40 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



At the back of the last page of the " Templa Druidum " is the 

 following- note : " Mr. PasehaFs Letter to . . 



"The Author of the Bolt soon shott, was one Mr Jay 



of Nettlecomb lyeing in the Western parts of Somersetshire, 

 deceased (I thinke) 14 or 16 years since. Wells, April 7 , 1690. 

 Your &c., A. V." 



Mr. Herbert ascribes the " Fools Bolt " to Mr. John Gibbons 

 who flourished, according to Mr. Herbert, " circa 1670.''' This 

 curious paper, which is printed in Langtoft's Chronicle, vol. ii., is 

 amusing enough and worth reading, but space does not admit of 

 much being said about it. It begins thus : " A wander witt of 

 Wiltshire, rambling to Rome to gaze at antiquities, and there 

 skrewing himself into the company of Antiquaries, they entreated 

 him to illustrate unto them, that famous monument in his country, 

 called Stonage. His answer was that he had never seen, scarce ever 

 heard of it. Whereupon they kicked him out of doors, and bad 

 him goe home, and see Stonage; and I wish all such ^sopicall 

 cocks, as slight these admired stones, and other our domestick 

 monuments (by which they might be admonished to eschew some 

 evil, or doe some good), and scrape for bai'ley cornes of vanity out 

 forreigne dunghills might be handled, or rather footed, as he was." 

 He considers "Stonage to be a 'British Monument '' of a bloody 

 battel foughten there and won by the Giant Cangi under the 

 command of the famous Stanenges of Honnicott over King 

 Divitiacus and the Belgse ; that this Temple, made of factitious 

 stones, was consecrated to the Goddess of Victorie and that in it 

 the Victors sacrificed their Captives and spoiles to their said Idoll 

 of Victorie." 



Richard Burton, in his " Wonderful [or admirable] Curiosities, 

 Rarities, and Wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland ■"' (1682 — 

 1684), thus alludes to Stonehenge (edition 1811, p. 137) : "About 

 six miles irom Salisbury, upon the plain, is to be seen a huge and 

 monstrous piece of work, for within the circuit of a pit or ditch there 

 are erected in the manner of a crown, certain mighty and unwrought 

 stones, some whereof are 20 feet high, and seven feet broad, upon 

 the heads whereof others like ovcrthwart pieces do bear and rest 



