By William Long, Esq. *l 



minus a Sarisburi^ milliari, in ill^ planitie, insana (ut Ciceronis 

 verbo utar) conspicitur constructio.^ Intra fossam enim ingentia et 

 rudia saxa, quorum nonnuUa xxviii. pedes attitudine, vii. latitudine, 

 colligunt, corona) in modo triplici serie eriguntur, quibus alia quasi 

 transversaria sic innituntur, ut pensile videatur opus; unde Stone- 

 henge nobis nuncupatur, uti antiquis historicis Cborea Gigantum k 

 magnitudine. Hoc in miraculorum numero referunt nostratesj unde 

 vero ejusmodi saxa allata fuerint, cum tota regione finitima vix 

 structiles lapides inveniantur, et quanam ratione subrecta, demi- 

 rantur. De his non mihi subtilius disputandum, sed dolentius de- 

 plorandum obliteratos esse tanti monumenti authores. Attamen 

 sunt qui existimant saxa ilia non viva esse, id est, naturalia et excissa 

 sed facticia ex arena pur^, et unctuoso aliquo coagmentata. Fama 

 obtinet Ambrosium Aurelianum, sive Utherum ejus fratrem, in 

 Britonum memoriam, qui ibi Saxonum dolo, in colloquio ceciderunt, 

 ilia Merlini matbematici opera posuisse. Alii produnt Britannos 

 hoc quasi magnificum sepulchrum eidem Ambrosio substruxisse eo 

 loci, ubi hostili gladio ille periit, ut publicis operibus contectus 

 esset, eaque extructione, quae sit ad seternitatis memoriam, quasi 

 virtutis ara/' 



In " The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine,'-" by John 

 Speed,*^ 1627, is a map of Wiltshire, with an engraving of Stonehenge 

 in one corner. Ten transom stones are represented in it as in their 

 places. The following description is engraved beneath it : " This 

 ancient monument was erected by Aurelius surnamed Ambrosius, 

 King of the Brittaines, whose nobility in raigne of Vortiger (his 

 countryes scourge) about ye yere of Christ 475 by treachery of ye 

 Saxons, on a daye of parley were there slaughtered and their bodyes 



1 Cicero pro Milone, 20. " Ante fundum Clodii, quo in fundo, propter 

 insanas illas substructiones, facile mille hominum versabatur valentium. Edito 

 adversarii atque excelso loco superiorem se fore putabat Milo, et ob earn rem 

 eum locum ad pugnam potissimum elegerat?" 



* John Speed, born at Farrington, in Cheshire, about 1555, brought up to the 

 business of a tailor, was enabled by the liberality of Sir Fulk Greville to devote 

 himself to the study of English history and antiquities. " According to Tyrrel 

 and Bishop Nicholson, he was the first who, slighting Geoffrey of Monmouth 

 and other legendaries, commenced at once with solid and rational matter." He 

 died in 1629. His history of Great Britain was published in 1614. 



