102 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



that we might not hope by these means to understand it. But to 

 effect this end^ explorations must be made afresh, and researches set 

 about in a purpose-hke manner, not aimless gropings in the dark, 

 such as alone have yet been undertaken." Mr. Fergusson is of 

 opinion " that all the great stone monuments of this country belong 

 to the period that elapsed between the departure of the Romans and 

 the conquest of the country by the Danes and Saxons — to that great 

 Arthurian period to which we owe all that we know of the Celtic 

 race, and which seems to have been their culminating point in the 

 early form of their civilization. In France, where the Saxons never 

 went, the Celts, seem to have retained their old faith and old feelings 

 to a much later period. But even if these propositions are not fully 

 admitted, their rejection does not affect the conclusion that Stone- 

 henge itself was erected by Aurelius Ambrosius, who reigned from 

 about 464 to 508 A.D., and who raised it as a memorial to those who 

 fell in the Saxon war." 



Let us now revert to the Belgse, who, as the known occupants of 

 that portion of Britain in which Stonehenge is found, at the time 

 of Julius Caesar, deserve to have a full and fair consideration. Dr. 

 Guest (whom it would be an impertinence to praise), has paid much 

 attention to the incursions of this people into the south of England, 

 and in his article on the " Belgic Ditches and the probable date of 

 Stonehenge" (Journal of the Arch. Institute, vol. viii.), has pro- 

 pounded his views as to their gradual acquisition of territory, their 

 ultimate establishment within the country bounded by the Wansdyke, 

 and their erection of Stonehenge as their " loais consecratus." Dr. 

 Guest was not, however, the first to broach this opinion with regard 

 to Stonehenge, for the Rev. Richard Warner,' the historian of Bath, 

 was the person, according to the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles,^ who started 



•The Rev. Richard Warner was born 1763, and died at Chelwood, near 

 Bristol, of which place he was rector, at the advanced age of 93, in 1857. He 

 was for twenty-three j ears Curate of St. James', Bath, and while resident in that 

 city, he wrote its history in a quarto volume, 1801 ; " A walk through some of 

 the Western Counties of England," 1800; " Excursions from Bath," 1801; 

 " Bath Characters," 1807 ; and other works. 



2 Hermes Britannicus, 1828, p. 123. 



