Gents Mag 1843 part 2 p.364
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Gentleman's Magazine 1843 part 2 p.364
very ancient times for man or for wild beasts, as it once exhibited the resemblance of a large cavern. This may have been a Druidical asylum, as it formerly was covered with oaks, of which immense roots are continually brought to light in every direction. As this interesting district is contiguous to my own summer residence, I hope at some future day to have it in my power to bring to light some further evidence of Druidical occupancy, especially in that part of the district called Weystone Edge. In this part of the country there are still standing many rocks of various shapes and sizes, such as may once have formed a circular temple, and call for a more patient examination than from their remote situation they have hitherto received. It has been mentioned in the earliest records under the name of Booth Dean. The mosses hereabout, when cut into for fuel, exhibit in great abundance the fragments of trees, which makes it probable that it was once woody. Tacitus in his Annals mentions a grove in Germany which bore the name of Baduhenna, and it may be that the etymology of both names is the same, meaning a temple of Diana.The monosyllable both or booth corresponds in some degree with the Hebrew beth - a prefix often used in Scripture to signify a temple. The Brimham rocks of this county were probably dedicated to the god Rimmon, under the title of Beth Rimmon, corrupted into Brimham. The circular temples of Abury and Stonehenge are known to all. I shall not therefore say more than that they appear to be of Phoenician origin - that the adytums or interior circles of both these grand but rude remains of British magnificence bear such an analogy to the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple, as to induce a belief that they were formed subsequently to the temple of Jerusalem, which was built about a thousand years before Christ by Solomon, who applied to Hiram King of Tyre for assistance in building the temple. It seems probable, therefore, that the same country that supplied workmen to build the one, suggested the construction of the other. There was this difference however, one was dedicated to Jehovah, the only true God, the other to the worship of Canaanitish idols. I have already in former papers described the character of the ancient British mythology. At Abury and Stonehenge the priests and people met at stated periods to try the causes that were brought before them, and to sacrifice to the sun and moon, under the title of Baal and Bealta, or Moloch. This double object was exactly in unison with the patriarchal custom. One observation more I will make, that, however rude and desolate be their appearance at the present day, we have no proof they were so when used for places of worship. They might have been plastered or magnificently ornamented. The Druidical stones were whole stones, like those stones of memorial recorded in Scripture. The Egyptians, we know, were in the earliest ages addicted to the idolatrous custom of engraving allegorical emblems, and may it not have been one motive for the strict command of Moses to the Israelites, who lived so long in Egypt, when he forbad that the stones should be worked or engraved, to prevent them from adopting the example of the Egyptians? Nor do we find the Israelites, though guilty of idoleatry in repeated instances, ever accused of imitating the hieroglyphical models of the Egyptians. The ordering of them to be covered with plaster may perhaps have been designed to prevent this practice, which led to such degrading superstitions in other countries. I might enumerate other circular temples in Ireland, in Anglesey, and Cornwall, all tending to shew that the form of a circle was most usually adopted in the temples of the first inhabitants of these islands. It is to be lamented that so few documents exist from which we may learn the period when the light of Christianity first dawned on this island, though we have reason to believe, as I have shewn in a former paper, that Christian missionaries visited this country at least as early as the second century. Some have asserted that it was planted by St. Paul himself, under the auspices of the family of Caractacus. "It is a remarkable and interesting fact," says a distinguished prelate,* "that the detention of the British hostages should have been coincident |
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* Bp. Burgess' Sermon, 1812.
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