ANTIQUITIES. 



merits of the Druids : 1. Single stones 

 erect 2. Hock idols and pierced stones. 

 3. Rocking-stones, used as ordeals. 4. 

 Sepulchres of two, three, or more stones. 

 5. Circular temples, or rather circles of 

 erect stones. 6 Barrows, or tumuli. 7. 

 Cromlechs, or heaps of stones. 8. Rock- 

 basins, imagined to have been used in 

 Dnu'dic expiations. 9. Qaves, used as 

 places of retreat in time of war. But as 

 most of these relics may also be found in 

 Germany and Scandinavia, it is difficult to 

 say whether they are Gothic or Celtic ; 

 and as the Germans had no Druids, we 

 cannot, with any degree of certainty, be- 

 stow the name of Druidic upon such 

 monuments. It is highly probable, that 

 the earliest inhabitants, as is ever the prac- 

 tice in the infancy of society, made use of 

 vood, not of stone, in their religious as 

 well as in their domestic erections. If we 

 survey the various savage regions of the 

 globe, we shall seldom, if ever, perceive 

 the use of stone ; and it is certainly just 

 to infer, that the savages of the west were 

 not more skilful than those of the east, 

 nor those of the old continents and islands 

 than those of the new. But as many of 

 these monuments are found in Germany, 

 Scandinavia and Iceland, and as the Ice- 

 landic writers in particular often indicate 

 their origin and use, which are unknown 

 in the Celtic records, there is every rea- 

 son to attribute them to a more advanced 

 stage of society, when the Belgic colonies 

 introduced agriculture, and a little further 

 progress in the rude arts of barbarism. 

 The nature of this work will not admit a 

 formal investigation of such topics, but a 

 few remarks may be offered on Stone- 

 henge, a stupendous monument of barba- 

 ric industry'. Inigo Jones, in attempting 

 to prove that it is Roman, only evinces 

 that no talents can avail when science is 

 wanting, and that antiquities require a se- 

 vere and peculiar train ofstudy. Doctor 

 Stukely, a visionary writer, assigns Stone- 

 henge to the Druids ; while Dr. Charlton, 

 perceiving that such monuments are found 

 in Denmark, ascribed it to the Danes. If 

 the latter had considered, that the Belgae 

 were a Gothic nation, of similar language 

 and institutions, he might with more jus- 

 tice have extended his antiquity. From 

 the Icelandic writers we learn, that such 

 circles were called domh-riner, that is lite- 

 rally doom-ring, or circle of judgment,be- 

 ing the solemn places where courts were 

 held, of all kinds and dignities, from the 

 national council down to the baronial 

 court, or that of a common proprietor of 

 land, for adjusting disputes between his 

 viilani and slaves. The magnificence of 



Stonehenge loudly pronounces that it was 

 the supreme court of the nation, equiva- 

 lent to the Champs de Mars et de Mai of 

 the Franks, where the king and chiefs as- 

 sembled in the circle, and the men capa- 

 ble of arms in the open plain ; nor is it 

 improbable that the chiefs ascended the 

 transverse stones, and declared their re- 

 solves to the surrounding crowd, who, in 

 the description of Tacitus, dissented by 

 loud murmurs, or applauded by clashing 

 their shields. This idea receives confir- 

 mation from the circumstance, that the 

 Belgac, peculiarly so called, as being the 

 chief and ruling colony of that people, 

 were seated in the surrounding province, 

 and Sorbiodunum, now Old Sarum, was 

 their capital city. Similar circles of stone, 

 but far inferior in size, are found in many 

 parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and 

 several undoubtedly as late as the Danish 

 inroads and usurpations, the practice being 

 continued by that people at least till their 

 conversion to Christianity, in the tenth and 

 eleventh centuries. Some of the smallest, 

 as we learn from the northern antiquaries, 

 were merely places of family sepulture. 

 At a later period, the circles of judgment, 

 which had been polluted with human sa- 

 crifices and other Pagan rites, were aban- 

 doned, and the great courts were held on 

 what were called moot-hills, or hills of 

 meeting, many of which still exist in the 

 British dominions and in the Netherlands. 

 They commonly consist of a central emi- 

 nence, on which sat the judge and his 

 assistants ; beneath was an elevated plat- 

 form fqr the parties, their friends and con- 

 purgators, who sometimes amounted to 

 a hundred or moi'e ; and this platform 

 was surrounded with a trench, to secure 

 it from the access of the mere spectators. 

 Of the other monuments of this period a 

 more brief consideration must suffice. 

 When a monarch or. distinguished general 

 was buried, a barrow or hillock was erect- 

 ed, to preserve his name and memory to 

 future ages ; the size depending on the 

 reputation of the person, which attracted 

 a smaller or larger number of operators. 

 Such monuments are very ancient, and 

 even to this day denote the sepulchres of 

 some of the heroes of the Trojan war. In 

 later times, a large single stone erected 

 was esteemed a sufficientmemorial : such 

 single stones also sometimes appear as 

 monuments of remarkable battles, or 

 merely as boundaries. The caves are 

 familiar to most nations in an early state 

 of society. The Belgic reliques are follow- 

 ed by those of the Romans, which are 

 mostly objects of mere curiosity, and rare- 

 ly throw the smallest light on the page 



