Part 1

_STONEHENGE_

A

T E M P L E

R E S T O R’D

TO THE

►British D R U I D S◄.

By _WILLIAM STUKELEY_, M. D. Rector of _All Saints_ in S T A M F O R D.

————_Deus est qui non mutatur in ævo._ MANILIUS.

_L O N D O N_:

Printed for W. INNYS and R. MANBY, at the West End of St. _Paul_’s.

MDCCXL.

To His G R A C E

P E R E G R I N E

Duke of _Ancaster_ and _Kesteven_,

Hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of ENGLAND, _&c. &c._

_May it please your_ GRACE,

To accept of this attempt to illustrate one of the noblest antiquities now left upon earth. I am confident your Grace will not dislike it, either because it is a religious antiquity, or because it belongs to our own country.

Your Grace best shews your regard to religion, by a constant attendance on its duties, in the service of the church; and by a regular practice of its precepts, in their whole extent. And as you are justly sensible, the foundation of religion rests on a careful observance of the sabbath: you not only study to encourage it, by your own great example; but likewise discountenance, that too fashionable custom of travelling on Sundays, and other profanations thereof: which are the sure root of national corruption, the sure presage of national ruin.

Nor are your Grace’s virtues more conspicuous, in your religious and moral character, than in the love of your country. This you inherit with the blood that runs in your veins; this you derive from an immemorial series of noble ancestors, renowned in our annals, for their steady allegiance to the sovereign power; for their vigor in support of the constitution both in church and state; that have often hazarded and ruined their fortunes, and poured out their blood, in its defence. I might instance particularly, the great part they bore in the Reformation, the Restoration and the Revolution.

After the honour I have enjoyed of having been long known to your Grace: I could enlarge upon the amiable qualities of your private life, your domestic and social virtues, your humane and beneficent disposition to all around you, friends or dependants, or those of your own family. With truth I might say, that you never refused to serve any person that applied to you, where it was in your power: that you never knowingly did an unkind, an injurious thing to any person: that no one ever withdrew griev’d from your presence. I can safely affirm, and fear no contradiction, that justice, honour and honesty are some of the real jewels, that adorn your Grace’s coronet. And they, at this time of day, receive a seasonable lustre, from your high station, and illustrious birth.

But the agreableness of the subject insensibly drew me from my main purpose, which was to make this publick acknowledgment, of the great favours your Grace has confer’d upon me: and to beg leave to profess myself,

_May it please your_ GRACE,

_Your_ GRACE’S _most humble_,

_And most devoted servant_,

_Jan. 1. 1739–40._

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 C H R I S T I A N I T Y: O R, A Chronological H I S T O R Y O F T H E Origin 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._

_S T O N E H E N G E_

A W O R K of the

►British Druids◄

D E S C R I B’D.

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, 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. From 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.