Stonehenge, a Temple Restor'd to the British Druids E-Book

William Stukeley

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 205

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Of the name of Stonehenge. These works prior to the Roman times. Who were the builders? Of the general situation of it, again. Of the beauty of its general proportion. A peep into it. A walk round the area. Remarks on two stones standing on the vallum, and two corresponding cavities for water vases: explained from ancient coins. That the Welsh are the remains of the Belgæ from the continent, who lived here at the Roman invasion, and by whose reports, Stonehenge was built by the most ancient oriental colony, that brought the Druids hither.

Leseprobe

Stonehenge, a Temple Restor'd to the British Druids

Stonehenge, a Temple Restor'd to the British Druids PREFACECHAP. I.CHAP. II.CHAP. III.CHAP. IV.CHAP. V.CHAP. VI.CHAP. VII.CHAP. VIII.CHAP. IX.CHAP. X.CHAP. XI.CHAP. XII.Copyright

Stonehenge, a Temple Restor'd to the British Druids

William Stukeley

PREFACE

A few years ago I spent some time every summer in viewing, measuring, and considering the works of the ancient Druids in our Island; I mean those remarkable circles of Stones which we find all over the kingdom, many of which I have seen, but of many more I have had accounts. Their greatness and number astonish’d me, nor need I be afraid to say, their beauty and design, as well as antiquity, drew my particular attention. I could not help carrying my inquiries about them as far as I was able. My studies this way have produc’d a vast quantity of drawings and writing, which consider’d as an intire work, may thus be intitled,

Patriarchal Christianity: OR,A Chronological HISTORYOF THEOrigin and Progress of true Religion, and of Idolatry.

The parts of which the whole is compos’d are these:

I. Canon Mosaicæ Chronologiæ, or the year of Moses settled, by which he reckons time in the history of the old world; the time of the year fix’d when creation was begun. This is done in a new manner, and becomes an intire system of chronology from the creation to the Exodus, and is exemplified by many particular Kalendars of the most remarkable transactions; which are proofs of the truth of the Canon. There are interspersed a great many astronomical and historical illustrations of the sacred pages, particularly Sanchoniathon’ s genealogies, and Manethon’ s Egyptian Dynasties, are applied in a new Method to the history and chronology of the Scriptures.

II. Melchisedec, or a delineation of the first and patriarchal religion, from the best light we can gather in the sacred history; and from the most ancient heathen customs, which were remains of that religion. In this Treatise it is shewn, that the first religion was no other than Christianity, the Mosaic dispensation, as a veil, intervening; that all mankind from the creation had a knowledge of the plurality of persons in the Deity.

III. Of the mysteries of the ancients, one of the first deviations from true religion, to idolatry; this is chiefly pursu’d in an explication of the famous table of Isis, or Bembin- table, publish’d by Pignorius, Kircher, &c. wherein that knowledge which the ancients had concerning the true nature of the Deity, is further explain’d.

IV. A discourse on the hieroglyphic learning of the ancients, and of the origin of the alphabet of letters. Very many hieroglyphic monuments of the Egyptians are explain’d, more especially those that relate to their true notions of the persons in the Deity. The time and rise of the alphabet of letters is deduc’d from a new foundation. The present square Hebrew characters are shewn to be the primitive idea of letters, from whence all others are deriv’d. Whence the idea of every letter was taken? an explication of all the old Hebrew coins with Samaritan characters.

V. The patriarchal history, particularly of Abraham, is largely pursu’d; and the deduction of the Phœnician colony into the Island of Britain, about or soon after his time; whence the origin of the Druids, of their Religion and writing; they brought the patriarchal Religion along with them, and some knowledge of symbols or hieroglyphics, like those of the ancient Egyptians; they had the notion and expectation of the Messiah, and of the time of the year when he was to be born, of his office and death.

VI. Of the Temples of the Druids in Britain, their religious rites, orders, sacrifices, groves, tombs, their cursus’ s, places of sports and exercises, &c. particularly an ample and accurate description of that stupendous temple of theirs at Abury in North Wiltshire, the most august work at this day upon the globe of the earth; with many prints of ground-plots, views and admeasurements of all its parts; of their manner of sepulture; an account of my digging into many of their barrows and tumuli, with drawings of them, &c.

VII. Of the celebrated Stonehenge, another Temple of theirs, with prints of that work; an account of the barrows I dug up, and what was discover’d in them; of the knowledge the Druids had of the magnetical compass, and conjectures of the particular times when these works were made, long before Cæsar arriv’d in Britain.

