130 ALEXANDER GORDON", THE ANTIQUARY. 



been perceived in those lamps, which, was extinguished on the admis- 

 sion of the air ! " 



Mr. Gale responds with English experiences in the same line of 

 sepulchral exploration. Lord Pembroke had opened above twenty 

 tumnli in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge, some of them when 

 Dr. Stukeley and himself were present ; and so he is able to inter- 

 change antiquarian wonders and learned speculation in this pleasant 

 -fashion : " Whatever people, whether the old Celts that first came 

 into this island, which seems to me most probable, or the later 

 Britains, erected that stupendous monument of Stonehenge, it cer- 

 tainly was in great veneration, as long as our heathen ancestors 

 possessed the place ; for so the many interments here do plainly 

 argue. And what is very remarkable, this sacred spot is crowded 

 with these sepulchral repositories, as far round every way as they 

 could lie in sight of the temple ; but as soon as the view is inter- 

 cepted by the circumjacent rising grounds, you see no more barrows, 

 or funeral circles. Burying the body in the earth was, no doubt, 

 the most ancient way of disposing of it after death ; though, that 

 burning it was very old is evident from your undeniable quotations. 

 Olaus Wormius will have burning of the most antique usage among 

 his northern heroes ; and tells you, in the first book of his Mon. 

 Danica, the very time when burying them with their horse and arms 

 came in fashion, which was at the death of King Dan, who reigned 

 in Denmark when Joshua passed over Jordan ; and who can doubt 

 it when he is so exact in his chronology." 



Mr. Gale had not the remotest idea of jesting when he thus wrote 

 in commendation of the- indubitable accuracy of the old Danish his- 

 torian, in thus establishing a precise chronology for King Dan and 

 his times. It was in accordance with his ordinary style, which he 

 accompanied with adulatory phrases, and gracious apologies about 

 " trespassing, farther upon your patience, which I fear has been suffi- 

 ciently tried," and the like suave terms : all in the stately phrase- 

 ology of that eighteenth century. Privately, he thus responds in 

 simpler fashion, concerning the publication of such letters : 



" By what Mr. Gordon had said to me, I concliided he had your 

 free leave to publish your letters, otherwise should by no means have 

 parted with them to him, much less have suffered my crude and 

 hasty answers to have attended them into the world, had not the 

 printing of yours indispensably required it. The errors you complain 



