130 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



stones are found in Somersetshire and in various places along the 

 territories of the Cymry, through Wales and in Cumberland^ all of 

 them partaking of the same primitive character — huge masses of 

 unhewn stone^ ari'anged in a spherical position. Six or seven miles 

 north of the mounds of Old Sarum, the ancient capital of the 

 Western Belgae, is that marvel of Britain, which now bears the 

 Saxon appellation of ' Stonehenge/ ■'•' (pp.100 — 2.) 



Mr. J. M. Kemble thought it quite possible that the triliths 

 might have served as gallowses, on some grand occasion ; and that 

 ifter a defeat some British leaders may have been sacrificed by tying 

 them up to Woden on the same. As long as the Anglo-Saxon 

 language is Anglo-Saxon, Stonehenge can mean nothing but " The 

 Stone Gallowses.^'' Notes ami Queries, second series, vol. iii., p. 2. 



Mr. J. Y. Akerman, F.S.A., in a letter to Dr. Thurnam, dated 

 November 1st, 1860, writes as follows: " Most of the writers on 

 Stonehenge seem determined to show us how little qualified they are 

 to discuss such a subject. I think it not unlikely that the pagan 

 Saxons made Stonehenge on some grand occasion their offering place. 

 It should be remembered that when they offered human victims to 

 Woden, they hung them up, and here was a not inappropriate spot.^^ 



In Halliwell's "Rambles in Western Cornwall," 1861, is the 

 following : " With regard to Stonehenge, the theory of its being a 

 temple of the Druids is unsupported by the least evidence, the little 

 there is at all respecting it leading to the belief, that in it we see 

 the remains of a gigantic mausoleum, in the middle of an ancient 

 British cemetery, which continued in use during the Roman sway." 



A critic of Mr. Halliwell's work {Saturday Review, April 12th, 

 1862), remarks, that "No ancient writer mentions these stone 

 erections, supposed to be Druidical works, in connection with 

 Druidical rites ; and much might be said to show that they were of 

 much older date than the Druids, and probably of Phoenician origin. 

 Certain it is, that the Israelites, in common with ancient nations, 

 erected monuments of single stones; and it would appear stone- 

 circles, as the tokens of some great national achievement or national 

 victory. The Book of Joshua furnishes evidence of the first usage; 

 <ind the latter will, if we mistake not, be found referred to in a book 