I propose to publish these two first, and proceed to the speculative parts afterwards; reserving them, God willing, to the maturer time of my life.

My intent is (besides preserving the memory of these extraordinary monuments, so much to the honour of our country, now in great danger of ruin) to promote, as much as I am able, the knowledge and practice of ancient and true Religion; to revive in the minds of the learned the spirit of Christianity, nearly as old as the Creation, which is now languishing among us; to restore the first and great Idea of the Deity, who has carry’d on the same regular and golden chain of Religion from the beginning to this day; to warm our hearts into that true sense of Religion, which keeps the medium between ignorant superstition and learned free-thinking, between slovenly fanaticism and popish pageantry, between enthusiasm and the rational worship of God, which is no where upon earth done, in my judgment, better than in the Church of England. And seeing a spirit of Scepticism has of late become so fashionable and audacious as to strike at the fundamentals of all revelation, I have endeavoured to trace it back to the fountain of Divinity, whence it flows; and shew that Religion is one system as old as the world, and that is the Christian Religion; that God did not leave the rational part of his creation, like the colony of an ant-hill, with no other guide than instinct, but proportion’d his discoveries to the age of the world, to the learning, wisdom, and experience of it; as a wise parent does now to his children. I shall shew likewise, that our predecessors, the Druids of Britain, tho’ left in the extremest west to the improvement of their own thoughts, yet advanc’d their inquiries, under all disadvantages, to such heights, as should make our moderns asham’d, to wink in the sun-shine of learning and religion. And we may with reason conclude, there was somewhat very extraordinary in those principles, which prompted them to such a noble spirit as produced these works, still visible with us, which for grandeur, simplicity and antiquity, exceed any of the European wonders.

That the doctrines and works of the Druids have hitherto been so little considered (since authors only transcribe from one to another, the few remaining scraps to be found in classic writers) was an incentive to me likewise in the following attempt, and at the same time it pleads for me, and bespeaks the reader’s favour. I want likewise the great advantages to be had from a knowledge of the remaining Celtic languages, books, manuscripts, and history, the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Highland, &c. the chief repository now of their doctrines and customs; so that in my own opinion I may very well say with the poet,

Interea Dryadum silvas & saxa sequamur

Intactas, tua Mecænas haud mollia jussa. Virgil.

And tho’ there has been of late a large volume publish’d on the subject of Stonehenge, yet we may well say there has nothing been wrote upon the subject. Nor have I any other notion of this performance, than that it is as a first attempt to say something upon those famous philosophers and priests the Druids, who are never spoken of in antiquity but with a note of admiration; and are always rank’d with the Magi of the Persians, the gymnosophists of the Indians, the prophets and hierophants of the Egyptians, and those sort of patriarchal priests, whose orders commenc’d before idolatry began; from whom the Pythagoreans, Platonists, and Greek philosophers learn’d the best things they knew. To clear away rubbish, and lay a foundation only, in this difficult and obscure work, is doing somewhat. The method of writing which I have chose is a diffusive one, not pretending to a formal and stiff scholastic proof of every thing I say, which would be odious and irksome to the reader, as well as myself. The knowledge I have acquired in these matters, was from examining and studying their works; the proofs are deriv’d from distant and different topicks, and it would be very inconvenient to marshal them syllogistically in a work of this nature; the proof results from the intire work; in all matters of so great antiquity it must be found out by the reader; and to one that has proper sagacity and judgment, conviction will steal upon him insensibly, if I am not mistaken; and he will own the evidence in general, is as strong as the nature of the subject will bear, or requires.

It was very disagreeable to me that I was forc’d to combat against a book publish’d in the name of the celebrated Inigo Jones, for whose memory I have the greatest regard. I wonder the publisher of that work did not think of a very easy method to convince himself that he was in an error. If Stonehenge is a Roman work, it was certainly built by the Roman scale; had he reduc’d his own measures to that standard, he would have seen the absurdity of his opinion; for we cannot think that a temple, or elegant building, as he would have it, should not shew its founders by the scale on which it is form’d; they are all fractions in the Roman scale, undoubted evidence that the Romans had no hand in it. For there is no meaning, no design in the choice of the measures, neither in general nor particular; a thing unworthy of a great architect, or a great design. But it appears very evident to me, that Inigo Jones had little or no part in that work, especially as it is moulded at present; and I think I have reason to be of opinion that he never drew the designs therein published, because I should be unwilling to say he knowingly falsified them. I have very much shortened what I had to say against that book, because I have no love for wrangling, and barely mention’d what was necessary, that the reader may have a true notion of this noble antiquity.

