DRUIDS, 
Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus, They were divided into 
different claffes, called bardi, or bards, eubages, vates, 
fenmothei, farronides, and famothei. They were held 
in the greateft veneration by the people. Their life 
was auftere and reelufe from the world, their drefs pe¬ 
culiar to theml'elves., and they generally appeared with 
a tunic which reached a little below' the knee. The 
chief power was lodged in their hands ; they punifhed 
as they pleafed, and could declare w'ar and make peace 
at their option. Their pow'er was extended not only 
over private families, but they could depofe magiffrates 
and even kings, if their actions in any manner deviated 
from the law's of the ftate. They had the privilege of 
naming the magiffrates which annually prelided over the 
cities, and the kings were created only with their appro¬ 
bation. They were entruffed with the education of 
youth, and all religious ceremonies, feftivals, and facri- 
fices w'ere under their peculiar care. They taught the 
doflrine of the metempfyehofis, or tranfmigration, and 
believed the immortality of the foul. They were pro- 
feftionally acquainted with the art of magic ; and from 
their knowledge of affrology they drew omens, and fan¬ 
cied they faw futurity revealed before their eyes. In 
their facrifices they often immolated human victims to 
their gods, a barbarous cuffom which continued long 
among them, and which the Roman emperors in vain at¬ 
tempted to abolifh. The power and privileges which 
they enjoyed were beheld with admiration by their coun¬ 
trymen j and as their office was open to every rank and 
every ftation, there wefe many who daily propofed them¬ 
selves as candidates to enter upon this important fundffion. 
The rigour, however, and feverity of a long noviciate, 
deterred many, and few were willing to attempt a labour, 
T/hich enjoined them during fifteen or twenty years to 
load their memory with the long and tedious maxims of 
druidical religion. 
There has been much abfurd controverfy concerning 
ihejr origin, and the places of their religious ceremonies, 
temples, altars, &c. but the mod rational conclufion is, 
tint they uniformly officiated under the folemn fliades of 
trees and groves. Mr. Pinkerton, in his Defcription of 
Empires, Sec. publifhed in 1802, inveftigates this part of 
the druidical hiftory, and detefts fome of the errors which 
have crept into it. He fays, “ A radical miffake in the 
ffudy of Englifh antiquities, has arifen from the confu- 
iion of the Celtic and Belgic languages and monuments. 
The druids have defervedly attracted much curiofity and 
refearch ; but it would be erroneous to impute to them, 
as is ufual, the whole of our earlieft remains. Cxfar 
fpeaks of druidifm as a recent inffitution ; and fuch being 
the cafe, it is probable that it originated from the Phoe- 
sician factories, eftablilhed in wooden fortreffes on the 
coaft, the ufual practice of commercial nations, when 
trading with favage or barbarous races. The tenets cor- 
refpond with what little exiffs of Phoenician mythology, 
and the miffionaries of that refined people might be not 
a little zealous in their diffufion. However this be, the 
ancient authors, from whom we derive our foie authentic 
information concerning the druids, minutely deferibe their 
religious rites, but are totally filent concerning any mo¬ 
numents of Jlone being ufed among them. On the con¬ 
trary, they mention gloomy groves, and fpreading oaks, 
as the only feenes of the druidic ceremonies. Yet our 
antiquaries have inferred that Stonehenge is a druidic mo¬ 
nument, though it be fituated in an extenfive plain, where 
not a veftige of wood appears, and where the very foil is 
reputed adverfe to its vegetation. 
“It might, perhaps, be a vain effort of inveftigation, 
to attempt to diferiminate the remains of the earlieft in¬ 
habitants from thofe of the druidic period ; indeed, if 
we fet afide the authorities of modern antiquaries, too 
commonly vifionary and difeordant, there is no founda¬ 
tion whatever for any found or real knowledge on the 
fubjeft. The following have been efteemed druid mo¬ 
numents by Borlafe; 1, Single ftones ereft, 2. Rock 
idols and pierced ffonf ?. 3. &ockmg-fton6S ufed as 
deals. 4. Sepulchres of two, three, or more, ftones. 5. 
