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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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