and order, we may pronounce them merely elective, consultory, and judicial, as never intended for the rites of worship."*

Besides the above important purposes, it is supposed that many of these circular monuments of stone were adapted to other uses, the most estimable of which was the advancement of the science of Astronomy. It is well known that the Druids of Britain are believed, on the testimony of Caesar," to have taught many things to their scholars concerning the stars, and their motion." From the frequency with which circles constructed by the Druids are placed on elevated and open tracts; and from the circumstance of many being apparently formed on geometrical plans, it has been rationally conjectured that these spherical temples were often used by the learned priests of the early Britons, as theatres of study, and schools in which they imparted astronomical knowledge.t

It has been frequently ascertained that interments were made within these sacred circles; but that they were not places of ordinary sepulture is evident, as it is unusual to find within them the relics of numerous funeral deposits. Persons favoured with interment on a spot so sacred, had possibly been dignified ministers of religion and dispensers of law.

But circles, probably designed for religious and civil purposes, were not uniformly constructed in so laborious a manner as those noticed above. It is remarked by Sir R. C. Hoare that many earth-works, of a circular form, are dispersed about the downs of Wiltshire,

Antiq. of Cornwall, p. 204-205.

+ Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. VI. sect. 13.

In King's Munimenta Antiqua (p. 139–143) are many remarks on this subject, in the course of which the author strains ingenuity of conjecture to so great a length, as to say that there is ground for fairly suspecting that, in many instances, the stones of Druidical circles were placed so as to answer the purpose of rude astronomical instruments. Mr. Chapple, likewise, conjectures that erections of stone were used by the Druids for many refined purposes connected with the science of Astronomy. In Polwhele's Devonshire are some judicious observations, in reply to the latter writer.

Wiltshire, and chiefly on high and commanding situations. "The slightness of the vallum and ditch that surround them, as well as the smallness of their area, clearly indicate them not to have been constructed for any military purpose, but most probably for some civil or religious object. In countries abounding with stone, as in Wales and Cornwall, the circle was defined by rude upright stones; but on chalk hills, where nature produces nothing larger than a flint, or an occasional sarsen-stone, the circle is described by a bauk and ditch.”*

Such appear to be the most important observations presented by authors, who have bestowed particular attention on the subject of those mysterious circles which are calculated to excite so much curiosty. In regard to the ages in which they were constructed, it has been shewn that some are ascertained to have existed prior to the Roman ascendancy in this island; and, from the similarity which prevails as to general feature, there is fair reason for supposing that all are to be attributed to the hands of the Britons. The occurrence of such monuments in parts of Germany, in Scandinavia, Norway, &c. perhaps merely shews that the people of those countries derived similar usages with the Britons, from the same common ancestors. These circles in Britain have sometimes been supposed the work of the Danes; but they are often seen in districts which the Danes never visited: and it is observed by Mr. King + that we might, on as rational grounds, suppose the circular monuments in Deumark to be the works of the Britons.

But not any of the above remarks apply, in a satisfactory manner, to the two most distinguished ruins of structures composed of rude stone. The interesting and far-famed vestiges of the stupendous

• Hist. of Ancient Wilts. Part I. p. 18.

+ Munimenta Antiqua, Vol. I. p. 153.-The following are the principal works consulted in regard to the above article on circles of upright stones: Borlase's Antiq. of Cornwall. Rowlands' Mona Antiqua. Dr. Stukeley's works. King's Munimenta Antiqua. Sir R. C. Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire. Polwhele's History of Devonshire,

stupendous monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge, have uniformly derided the labours and the fancies of those who have endeavoured to investigate their original, and to direct the examiner to their pristine appropriation. The numerous writers who have treated on the subject of these impressive relics, leave it involved in a mysterious cloud, that imparts additional solemnity to the silent gloom in which the monuments are themselves enveloped. For a compendious statement of various surmises regarding the date of their erection, and their intended purpose, I refer the reader to the Beauties for Wiltshire;* and confine myself to observing that the most judicious writers agree in referring both monuments to the Britous, although probably erected at periods widely dissimilar. Their amplitude of proportions, and superior dignity of character, suggest the idea of their being intended as metropolitan places of assembly,+ although the nature of the convocation is unknown, and lost, probably for ever, in the deep shades which have fallen over the more intricate and curious parts of the customs and manners of the ancient inhabitants of this island.

