cumstance, by saying, that ancient traditions, immemorially preserved on the spot, assert their dedication to the Sun and Moon. Thus we read in that History: "East of Drumcruy, in the isle of Orran, is a circular temple, the diameter of whose area is thirty paces; and in the south of the same village another, in the centre of which still remains the altar, consisting of a thin broad stone, supported by three others. In the greatest island of the Orkneys, commonly called Mainland, are likewise two temples near Lockstenis, one of which is by ancient tradition believed to have been dedicated to the Sun and the other to the Moon; they are each of them surrounded by a trench, like that about Stonehenge; many of the stones are above twenty or twentyfour feet high, five broad, and one or two thick. Near the lesser temple, stand two stones of the same bigness with the rest, through the middle of one of which is a hole, which served to fasten victims or the wicker collossus, in which crowds of persons were burnt alive. At Biscaw-woon, near St. Burien's, in Cornwall, is a circular temple, consisting of nineteen stones, distant from each other twelve feet, having another in the centre much higher than the rest." The same writer

describes

1

describes a remarkable Druid temple still remaining entire at Harries, one of the Western islands of Scotland, and the most westerly of them all, which exhibits, in its plan, both astronomical science and strong remains of that physical worship to which the ancients were so grossly addicted, as it seems to have been erected to the Sun and the Elements, and in it, he informs us, Apollo, the deity of Classerniss, was adored. The body of this temple consists of twelve obelisks, or columns, placed circularly, about seven feet high, two broad, and six distant from one another, with one thirteen feet high in the centre, shaped like the rudder of a ship, doubtless the gnomon. It has likewise four wings, stretching out from its sides, consisting of four columns each, pointing directly east, south, west, and north, to represent either the four elements, or the four cardinal points as the twelve pillars doubtless were intended to denote the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The avenue, which is north, consists of two rows of columns, of the same size, and is erected at the same distances as the former: the breadth of the avenue is eight feet, and the stones com. posing each side nineteen in number, a strong additional proof of their acquaintance

with the ancient Indian cycle of nineteen years.*

STONEHENGE, A STUPENDOUS SOLAR TEMPLE; THE CIRCLE INDICATES HIS DISK; AND THE NUMBER OF STONES FORMING IT BEING SIXTY, THE GREAT SEXAGENARY CYCLE OF THE ASIATIC ASTRONOMERS.

BUT, of all the circular temples of the Druids, as STONEHENGE is the most considerable, a description of it, from the most ancient and the most modern writer on that subject, waving all intermediate ones, is here presented to the reader. I take it for granted, that the passage cited by Diodorus, from Hecatæus, and before alluded to by Mr. Knight, is this identical temple of Stonehenge, or CHOIR GAUR, its ancient British name, meaning, according to Stukeley, the great cathedral or grand choir; and surely no national church could ever better deserve that distinguished appellation.

Diodorus relates that there is an island to

*History of the Druids, vol. i. p. 90.

the

the north, or under the Bear, beyond the Celtæ, meaning Gaul, little inferior in magnitude to Sicily, in which the Hyperborean race, as the Greeks denominated all those nations that were situated north of the Streights of Hercules, adored Apollo, as the supreme divinity. That in it was a magnificent consecrated grove with a circular temple, to which the priests of the island frequently resorted with their harps to chaunt the praises of Apollo, who, for the space of nineteen years, (the famous astronomical cycle of the Druids,) used to come and converse with them, and what is more remarkable, they could (as if, says Rowland, they had the use of telescopes, and I believe they had) shew the moon very near them, and discover therein mountains and heaps of caverns. He describes the island as a fruitful and pleasant island, and relates that most of the inhabitants of it were priests and songsters. He adds, that they had a language of their own; and that some Greeks had been in it, and presented valuable gifts to their temple, with Greek inscriptions on them, and that one Abaris came from them to

*

Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 130.

Greece,

Greece, and contracted friendship with the Delians. He concludes with saying, that, over their sacred town and temple, there presided a sort of men called Boreadæ, (so denominated by the Grecians of that day,) who were their priests and rulers.

Such is the account given near two thousand years ago of this celebrated temple, for it could mean no other, by Diodorus, the Sicilian, from a writer still prior in time. I shall now, for the benefit of those of my readers who may not be possessed of Stukeley and other expensive writers on the subject, insert the most recent, and, I believe, the most accurate, account of this grand but ruinous fabric extant; it is by Mr. Gough, in the new edition of Camden's Britannia.

"STONEHENGE stands in the middle of a fine flat area, near the summit of a hill, and is inclosed with a circular double bank and ditch, near thirty feet broad, the vallum inwards; after crossing which, we ascend thirty yards before we reach the work.

"The whole forms a circle of about one hundred and eight feet diameter, from out to out, consisting, when entire, of sixty stones, thirty upright and thirty imposts; of which remain only twenty-four upright, seventeen standing