ANTIQUITIES. 



1073, was also an excellent and powerful 

 prince. Under these monarchs, :uul their 

 .successors, Tcrdalvac and Moricrtac, the 

 power of the Scandinavians was consult r- 

 ably weakened. The native chiefs had 

 been taught the necessity of fortresses, 

 and were generally devoutly attached to 

 religion ; it is therefore to be inferred, 

 that many castles, churches, and monaste- 

 ries, now began to be partly constructed 

 in stone, by architects invited from France 

 and England; but perhaps the round 

 towers were erected by native builders. 

 Among smaller relics of antiquity, the 

 golden trinkets found in a bog near Cul- 

 len, in the south, deserve mention : as 

 gold was found in Gaul, they are perhaps 

 ornaments of the ancient chiefs, brought 

 from that region. 



It remains now to mention the names of 

 some df those authors who have written 

 on the antiquities of our own country. 

 Tacitus was an eye-witness to the ceremo- 

 m'es of Druidism in England, as the Ro- 

 mans were in Wales. To him, to Caesar 

 already referred to, and to Dio Cassius, 

 we refer, as the chief authorities in regard 

 tt) British history. To these may be add- 

 ed .Elian, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and 

 I'liny. Cluverius, Pezron, and Pelloutier, 

 are more modern, but respectable, writers 

 on the same subject. Of the structures 

 erected by the Britons, Abury and Stone- 

 henge may be deemed the principal. 

 Relics ofasmaller kind are continually dis- 

 covered a few feet beneath the surface of 

 the earth. On these Stukely and Row- 

 land are the best authorities: the former 

 has written a volume on Abury, a temple 

 of the Druids, in which is a particular ac- 

 count of the first and patriarchal religion, 

 and of the peopling of the British islands: 

 besides his larger work, entitled " Itine- 

 rarium Curiosum," being an account of 

 the antiquities, &c. observed in travels 

 through tiro at Britain, published in 1724. 

 For the history of the Britons under the 

 Roman Government, Morsley's Brit. Rom. 

 is a work th depended upon. 



\\ith rev-eft to the antiquities of the Sax- 

 ons, the illuminated manuscripts are the 

 best records of their manners in the differ- 

 ent centuries, and the most interesting in- 

 formation respecting them has been col- 

 lected by Turner and Stnitt. The best 

 collection of Saxon coins is in the British 

 Me. '-uin, and of manuscripts in tin -ami- 

 place, and in the Bodleian Library Mr. 

 KiiiiT has treated of their military antiqui- 

 ties in his History of I'astles; and, inde- 

 pendently of our works on topography, 

 vhieh are numerous, and man} of them 

 of the first respectability, and \vhirh throw 



VOL I 



considerable light on the antiquities of the 

 country, we mas refer to Henry's History 

 of England, where the subject is discussed 

 systematically and in chronological order; 

 and to the works of Camdcn, S'rutt, and 

 Gough, to which may be added the whole 

 series of the Gentleman's Magazine, and 

 J'inkerton's Geography, to which we have 

 been indebted for a par* of this article. 



As the antiquities of the united king- 

 dom arc in some respects connected with 

 those of the Danes and other northern na- 

 tions, we may suggest to the reader what 

 are the principal remains of those people, 

 as a clue to his future inquiries. 



The ancient monuments of Denmark 

 and Norway are chiefly Runic, though it 

 is far from certain at what period the use 

 of Runic characters extended so far north. 

 Circles of upright stones are common in 

 all the Danish dominions, the islands, Nor- 

 way, and Iceland, in which latter country 

 their origin is perfectly ascertained, as 

 some were erected even in recent times 

 of the Icelandic republic, being called 

 domh-ring, or circles of judgment. Some 

 also appear to have been the cemeteries 

 of superior families. Monuments also occur 

 of two upright stones with one across ; and 

 of the other forms supposed to be Druidic. 

 The residences of the chiefs appear to 

 have been generally constructed of wood, 

 as there are very few ancient castles ex- 

 isting in Denmark or Norway. 



Of Sweden the ancient monuments con- 

 sist chiefly of judicial circles and other 

 erections of unhewn stone, together with 

 remains inscribed with Runic characters, 

 none of which are imagined to have exist- 

 ed longer than the eleventh century 



In Russia the ancient monuments are 

 neither numerous, nor afford much variety. 

 There are to be met with the tombs of 

 their pagan ancestors, containing weapons 

 and ornaments. From the writings of 

 Herodotus we learn tha* the Scythians re- 

 garded t lie cemeteries oft heir princes \v ith 

 singular veneration: the Sartnatians or 

 Slavons seem to have imbibed the same 

 ideas. The catacombs of Kiow, it is be- 

 lie\ed, were formed in the pagan period, 

 though they are now replete with marks 

 of Christianity. They are labyrinths of 

 considerable extent, dug, as it should 

 seem, through amass of hardened clay, 

 but they do not appear to contain the bo- 

 the SOM reigns. The idols of Pa- 

 gan Russia are sometimes found 

 hron/.c ; and Dr. Guthrie has given a good 

 account of the Slavonic mythology, to 

 whose "Dissertations sur les Antiqnites 

 de Russie" we refi r the readei \\ , 

 mav however observe, that the pagan 

 LI 