Circular temples, or rather circles of ereft ftones. 6. 
Barrow'S or tumuli. 7. Cromlechs, or heaps of ftones. 
8. Rock-bafons, imagined to have been ufed in druidic 
expiations. 9. Caves, ufed as places of retreat in time 
of war. But as moft of thefe relics may alfo be found 
in Germany and Scandinavia, it becomes hazardous to 
pronounce whether they be Gothic or Celtic ; and, as we 
learn from ancient authors that the Germans had no 
druids, to beftow the name of druidic upon fuch monu¬ 
ments, is the mere wantonnefs of conjefture. It is, how¬ 
ever, moft probable, that the earlieft inhabitants, as is 
ever the practice in the infancy of fociety, made ufe of 
wood, not Jlone, in their religious as well as in their do- 
meftic erections. If we lurvey the various favage regions 
of the globe, we ftiall feldom or never perceive the ufe 
of ftone ; and it is certainly, juft to infer, that the favages 
of the weft were not more Ikilflil than thofe of the eaft ; 
nor thofe of the old continents and iflands than thofe of 
the new. A learned ignorance upon fuch topics, is pre¬ 
ferable to anaffumed and imaginary knowledge. 
“ But as many of thefe monuments are found in Ger¬ 
many, Scandinavia, and Iceland ; and as the Icelandic 
writers in particular, often indicate their origin and ufe, 
which are unknown in the Celtic records, there is every 
reafon to attribute them to a more advanced ftage of fo¬ 
ciety, when the Belgic colonies introduced agriculture, 
and a little further progrefs in the rude arts of barbarifm. 
The nature of this work will not admit a formal invefti¬ 
gation of fuch topics, but a few remarks may be offered 
on Stonehenge, a ftupendous monument of barbaric in- 
duftry. Inigo Jones, in attempting to prove that it is 
Roman, only evinces that no talents can avail when fei- 
ence is wanting, and that antiquities require a fevere and 
peculiar train of ftudy. Dodtor Stukeley affigns Stone¬ 
henge to the druids; while Dr. Charlton, perceiving' 
that fuch monuments are found in Denmark, aferibed ic 
to the Danes. If the latter had confidered that the Bel- 
gte were a Gothic nation, of fimilar language and inftitu- 
tions, he might with more juftice have extended its an¬ 
tiquity. From the Icelandic writers, we learn, that fuch 
circles were called domh-ringr, that is, literally, doom-ring , 
or circle of judgment, being the folemn places where 
courts were held, of all kinds and dignities, from the na¬ 
tional council down to the baronial court, or that of a 
common proprietor of land, for adjufting difputes be¬ 
tween his villani and Haves. The magnificence of Stone¬ 
henge loudly pronounces that it was the fupreme court 
of the nation, equivalent to the champs de Mars et de Mai 
of the Franks, where the king and chiefs affembled in 
the circle, and the men capable of arms in the open 
plain ; nor is it improbable that the chiefs afeended the 
tranfverfe ftones, and declared their refolves to the fur¬ 
rounding crowd, who, in the defcription of Tacitus, dif- 
fented by loud murmurs, o’- applauded by clathing their 
ffiields. This idea receives confirmation from the cir- 
cumftance that the Belgae peculiarly fo called, as being 
the chief and ruling colony of that people, were feated 
in the furrounding province; and Sorbiodunum, now Old 
Sarum, was their capital city. 
“ Similar circles of ftone, but far inferior in fize, are 
found in many parts of Great Britain and Ireland; and 
feveral undoubtedly as late as the Danifli inroads and 
ufurpations, the practice being continued by that people 
at leaft till their converlion to Chriftianity, in the tenth 
and eleventh centuries. Some of the fmalleft, as we 
learn from the northern antiquaries, were merely places 
of family fepulture. At a later period the circles of 
judgment, which had been polluted with human facri¬ 
fices, and other pagan rites, were abandoned; and the 
great courts were held on what ware called moot-hills, ox- 
hills of meeting, many of which ftill exift in the Britifti 
dominions, and in the Netherlands. They commonly 
confift of a central eminence, on which fat the judge and 