P. 1. TAB. I.

Stukeley designavit

G.V.Gucht Sculpsit

A British Druid

CHAP. I.

Of the Situation of Stonehenge in general. That it was a temple of the Druids, of the patriarchal mode, who were a most ancient oriental colony. In later times, the Belgæ from the continent, conquer’d this country from them. Whence these stones were brought? Of their nature, magnitude, weight. Of the measure of the Druids, the ancient Hebrew cubit, and its proportion to the English foot.

THE Wiltshire downs, or Salisbury plain, (as commonly call’d) for extent and beauty, is, without controversy, one of the most delightful parts of Britain. But of late years great encroachments have been made upon it by the plough, which threatens the ruin of this fine champain, and of all the monuments of antiquity thereabouts. Monuments, we can scarce say, whether more wonderful in themselves, more observ’d, or less understood! among them, Stonehenge has been eminent from the remotest ages, tho’ ’tis not the greatest, most considerable, or most ancient. But ’tis my intent to begin my discourse from it, because the latest, and from thence proceed upwards in our inquiries, about the times and authors of these stupendous works, the temples of the Druids in our Island: for I cannot doubt that Stonehenge was such. The idea we conceive of the distance of time, when these kind of works were made, cannot be ill-form’d, if we consider, that the utmost accounts of ’em we have in writing, are from the Britons, the remains of the people who lived here, at the time of the Roman invasion. This is mention’d in some manuscripts of Ninnius before the Saxons and Danes came over. And the oldest Britons speak of this only by tradition, far above all memorial. They wonder’d at Stonehenge then, and were as far to seek about the founders and intent of it, as we now. They have recourse to magic, as is usual, when they would account for any thing seemingly so much above human power, to accomplish. They tell us, these stones of immense bulk were brought from a plain, in the middle of Ireland, and the like. Which reports give us only no obscure hint of their true authors, the Druids, who were fam’d for magic,2 and were driven last into Ireland, in the time of the Romans. There they built such like works again, or their brethren had built before; till Christianity, to which the greatest and purest part of their own doctrine was akin, soon put an end to their polity, which the Roman arms could not do. And they embrac’d that religion, to which their own opinions and rites had so direct a tendency. This is the sentiment of Origen on Ezekiel iv. And ’tis sufficiently evident, if we consider, that the first planters of Christianity in Ireland, immediately converted the whole island, without so much as the blood of one martyr. Nay, the Druids themselves, at that time the only national priests, embraced it readily, and some of them were very zealous preachers of it, and effectual converters of others. For instance, the great Columbanus himself was a Druid: the apostle of Ireland, Cornwall, &c. We need not be surpriz’d at this, when we assert, that there is very much reason to believe, these famous philosophic priests came hither, as a Phœnician colony, in the very earliest times, even as soon as Tyre was founded: during the life of the patriarch Abraham, or very soon after. Therefore they brought along with them the patriarchal religion, which was so extremely like Christianity, that in effect it differ’d from it only in this; they believed in a Messiah who was to come into the world, as we believe in him that is come. Further, they came from that very country where Abraham liv’d, his sons and grandsons; a family God almighty had separated from the gross of mankind, to stifle the seeds of idolatry; a mighty prince, and preacher of righteousness. And tho’ the memoirs of our Druids are extremely short, yet we can very evidently discover from them, that the Druids were of Abraham’s religion intirely, at least in the earliest times, and worshipp’d the supreme Being in the same manner as he did, and probably according to his example, or the example of his and their common ancestors.

All this I shall prove, in the pursuit of this work. But before we come to speculation, intend to give an exact description of their several temples, and the like works; for such will be a good foundation for us to build upon. That we may proceed from things evident and more known, to those less known, and which we design to make evident, as well as we are able, and the nature of it will permit. A matter so immers’d in the dark mist of time, where very few scatter’d traces remain, must needs bespeak the reader’s candor. The dignity of the subject will excuse my boldness in attempting one so difficult. And however I succeed in accounting for these wonderful works; at least, I shall be instrumental in preserving their memory, in giving just drawings of them.

