By William, Long, Esq. 109 



own district^ the stones to raise the templ(> to their own God.* 

 The writer would conclude this section with the words of his deceased 

 friend. Dr. Thurnam, in which he fully concurs : " The builders of 

 Stonehenge, we believe, in commoa with the learned Master of 

 Gonvile and Gains College, to have been the Belgse, or possibly a 

 confederacy of the whole of those Belgic tribes, by whom, at a no 

 very long time before our era, a great part of South Britain was 

 conquered and settled. Whether the invading Belgae brought with 

 them from Gaul the fashions of more elaborate forms of tumuli, our 

 knowledge of those in North-Eastern France does not enable us to 

 determine. There have been many important explorations of the 

 chambered barrows and dolmens of France ; but it does not appear 

 that any zealous and munificent antiquary has demonstrated the form, 

 the structure, and contents of the barrows of the bronze period of 

 that country, in like manner as our Wiltshire baronet has those of 

 this part of England. In the absence of such information, we incline 

 to the opinion of their indigenous origin, and conclude that the bell 

 and disc-shaped tumuli were invented on the spot by the Belgic 

 builders of Stonehenge, whence their fashion was gradually dis- 

 tributed over those parts of Britain to which Belgic influence and 

 authority extended. The erection of circular barrows over the dis- 

 tinguished dead seems to have been continued as late as the conquest 

 of South Britain under Claudius and his successors ; there being no 

 proof that the islanders were in any material degree Romanized in 

 their customs before the time of Agricola ; to which period their 

 adoption of Roman funeral usages may in all likelihood be referred." * 



^Hermes Britannicus, p. 126. 

 2 " Archocologia," vol. xliii., p. 309. 



