30O On Druidical Remains. 



owed their extraction to Phoenicia in Syria j 

 fince we find the Celtiberi of Spain to be of 

 Phoenician origin, as well as the founders of fe- 

 veral cities in Italy ; and it may be difficult to 

 prove the Celtse of old Gaul, who inhabited be- 

 tween the rivers Garonne and Seine, to have 

 fprung from any other fource. Almoft all wri- 

 ters agree, that the firft inhabitants of this ifland 

 had an intercourfe with the Phoenicians, who are 

 allowed to have traded to Britain, from thofe 

 once famous fea ports Tyre and Sidon ; and 

 where they left a colony, would no doubt leave 

 with them, all the rites and ceremonies of their 

 Syrian worfhip. 



If it be admitted, that this hill has been 

 dedicated to heathen worfhip, the ground called 

 Aldermans, I fhould imagine to extend to the 

 place where the idol once flood. The word Al- 

 dermans, I fuppofe not to be its original name, 

 but to have been afterwards given by the Saxons, 

 fignifying, in their language, the elderman, or 

 oldman, from a rock-idol or flone pillar, there 

 once worfhipped, by the Celtic Bfitons, the true 

 name of which was unknown to the Saxons. 



We read in the Levitical law, that Mofes forbid 

 tlie Ifraelites to rear up a flanding image, or fet 

 up any flone in their land, to bow down to it or 

 woriliip it. The adoration of flones was com- 

 mon at that day, we read, or why forbidden ? 

 So that upon the whole I fhould conclude, 



that 