Stonehenge, by the extravagant grandeur of the work, has attracted the eyes and admiration of all ages. After the reformation, upon the revival of learning among us, the curious began to consider it more intimately, I cannot say successfully. Mr. Camden rose as the sun of antiquity, that put out former lights, and, like Cæsar, affrights all that value a reputation, from attempting any thing in his way. His great skill in Roman learning, and our English history, only enabled him to be, as it were, silent on Stonehenge. He saw with excellent judgment, that neither Roman nor English had place there, or could serve to illustrate it. He writes modestly, as his manner was; “Of these things I am not able so much to give an accurate account, as mightily to grieve, that the founders of this noble monument cannot be trac’d out.” He could not persuade himself that either Romans, Saxons or Danes had any hand in it. And as for his representation of it in picture, I verily believe, it was drawn only from fancy or memory, or by some engraver from his oral description. A. D. 1620, king James I. being at the earl of Pembroke’s seat at Wilton, and agreeably surpriz’d with the sight of Stonehenge, consulted the famous architect Inigo Jones, upon it; thinking it a matter in his way. This great man, who deservedly may be stiled the English Vitruvius, gave his opinion of it, as a Roman work; and left, I suppose, some few indigested notes in writing there-upon. 3From which his son-in-law John Webb compos’d an intire treatise, endeavouring to prove it. But they that are acquainted with Roman architecture, or have consider’d Stonehenge, must needs be of a different opinion. And as my Lord Bishop of London well observes, in his notes on Camden, “it cannot be safe to close with Mr. Jones, tho’ his book otherwise be a learned and ingenious piece.” Inigo Jones lived 30 years after this, and yet Mr. Webb makes an apology for his work, “that if he had surviv’d to have done it, with his own hand, it would have been better.” But ’tis very reasonably believ’d, that tho’ Inigo Jones was an extraordinary genius in architecture, yet he wanted many qualifications for an author, especially in such a work as Stonehenge. ’Tis my opinion, that had his architectonic skill been united to Mr. Camden’s learning, he could never have demonstrated Stonehenge to be a Roman work. Afterwards, Dr. Charlton publish’d a piece against Webb’s performance, and certainly has said enough to overthrow it, tho’ he could not with equal success establish his own opinion, that it was the work of the Danes. Whereas Olaus Wormius finds no such monuments among the Gothic nations: which, as Mr. Toland observes, is answer sufficient to his allegation. Webb answer’d the Doctor’s book, and by turns effectually demolish’d his opinion, but could not still vindicate his own. Yet from all their disputations, no spark was struck, towards a discovery of the real truth. What is the worst part in both performances of Mr. Webb, his representation of the real monument in his drawings, is fictitious. And, as Mr. Aubry rightly observes, “in endeavouring to retrieve a piece of architecture in Vitruvius, he abuses the reader with a false representation of the whole.” It requires no great pains to prove this, nor need we take much time to be satisfy’d in it: the work is still extant. As soon as a judicious eye comes upon the spot, we discern that Webb’s equilateral triangles forming the cell are fancies: his three entrances across the ditch are so too; and that he has turn’d the cell a sixth part from its true situation, to favour his imaginary hypothesis. But ’tis against my inclination to find fault with the labours of others, nor do I thereby seek to bribe the reader in my own favour. I had a great pleasure for several years together, in viewing and examining these noble remains of our ancestors. What I wrote about them, was for my private amusement, and that of friends. And I publish them only for the honour of my country, and in hopes that such a publication will not be unserviceable to religion; which is my ultimate view.

