LEGEND OF STONEHENGE.

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their incongruous position between lines of columns only eight feet distant, averaging three times their height, and surmounted by simple massive cornices, seems to prove that circle to be of a different age from the more ponderous and imposing portions of the monument. Possibly this, the now comparatively mean part of Stonehenge, was the original circle, and had attained a sanctity and fame sufficient to attract the notice of those who in later times added the massive columns and cornices which have excited so much interest and not a little controversy.

1

Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and other early British chroniclers, repeat stories which, although somewhat varied, yet agree in one point-viz. that the monument of Stonehenge was, by the magical powers of the prophet Merlin, transported to where it now stands from Kildare in Ireland. To Ireland it had, in like manner, found its way from the extremity of Spain and from Africa. Merlin himself told the king it was brought from Africa. The way in which the massive columns of Stonehenge are said to have reached their destination-viz. conveyance through the air by supernatural influence-need not be insisted on. But

traves and lintels of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.-Pliny, Nat. Hist. b. xxxvi. c. 22.

An inclined plane of earth, such as is still used by the natives of India, would have served the purpose as well as the sand-bags used by the architect at Ephesus.

'Giraldus Cambr., Roger de Wendover, etc.

VOL. I.

2 Giraldus, in his Topography of Ireland, written about A.D. 1187, says that stones raised over other great stones, as at Stonehenge, existed on the plain of Kildare, and that they had been brought from the remotest parts of Africa. Sir Richard Colt Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire, pp. 129

132.

R

the places whence they were brought-viz. Spain and Africa -deserve consideration; for in the overland route from Kildare to Spain and the Pillars of Hercules, and beyond them by the north coast of Africa, rude monuments, similar to those of Celtic countries, may still be traced. This does not appear to have been hitherto noticed. If so, it is the more remarkable that, in a paper read to the British Association in 1847,1 Dr. Meyer pointed out that very line as the route by which he believed that the earliest Celtic hordes—viz. the Gaelic-advanced to the north-western extremities of Europe. In the account of the old chroniclers if, instead of the actual monuments, they had written that the original models were brought from these countries, it might probably have been correct.2

The great circle at Stennis in Orkney is, in point of size, next to that of Avebury; and from the many remains of other circles and sepulchral tumuli, including Maeshow with its curious chambers and long Runic inscriptions, it does not yield to any in interest. The situation is also very peculiar, and with a wild beauty of its own. Rising from a narrow ridge which separates two lakes, the high monoliths of the "ring of Brogar," and lesser circles, are prominent objects in the scene at Stennis.

The ring of Brogar originally contained about sixty columnar stones, of which more than one-half, partly overthrown, yet remain. They vary in height, those that still stand, from 14 to 6 feet, with a breadth of 3 or 4 and a thickness of 1 foot. The circle has a diameter of 340 feet, and in

1 P. 303.

2 This subject is more particularly considered in other chapters.

To the inner edge of the 366 feet, to the outer

superficial extent measures 24 acres. surrounding fosse the diameter is edge 424 feet. The fosse is still 6 feet deep; and there are entrances across it, level with the surrounding ground and circle, on two opposite sides. On the other side of the bridge of Brogar, under which is the only communication between the two lochs of Stennis, is a lesser circle, containing the remains of a dolmen. Of this circle, which was 104 feet in diameter, only seven stones, including the three stones of the dolmen, now remain. The highest standing stone is 17 feet; one that is prostrate measures 19 feet in length.

The circular fanes at Stanton Drew in Somersetshire appear to have been of considerable extent, although when first observed with attention, so late as the year 1718, they were in a state of miserable ruin. Comparatively few of the monoliths were left; some of them, however, were of considerable size-one, still standing in 1834, was 16 feet in height, and two others lay beside it of nearly equal size. With the assistance of former accounts three separate circles can still be traced, one of them 342 feet in diameter, another of 120 feet, a third of 94 feet. There are also traces of a stone avenue of approach; a "cove"-viz. three stones placed to form a niche-of which there are two at Avebury, stands at a short distance from the circles; and in another direction lies. "Hackells-Quoit," a stone computed to weigh 30 tons.

In the parish of Aldingham in Cumberland are the remains 1 Quoit, Coit. I have elsewhere adverted to the probability of this word, continually found connected with Cel

tic monuments, being derived from the Celtic word Coit or Coet-"a grove."

of a circular fane having now no other name than "Long Meg and her Daughters." It is apparently of great antiquity. It has a diameter of 330 feet, and its circumference is defined by 67 stones varying in height from 8 to 3 feet-some being of great bulk, others comparatively small. On the south-west, 40 feet from the circle, the gaunt figure of "Long Meg" overlooks her dumpy daughters. Her height, now impaired by age, is about 12 feet above ground, but once was 18 feet; her form being an irregular pyramid with a base about 3 feet square.' Her colour is red, and in this, as in shape, differs from the grey lumps of granite boulders of which her progeny is composed. It would appear that there had been an approach to this circle from the north-east, in which direction, about four hundred yards distant, there are remains of a small circle of the same primitive type and materials as the large enclosure. Advancing from this direction "Long Meg" would have appeared over the highest part of the great circle, which is situated on a gentle slope, and facing nearly the same direction as the altar-cove of Avebury and the central trilith of Stonehenge.

On an eminence called the Castle-Rigg, situated about a mile and a half from Keswick in Cumberland, and commanding an extensive and magnificent prospect, are the remains of a columnar stone-temple of an oval form, 108 feet in length and 100 in breadth. Immediately within this space, at the eastern end, a small square is defined by twelve stones of less size than the forty which remain to mark the outer boundary. pears of a different type from those which I have termed the Caledonian hieroglyphics.

Since my visit to Long Meg, Sir Gardiner Wilkinson has discovered an incised figure upon the stone. It ap