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An expedition to Saddleback affords a good opportunity for
visiting the Druids' Temple, a mile and a-half from Keswick.
This very well-preserved memorial of antiquity stands in a
field, near the entrance of St. John's Vale. The stones,
forty-eight in number, form an oval; and there is a
peculiarity in this case which distinguishes it from all
other Druidical monuments extant in England. On the eastern
side, within the circle, there is a small recess formed by
ten stones, making an oblong square. As Southey observed,
the spot is the most commanding that could be chosen, short
of a mountain side; and it is indeed nearly surrounded by
mountains, which it recognises in their true forms, from the
levels,- with the exception of the plain towards Penrith,-
being sunk out of view. The old legend about the last human
sacrifice of the Druids may belong to any of the monuments
of that age in the district; and it is probably claimed for
them all. According to that old story; when some people
settled in a clearing of the woods, beside a river,
somewhere to the south of the district, the priests took up
their station further north, among the mountains, where
there were plenty of stones fit and ready for their temple.
After a time, a fever laid waste the lower
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