32 ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS, &c. 



form of the ftate of Caledonia, at the time when it was necefTa- 

 ry to rear thofe hill-fortifications, there appears no probability 

 that the inhabitants either lived under fuch a government as 

 we know to have prevailed under the influence of the Druids, 

 or had any acquaintance with thofe arts which it is certain 

 they cultivated. Thofe buildings muft, therefore, have been 

 erected previoufly to the introduction of the Druidical fyftem ', 

 that is to fay, in a period of time antecedent to the firft vifita- 

 tion of this iiland by the Celts of Gaul. 



The Druidical circle upon Dun-Jardel lends its aid in fup- 

 port of this conjecture. If the fortification on the fummit had 

 been erected after the abolition of Druidifm, it feems extremely 

 improbable, that the builders of it would have neglected to 

 employ the ftones of this circle in rearing their fortification, 

 ((tones extremely well fuited to the purpofe, and quite at hand) 

 when they have been at immenfe pains to carry up a prodigious 

 quantity of ftones from the very bottom of the hill for that 

 work. It is not probable that they would have been reftrained 

 by any fuperftitious idea of reverence for the monuments of an 

 extinguished religion. For Druidifm, foon after its abolition, 

 funk into utter contempt, and the introduction of Chriftianity 

 rendered the ancient fuperftitions impious and deteftable. That 

 this hill-fortification was erected in the times of the Druids, I 

 have already fhewn to be extremely improbable. We muft, there- 

 fore, recur to the only remaining, and the moft natural fuppo- 

 fition, that it was reared in times antecedent to the introduc- 

 tion of that religion. And this fuppofition carries the date of 

 this ftructure, and confequently of all the reft of the fame na- 

 ture, up to a period of antiquity far beyond all hiftorical re- 

 cord, and connects them with a ftate of fociety in which the 

 arts were as imperfect, the manners as barbarous, and the con- 

 dition of life as lawlefs, turbulent and precarious, as among 

 the rudeft tribes of American favages. 



II. 



