By William Long, Esc[. 7 



to Stonehenge in his " History of the Hyperboreans." In this work 

 he described them as inhabiting' an island as large as Sicily, lying 

 towards the north, over against the country of the Celts, fertile and 

 varied in its productions, possessed of a beautiful climate and enjoying 

 two harvests a j'^ear. In this island was a round temple which wad 

 dedicated to Apollo. If Stonehenge were erected within the three 

 hundred years which preceded the Christian era, it would not have 

 been in existence when Hecatteus wrote. At all events, we shall 

 never, from this vague statement, be able to emerge from the region 

 of cloudland, and to take our stand upon ''terra-firma.'^ Mr. 

 Herbert, in his " Cyclops Christianus ■'■' has devoted a large portion 

 of Section I. to the proof that by this island Britain could not 

 possibly have been meant. 



No Roman historian makes mention of Stonehenge. 



Neither Gildas, Nennius,^ nor Bede, make mention of Stonehenge. 



The Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of Stonehenge. 



Nearly 1200 years of the Christian era roll away before the cur- 

 tain is raised at all, and we get a peep at Stonehenge under the 

 following brief notice of it by Henry of Huntingdon, who died 

 after 1154. He is enumerating the four wonders of England, and 

 he makes Stonehenge the second of them — " Secundum est apud 

 Stanenges; ubi lap ides mirse magnitudinis in modum portarum, 

 elevati sunt, ita ut portse portis superpositae videantur : nee potest 

 aliquis excogitare qua arte tanti lapides adeo in altum elevati sunt 



' Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden's Britannia, published in the year 

 1695, says that Stonehenge is mentioned in some manuscript of Nennius. This 

 appears to be an error, as no mention is made of Stonehenge in his " De mira- 

 bilibus Britannise Insulae," or in any other part of his " Historia Britonum." 

 Some gloss in some edition must have misled the Bishop. Nennius does how- 

 ever give an account in the 48th and_49th chapters of his history of the 

 slaughter of the Britons. It ends as follows : " Et conventum adduxerunt, et 

 in unum convenerunt. Saxones autem amicabiliter locuti sunt, et mente interim 

 vulpino more agebant, et vir juxta virum socialiter sederunt. Et Hengistus, 

 sicnt dixerat vociferatus est. Et omnes seniores, ecc, Guortigerni regis sunt 

 jugulati, ipseque solus captus et catenatus est ; ac regiones plurimas pro 

 redemptione anima3 sure tribuit illis, id est Eastsexe, Suthsexe, Midelsexe, ut 

 ab illicita conjunctione se separaret." 



