"It was ufual," fays that learned writer, “in those times, with much labour to place one vaft ftone upon another for a religious memorial. The ftones thus placed, they oftentimes poised fo equably, that they were affected with the leaft external force: nay a breath of wind would fometimes make them vibrate. We have many inftances in our own country; and they are to be found in other parts of the world: and, wherever they occur, we may esteem them of the highest antiquity. All fuch works we generally refer to the Celts and Druids; under the fanction of which names we fhelter ourselves, whenever we are ignorant and bewildered. But they were the operations of a very remote age; probably before the time when the Druids, or Celtæ, were first known. I queftion, whether there be in the world a monument, which is much prior to the celebrated Stonehenge.. There is reafon to think, that it was erected by a foreign colony; one of the firft which came into the island. Here is extant, at this day, one of those rocking-ftones, of which I have been speaking.

"The ancients diftinguished ftones, erected with a religious view, by the name of Amber; by which was fignified any thing solar and di

vine.

Αμβροσιαι;

vine. The Grecians called them Пgai Aμgoria; and there are reprefentations of fuch upon coins. Stonehenge is compofed of thefe Amber-ftones: hence the next town is ́denominated Ambros-bury: not from a Roman Ambrofius, for no such person exifted; but from the Ambrofia Petræ, in whofe vicinity it ftands."*

In proof of what Mr. Bryant has here fo juftly obferved, there abfolutely exifted, till deftroyed by the rage of Cromwell's levelling faction, a logan-ftone near Penzance, in Cornwall, of great magnitude and celebrity, called in the Cornifh language MAIN-AMBER, to which the inhabitants had for ages paid a kind of fuperftitious refpect. Near Penzance, fays Camden, in whofe days it exifted, there is a very remarkable stone called Main-Ambre, which, though it be of a vaft magnitude, yet may be moved with one finger: notwithstanding this, no violent exértion can push it from its place. The name is a tranflation of thofe Petre Ambrofiæ of antiquity, and a print of it may be seen in Norden's Hiftory of Cornwall.

Analyfis, vol. iii. p. 533

Near

Near the Main-Ambre ftands a famous Druidical temple called Biscawoon, confifting of nineteen pillars in a circle, with a central Kebla. Sir Robert Sibbald mentions thefe logan-ftones as not uncommon in Scotland; and fpeaking of the rocking-ftone near Belvaird, in Fife; "I am informed," fays he, "that this ftone was broken by the ufurper Cromwell's foldiers. It was difcovered then that its motion was performed by a yolk extuberant in the middle of the under-furface of the uppermoft ftone, which was inferted in a cavity in the furface of the lower ftone."

The next order of these ancient Druid ftones not circular, that deferve notice, are the Cromlech, which are broad flat flabs, placed on high, in a horizontal position, upon others fixed on their edges in the ground, and were plainly intended for what their name imports, an altar for confecrated fire; the Hebrew being Charamluach, a devoted ftone, That thefe Cromlech were really altars devoted to the folar worship, and not fepulchral monuments only, as Dr. Borlafe intimates, though their partial application to that purpofe may be allowed, fince the most ancient tombs were temples, is evident from what the Doctor himself informs us, relative to one

VOL. VI.

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near

near Cloyne, in Ireland, which is named from the folar fuperftition Carig-Croith, the rock of " the Sun. The Cromlech is generally placed on an eminence: the covering-ftones are fixed with the niceft geometrical precision; and, notwithstanding the amazing dimensions of many of them, that of Lanyon, in Cornwall, being forty-feven feet in circumference, and nineteen feet long, have been raised by art to the great elevation at which they are fometimes found.

Traces of this fpecies of stone altars, and the worship performed upon them, are still to be found, according to Mr. Mallet, in all thofe empires of Europe which are fituated nearest to the northern confines of Afia. "We find at this day," fays that writer, "in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, in the middle of a plain, or upon fome eminence, altars, around which the ancient inhabitants affembled to offer facrifices, and to affift at other religious ceremonies. The greatest part of these altars are raised upon a little hill, either natural or artificial. Three long pieces of rock fet upright ferve as a bafis to a great flat ftone, which forms the table of the altar. There is commonly a pretty large cavity under this altar, which might be intended to receive

the

the blood of the victims; and they never fail to find stones for striking fire scattered round it; for no other fire, but fuch as was ftruck forth with a flint, was pure enough for fo holy a purpose. Sometimes thefe rural altars are conftructed in a more magnificent manner; a double range of enormous ftones furround the altar and the little hill on which it is erected. In Zealand we fee one of this kind; which is formed of ftones of a prodigious magnitude. Men would even now be afraid to undertake such a work, notwithstanding all the affistance of the mechanic powers which in those times they wanted. What redoubles the aftonishment is, that ftones of that fize are rarely to be feen throughout the island, and that they must have been brought from a great diftance."*

The dimenfions of fome of the Cromlechs, in Britain, have been mentioned as aftonishing; but even those dimenfions, vaft as they are, are trifling compared with those of the fpecies of Druid ftones, called TOLMEN, which the indefatigable industry of Dr. Borlase first explored, and which, in his learned volume,

Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 126.

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will