672 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



Stonehenge. [^From the same.^ 

 I have now, witli considerable 

 labour (says Mr. Davies), and, to 

 the best of my abilities, with accu- 

 racy and fidelity, translated and 

 explained the Gododin of Aneurin, 

 that the reader, having tho whole 

 work under his eye, may draw his 

 own conclusion from it ; and this, 

 if I mistake not, must amount to a 

 conviction, that the great catas- 

 trophe which the bard deplores, 

 was no other than that historical 

 event, the massacre of the British 

 nobles by the Saxon king, in tiie 

 neighbourhood of Stonehenge ; and, 

 consequently, that the magnificent 

 temple, or sanctuary, so often intro- 

 duced, was that identical structure. 

 From hence it must follow, that 

 this pile could not have been 

 erected, as fable has sometimes 

 reported, in commemoration of 

 the massacre; but that, on the 

 contrary, it was a monument of 

 venerable antiquity in the days of 

 Ilengist; and that its peculiar 

 sanctity influenced the selection 

 of that spot for the place of con- 

 ference between the British and 

 Saxon pri'nces. It is equally clear, 

 that the sacred building did not re- 

 ceive its name, Gwaith Emrys, from 

 Emrys, or Ambrosius, a prince 

 who fought with Hengist : but that, 

 on the other hand, it communi- 

 cated to him its own name, as he 

 was the president and defender of 

 the Ambrosial stones. 



That this ancient structure was 

 sacred to the Druidical supersti- 

 tion, is fully evident, from the 

 language in which it was described, 

 and the great veneration in which it 

 was held by the primitive Bards, 

 those immediate descendants, and 

 avowed disciples of the British 

 Druids. 



As the " great sanctuary of 

 the dominion,'' or metropolitan 

 temple of our heathen ancestors, 

 so complex in its plan, and con- 

 structed upon such a multitude of 

 astronomical calculations, we find 

 it was not exclusively dedicated to 

 the Sun, the Moon, Saturn, or any 

 other individual object of super- 

 stition ; but it was a kind of pmi- 

 iheon, in which all the Arkite and 

 Sabian divinities, of British theo- 

 logy, were supposed to have been 

 pi'escnt : for here we perceive Noe 

 and Hu, the deified patriarch; 

 Elphin and Rheiddin, the Sun ; 

 Eseye, Isis ; Ked, Ceres, with the 

 cell of lier sacred fire ; Llywy, 

 Proserpine ; Gwydien, Hermes ; 

 Budd, Victory, and several others. 



We learn from the Gododin, 

 that the conference with Hengist, 

 and the fatal banquet, took place 

 upon the Ystre, or Cursus, which 

 is still discernible, at the distance 

 of half a mile north from the tem- 

 ple. Here, we are told, some 

 temporary buildings of riidely- 

 hexvn timber \vere erected, for the 

 accommodation of the assembly. 



It is easy to account for the 

 choice of this spot, in an age of 

 that gross superstition, which over- 

 spread our country in the fifth 

 century. The Celtae of Gaul and 

 Britain, during their Pagan state, 

 were, for the most part, governed 

 by their priests, whose custom it 

 was to assemble, at a certain sea- 

 son, to deliberate upon the great- 

 est civil questions, in loco conse- 

 crato, or within the verge of 

 their sanctuaries. And as this par- 

 ticular sanctuary of Stonehenge 

 had been esteemed pre-eminently 

 sacred before the coming of the 

 Homans, and whilst the Britons 

 were an independent nation, so, 



at 