ROCKING STONES, AND ANALOGOUS PHENOMENA.-In Cornwall, Devonshire, Wales, and other parts of South Britain, abounding in craggy rocks, and in the various rude but grand productions of nature incidental to a calcareous soil in the neighbourhood of the ocean, there are found many surprising works which appear to hesitate between nature and art, and are probably indebted to both. Whilst investigating such districts, particular care is necessary to restrain the imagination, that creative

Beauties for Wilts, under the articles of Avebury and Stonehenge. + Although the population of Britain is described as being divided into numerous tribes, or petty states, one form of religion prevailed amongst all, as an establishment; and it is believed that the ministers of that religion were all subject to one arch priest or Druid. The priests appear, also, to have been the legal arbiters of the country. It seems far from unlikely that the whole of the British nations might resort, for final appeal, both in civil and religious cases, to one or more great universal courts.

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faculty which "gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name;" for nature, incumbered, as it would appear, with the

tumultuary vestiges of some remote convulsion, often assumes fantastic and imposing shapes, which an ardent mind, intent on the advancement of a favourite hypothesis, may readily shape into the delusive reliques of an unknown idolatry.

But, although there is reason to apprehend that some antiquaries have been occasionally seduced into misconceptions, by the ardour with which they indulged in a chosen pursuit, * it is still evident that, in many instances, the curious eccentricities of nature were improved, and then rendered instruments of superstition, by the ministers of a long forgotten religion. As there is not the slightest reason for believing that such works were undertaken either by the Romans, Saxons, or Danes, they may be securely attributed to the Britons; but as the use of the Tool must have been adopted, it is evident that they were performed in the later and more degenerate days of Druidism, when the strictness of the law was lost in an increase of meretricious blandishment and stratagem.

The most important of these presumed reliques of Druidical superstition may be classed under the following appellations : The Logan, or Rocking stone;t by which term is to be understood

* See some remarks on this subject in the Beauties for Cornwall, p. 453, 509, &c.

+ These curious stones are to be seen in several parts of Britain. Examples occur in the Beauties for Cumberland, p. 180; and for Cornwall, p. 497—8.

In Playfair's Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, p. 395-7, are presented some ingenious remarks, intended to shew that the phenomenon of the Rocking stone is often, though possibly not always, merely the curious result of a natural cause; and that many of these presumed Druidical works are, in fact," nothing else than stones, which have been subjected to the universal law of wasting and decay, in such peculiar circumstances, as nearly to bring about an equilibrium of that stable kind, which when slightly disturbed, re-establishes itself."

Wang Although

understood a stone, generally of immense bulk and weight, placed on so small a centre, and in so exact an equilibrium, that it moves to a certain degree with the application of a very small power, as the touch of the hand; but which could not be thrown down by any common force. Although these may, in some instances, have required little assistance from art, it appears that much labour has been frequently bestowed to render narrow the basis on which the Logan depends, and thereby to produce the effect.*

The Rock-idol is the name bestowed by Dr. Borlase on several craggs of rock, which exhibit such peculiar features of grandeur and singularity, as to have been probably selected for superstitious uses by the priests of the ancient Britons. Among the most curious of these may be noticed the Cheese-Wring, which is a natural combination of eight rude stones, rising one above another to the height of thirty-two feet, and having a very slender bearing between the third and fourth stones. On the top were two hollows, or basins, one of which remains. An engraving of this curious pile is presented in the Beauties for Cornwall.

Dr. Borlase supposes artificial Rock-basins,† and various

marks

• Although many rocking-stones 'may, perhaps, be entirely the works of nature,there is little room for doubting but that art was employed in completing the effect of others. It may be noticed that there are several instances in which the tool has evidently been employed on large masses of rock, as if for the purpose of producing the Logan, although the work is left incomplete.

+ By the term Rock-busin is understood the hollow indentations often found on the tops of rocks in Cornwall, and sometimes in other districts; and which are supposed to have been used by the Druids. In the Beauties for Cornwall, the editor of that portion of the work, noticing the excavations denominated Rock-Basins, at Carn-breh Hill, observes that they "exist in such numbers, in all situations, as utterly to exclude the hand of man from the great mass; and, therefore, to make some natural, though unknown, process most probable in all." Vide, Beauties for Cornwall, p. 509. But, in the Beauties for Derbyshire, p. 500, a rock-basin is noticed, "which evidently appears to have been cut with a tool.”