« 
1800. ] 
own fpecies, upon the upper ftone. The 
{pace about the ftones, thus placed toge- 
ther, is generally raifed, and large enough 
for many perfons to ftand on. . There they 
probably placed thofe who invoked the 
priefts to obtain aremedy for their difeafes, 
or a remiffion of their crimes. They be- 
lieved themfelves cured or abfolved, as 
{oon as they were bathed with the blood 
of the victims. 
Many of thefe altars are ftill preferved 
in barren countries, at a diitance from any 
habitation ; and they abound particularly 
on the heaths of Ireland and in Wales. 
In the latter they are called crom-lechi ; 
thatis to fay, the zzclined (tomes, or the flones 
of bowing. France has fome of them, 
efpecially in the departments heretofore 
ealled Brittany, where the country- -people 
believe them to. have been reared’ by the 
power of the fairies. And in thofe of 
Limoufin: the elevated /tone, near Poitiers, 
is a monument of this kind. But hitherto, 
I believe, no notice at all has been taken of 
one alfo at a little diftance from Paris, of 
which, therefore, l am going to give an 
account to the Society. Itis fituated in 
the woods of the Warren of Tie, in the 
department of the Oife, and on the con- 
fines of that-of Eure, being about thirty- 
feven miles from Paris, in a direét line, 
and near two miles from Gifors. The 
neare(t habitation to it is a farm called 
Ilioré. 
The ftones of which this altar is formed 
are four innumber. Three of them are 
placed upright, and the other, which is 
much larger, covers them. ‘They are of 
a calcareous kind, as are all thole of the 
furrounding country. Time has mould- 
ered them a little, and covered them with 
a thick coating of mols. ‘There is no 
mark of the chiffel tobe feen; nor is there 
the {malleft veitige of any infcription. 
This altar, if we may give it fucha 
Rame,is fer againft a woody hillock, fothat, 
though on the fide fronting the valley, 
where the {peCtators may be pre fumed to 
have been placed*, it rifes to the height of 
about four yards; yet, on the fide towards 
the afcert of the hillock, it is at moft, 
one metre high. Onthis latter fide, it i 
probable, the facrificer ftood; for being 
Dyruidical Monuments. 
243 
The ftone at the bottom prefents a very 
remarkable peculiarity ; it is pierced 
through, towards the middle, with an irre- 
gular hole, about a foot in dimenfion, 
through which the people of the neigh- 
bourhood have been in the habit, from 
time immemorial, of making their weak 
and languifhing children pafs, in full re- 
liance that this practice would reftore 
them to health. It does not appear that 
this fuperftitious opinion has been intro- 
duced fince the eftablifhment of Chrifti- 
anity. Near the place there is neither 
crofs nor chapel: it is neceflary, therefore, 
to go farther back for tracing the origin of 
this cuftom. 
But it is a circumftance worthy of re- 
mark, that in the county of Cornwall in 
England, there are alfo, according to the 
account of Borlafe, ftones bored in the 
fame manner, and of which the inhabitants 
of the neighbourhcod make the fame ufe 
on the fame occafions. 
The identity of this ftrange pragtice, 
in places fo remote from: each’ other, can 
fcarcely be attributed to chance; becaule 
thofe people could not coincide in opinions 
fo abfurd, and total! ly void of foun dation; 
if they did not originate from the fame 
fource; this, then, may be regarded as an 
unaniwerdble pEaor of what. was before 
known from Ceefar, that the religion of 
the Gauls was the fame as that of the 
people of Britain.”’ 
The above account is accompanied with 
a plate, reprefenting as monument, an 
idea of the outline of wh nich is tolerably- 
exprefled beneath, % 



i Sa Se aa 
The writer of the above setts fol- 
lows the obfervations, which have been 









a gk a 
thue ftationed, he was enabled conveniently 
to exercife his functions, and might, at 
the fame time, be feen by the whole af- 
fembly. Antique and lofty woods, now 

generally made. upon monuments of this 
eae in confidering them as the altars of 
the Druids ; and he alfo j joins in the fen- 
timental rhapfodies concerning the horrid 
¥. = 
». 
reduced to a mere coppice, then Jent their 
‘loomy fhade to the horrible myfteries. 
wenty perfons, at leaft, may ftand up- 
right under this altar. - 
* This, Tifivel is the work «f art mot 
,prebably. ‘T. 

rites practifed upon them. 
I am fully convinced, Mr. Editor, that 
the world has been led into a miftake with 
re(peét to this point; and that ftones fet 
wp, as above defcribed, were never uled 
Lb Gs ag 
= ——— 