Tab. XXXIV.The Belgæ came into Britain upon the south, as other Celtic nations before had fix’d themselves from the east, Kent, the Thames, &c. such as the Cantii, Segontiaci, Atrebates, &c. so that in Cæsar’s time, all the south and east parts of Britain were dispossess’d of their original inhabitants, and peopled from the continent: and this very work of Stonehenge was in the hands of the Belgæ, who built it not. In my itinerarium curiosum, p. 181. I observ’d no less than four successive boundary ditches here, from the southern shore; which with good reason, I suppos’d, were made by the Belgæ, as they conquer’d the country by degrees, from the aboriginal inhabitants. This shews, they must have been a long while about it, that the Britons disputed every inch of ground with them, and that for two reasons; as well because of the extraordinary beauty and goodness of the country, as fighting pro aris & focis for their great temple of Stonehenge: not to speak of that other greater temple, a little more northward, at Abury. The Segontiaci had got Hampshire, to the east of them, before, as far as the Colinburn river, and the Atrebates, Berkshire. The first ditch runs between the river of Blandford, formerly Alauna, and the river of Bere, the piddle in Dorsetshire, two or three miles south of it. The second runs to the north of Cranborn chase, upon the edge of Wiltshire, by Pentridg: it divides the counties of Dorset and Wilts. The third is conspicuous upon Salisbury plain, as we pass from Wilton to Stonehenge, about the two-mile stone, north of Wilton: it is drawn between the river Avon and the Willy, from Dornford to Newton. The fourth is the more famous Wansdike, of great extent. Gwahan in old British signifies separatio, distinctio guahanu seperare, and that undoubtedly gave name to the ditch. The method of all these ditches, is, to take the northern edge of a ridge of hills, which is always steep; the bank is on the south side. And in my itinerary, p. 134. I show’d a most evident demonstration, that it was made before the time of the Romans, in the passage of the Roman road down Runway hill. Tab. II.Wansdike is the last advanc’d post of the Belgæ northwards, and that it was 5made after Stonehenge was built, is plain, because the stones that compose the work, were brought from Marlborough downs in north Wiltshire, beyond the dike; and as then in an enemy’s country. And most probably it was built before the Belgæ set footing in Britain, because of the great number of barrows or sepulchral tumuli about it, which, no doubt, were made for the burial of kings and great men.

P. 4. TAB. III.

Stukeley delin.

Prospect of Stonehenge from the East.by Vespasians camp.

The stones of which Stonehenge is compos’d, beyond any controversy, came from those called the gray weathers, upon Marlborough downs near Abury; where is that other most wonderful work of this sort, which I shall describe in my next volume. This is 15 or 16 miles off. All the greater stones are of that sort, except the altar, which is of a still harder, as design’d to resist fire. The pyramidals likewise are of a different sort, and much harder than the rest, like those of that other Druid temple call’d the Weddings, at Stanton-drew in Somersetshire. Dr. Halley was at Stonehenge in the year 1720, and brought a piece of it to the Royal Society. I examin’d it with a microscope. ’Tis a composition of crystals of red, green and white colours, cemented together by nature’s art, with opake granules of flinty or stony matter. The Doctor observ’d from the general wear of the weather upon the stones, that the work must be of an extraordinary antiquity, and for ought he knew, 2 or 3000 years old. But had the Doctor been at Abury, which is made of the same stones, he might well from the like argumentation conclude, that work as old again as Stonehenge, at least much older, and I verily believe it. Nevertheless the current of so many ages has been more merciful to Stonehenge, than the insolence of rapacious hands, (besides the general saccage brought upon the work of old) by the unaccountable folly of mankind, in breaking pieces off with great hammers. This detestable practice arose from the silly notion of the stones being factitious. But, alas! it would be a greater wonder to make them by art, than to carry them 16 miles by art and strength; and those people must be inexcusable, that deface the monument for so trifling a fancy. Another argument of vulgar incogitancy, is, that all the wonder of the work consists, in the difficulty of counting the stones; and with that, the infinite numbers of daily visitants busy themselves. This seems to be the remains of superstition, and the notion of magic, not yet got out of peoples heads, since Druid-times. But indeed a serious view of this magnificent wonder, is apt to put a thinking and judicious person into a kind of ecstacy, when he views the struggle between art and nature, the grandeur of that art that hides itself, and seems unartful. For tho’ the contrivance that put this massy frame together, must have been exquisite, yet the founders endeavour’d to hide it, by the seeming rudeness of the work. The bulk of the constituent parts is so very great, that the mortaises and tenons must have been prepar’d to an extreme nicety, and, like the fabric of Solomon’s temple, every stone tally’d; and neither axes nor hammers were heard upon the whole structure. Nevertheless there is not a stone at Stonehenge, that felt not, more or less, both ax and hammer of the founders. Yet ’tis highly entertaining to consider the judicious carelesness therein, really the grand gusto, like a great master in drawing, secure of the effect: a true master-piece. Every thing proper, bold, astonishing. The lights and shades adapted with inconceivable justness. Notwithstanding the monstrous size of the work, and every part of it; ’tis far from appearing heavy: ’tis compos’d of several species of work, and the proportions of the dissimilar parts recommend the whole, and it pleases like a magical spell. No one thinks any part of it too great or too little, too high or too low. And we that can only view it in its ruins, the less regret those ruins, that, if possible, add to its solemn majesty.