18 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



Edward the Fourth in verse " (London, 1543) . He thus sings of 



the obsequies of Aurelius Ambrosius : — 



" Withiu the Giantes Carole, that so then hight, 

 The Stone Hengles, that nowe so named hene, 

 Where prelates and dukes, erles and lords of might, 

 His sepulture to worship there were sene. 

 Thus this worthy Kyng was buryed by dene, 

 That reygned had that tyme but thirten yere 

 When he was dedde and laide so on here." 



And Constantine was : — 



" Buryed at CaroU ne lesse, 

 Besyde Uterpendragon full expresse 

 Arthures fader, of great worthynesse; 

 Which called is the Stone Hengles certayne, 

 Besyde Salysbury upon the playne." 



He had previously thus written of the erection of Stonehenge, as 

 a monument to the Britons : — 



" The Kyng then made a worthy sepulture. 

 With y^ Stone hengles, by Merlins' whole aduise, 

 For all the lordes Brytons hye nature, 

 That there were slain in false and cruell wise, 

 By false Engest, and his feloes vnwise ; 

 In remembraunce of his forcasten treason, 

 Without cause, or any els encheson." 



Leland died in 1552, leaving behind him, amongst other writings, 

 *' Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britanieis.'" In this work (vol. i., 

 p, 42 — 48) is an account of Ambrosius Merlin. The following is 

 an extract from a translation of it, made by Canon Jackson for Dr. 

 Thurnam : " After the death of Vortigern, the Britons plucked up 

 fresh courage under a new leader ; so much so, that in a short time 

 they slaughtered and despatched to the regions below the greater 

 part of the Saxons with their chieftain, Hengist; the rest were 

 dismissed to slavery and a precarious existence. Then it was that 

 Ambrosius began to study the glory of Britain, to restore cities and 

 castles, and once more to elevate religion also to its former dignity. 

 Amongst other things he was seized with the most generous desire 

 of perpetuating the illustrious memory of the British nobles, who, 

 whether through the fraud or the valor of Hengist and his party, I 

 cannot say — fell on Salisbury Plain." Merlin was sent for, and 

 '' began by searching for a bed of stone in large masses, such as 



