up upon the altars. "In Caithness, and other remote parts of Scotland, these cromlechs are very numerous, some pretty entire, and others not so much consumed by time, or thrown down by storms, as disordered and demolished by the hands of men."* Of the many in Ireland there is one that demands particular notice. It is called CrumCruach. It stood in the midst of a circle of twelve obelisks, on a hill in Brefin, a district of the county of Cavan, formerly belonging to Leitrim. "It was all over covered with gold and silver, the lesser figures on the twelve stones about it being only of brass." So says Toland. And Moore, in his "Ireland," in Lardner's " Cabinet Cyclopædia," describes it as "a stone capped with gold, about which stood twelve other rough stones." And he adds, “ every colony that *Toland, p. 131. |