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the country long before the periods on which historical records touch. 

 Not only is this true of Derbyshire, but all over Great Britain ; nay, all 

 over the world we meet with stone-circles or cromlechs, stone chambers 

 or dolmens, menhirs or standing-stones, tumuli, fortified camps, &c. We 

 have no description of the formation or use of any of these in any 

 literature, unless such be referred to occasionally in the earlier books of 

 the Bible, and by one or two classical authors. Thus, for example, 

 Moses, we are told, erected twelve stones at Mount Sinai ; when Achan 

 was stoned, the Israelites " raised over him a great heap of stones ;" 

 Joshua pitched twelve stones in Gilgal after crossing the Jordan ; and 

 one or two more such possible references to megalithic monuments occur 

 in what are known as the historical books. From classical authors I 

 will quote only a single reference. Nestor, describing the course for the 

 chariot-race to his son Antiochus, in Iliad, Bk. xxiii., tells him : — 



Now mark ; the goal thou can'st not miss * * * * 



* * * two white stones, one upon either side, 



Where meet two roads, and close by runs the race-course sweeping wide, 



Whether these stones were raised to mark where some old chieftain died, 



Or served for goal in olden times on this same racing ground ; 



Here hath Achilles fixed the goal. 



So what we now term a menhir is here spoken of, and Nestor suggests 

 that it marked the burial-place of some hero who had died long before 

 Homer's time ; it was, in other words, " pre-historic " even then. Such 

 old stone-monuments as these continued to be revered, or regarded with 

 superstitious awe, even into the times when Christianity flourished, for 

 not only do we find that Charlemagne found it necessary to issue an 

 edict, " Jubemus ut corpora Christianorum Saxonorum ad cemeteria 

 ecclesise deferantur et non ad tumulos paganorum ;" but even as late as 

 1859, a farmer in the Isle of Man offered a heifer as a burnt sacrifice, 

 that he might avert the anger of the spirits ' ' excited by the exploration 

 of a chambered tomb near Tynwald Mount by Messrs. Oliver and 

 Oswald." Much as we may be inclined to smile at this superstition, we 

 must rejoice at the results it produced, for to it we owe much of the 

 knowledge we are now able to gain of our long-since dead ancestors ; to it 

 the Isle of Man (Isle of Stones) is indebted for its name, and had it been 

 stronger in England no doubt many a Balbus would have got the stone 

 for his walls from some quarry, instead of destroying the menhirs and 

 dolmens, of whose use and history he knew nothing and cared less. 



Of English megalithic remains the largest is, or rather was, that of 

 Avebury, or Abury, in Wiltshire. This, when perfect, enclosed an area 

 of 28£ acres, and consisted of a circular ditch and embankment, and a 

 great circle of stones, with two smaller circles inside. " But the pretty 

 little village of Abury, like some beautiful parasite, has grown up at the 

 expense, and in the midst of, the ancient temple." The most perfect 

 example still remaining is that of Stonehenge, and next to these two 

 comes Arbor Low, the Northern Stonehenge, as it is sometimes called. 

 It consists of a circle of large, unhewn stones, obtained from the lime- 



*Professor Blackie's Translation. 



