32 ANCIENT FORTlFICJriONS, &^c. 



form of the ftate of Caledonia, at the time when it was necefTa- 

 ry to rear thofe hill-fortifications, there appears no probability 

 that the inhabitants either lived under fuch a government as 

 we know to have prevailed under the influence of the Druids, 

 or had any acquaintance with thofe arts which it is certain 

 they cultivated. Thofe buildings mufi;, therefore, have been 

 erecfted previoufly to the introdudlion of the Druidical fyftem ; 

 that is to fay, in a period of time antecedent to the firft vifita- 

 tion of this ifland by the Celt£e of Gaul. 



The Druidical circle upon Dun-Jardel lends its aid in fup- 

 port of this conjedlure. If the fortification on the fummit had 

 been eredled after the abolition of Druidifm, it feems extremely 

 improbable, that the builders of it would have negle(fled to 

 employ the flones of this circle in rearing their fortification, 

 (ftones extremely well fuited to the purpofe, and quite at hand) 

 when they have been at immenfe pains to carry up a prodigious 

 quantity of ftones from the very bottom of the hill for that 

 work. It is not probable that they would have been reftrained 

 by any fuperftitious idea of reverence for the monuments of an 

 extinguilhed religion. For Druidifm, foon after its abolition, 

 funk into utter contempt, and the introdudlion of Chriftianity 

 rendered the ancient fuperftitions impious and deteftable. That 

 this hill-fortification was eredled in the times of the Druids, I 

 have already Ihewn to be extremely improbable. We muft, there- 

 fore, recur to the only remaining, and the moft natural fuppo- 

 fition, that it was reared in times antecedent to the introduc- 

 tion of that religion. And this fuppofition carries the date of 

 this ftrudlure, and confequently of all the reft of the fame na- 

 ture, up to a period of antiquity far beyond all hiftorical re- 

 cord, and connedls them with a ftate of fociety in which the 

 arts were as imperfedl, the manners as barbarous, and the con- 

 dition of life as lawlefs, turbulent and precarious, as among 

 the rudeft tribes of American favages. 



II. 



