Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

regard to shape or magnitude, being of all sizes, from seven or eight feet in height, to three or four. The circle however is complete, and is thirty-three paces in diameter. Concerning this, like all similar monuments in Great Britain, the popular superstition prevails, that no two persons can number the stones alike, and that no person will ever find a second counting confirm the first. My children have often disappointed their natural inclination to believe this wonder, by putting it to the test and disproving it. The number of the stones which compose the circle, is thirty-eight, and besides these there are ten which form three sides of a little square within, on the eastern side, three stones of the circle itself forming the fourth; this being evidently the place where the Druids who presided had their station; or where the more sacred and important part of the rites and ceremonies (whatever they may have been) were performed. All this is as perfect at this day, as when the Cambrian Bards, according to the custom of their ancient order, described by my old acquaintances, the living members of the Chair of Glamorgan, met there for the last time,

On the green turf and under the blue sky,

Their heads in reverence bare, and bare of foot.

The site also precisely accords with the description which Edward Williams and William Owen give of the situation required for such meeting places:

-a high hill top,

Nor bowered with trees, nor broken by the plough:
Remote from human dwellings and the stir
Of human life, and open to the breath

And to the eye of Heaven.

The high hill is now inclosed and cultivated; and a clump of larches has been planted within the circle, for the purpose of protecting an oak in the centre, the owner of the field having wished to rear one there with a commendable feeling, because that tree was held sacred by the Druids, and therefore, he supposed, might be appropriately placed there. The whole plantation however has been so miserably storm-stricken that the poor stunted trees are not even worth the trouble of cutting them down for fuel, and so they continue to disfigure the spot. In all other respects this impressive monument of former times is carefully preserved; the soil within the inclosure is not broken, a path from the road is left, and in latter times a stepping-stile has been placed to accommodate Lakers with an easier access, than by striding over the gate beside it.

The spot itself is the most commanding which could be chosen in this part of the country, without climbing a mountain. Derwent-water and the Vale of Keswick are not seen from it, only the mountains which inclose them on the south and west. Lattrigg and the huge side of Skiddaw are on the north; to the east is the open country toward Penrith, expanding from the Vale of St. John's, and extending for many miles, with Mell-fell in the distance, where it rises alone like a huge tumulus on the right, and Blencathra on the left, rent into deep ravines. On the south-east is the range of Helvellin, from its termination at Wanthwaite Crags to its loftiest summits, and to Dunmailrais. The lower range of Nathdale-fells lies nearer, in a parallel line with Helvellin; and the dale itself, with its little streamlet immediately below. The heights above Leatheswater, with the Borrowdale mountains complete the panorama.

While I was musing upon the days of the Bards and Druids, and thinking that Llywarc Hen himself had probably stood within this very circle at a time when its history was known, and the rites for which it was erected still in use, I saw a person approaching, and started a little at perceiving that it was my new acquaintance from the world of spirits. I am

« НазадПродовжити »