"In the Southernmost circle was a central Pillar, in the Northern one that immense work which the Hebrews or Phenicians called

Kobhe, and

from them the Old Britons, a cove, consisting of three stones placed, with an obtuse angle towards each other, and, as it were, upon the arc of a circle, like the great half-round at the east end of some cathedrals; it was the adytum of this temple, and the kybla thereof, opening North East: this cove extended twenty cubits in a right line, or cord of the arc, and was ten cubits in depth, measured from this

right line; the middle stone of the cove was nine cubits high, and as many broad, that is, about fifteen feet and a half square, and two cubits and a half, or four feet thick. In 1720 both circles were standing, and almost entire; about that time several stones of the Southern temple circle were destroyed, but fourteen were left when the Doctor made his survey, about half of which were standing; the central pillar of the South circle was twelve cubits, or twenty one feet long, and five cubits, nine feet, in diameter, being circular at the base.

"Such was the colossal grandeur of the principal part of this symbolical structure, the magnificence of which must have been wonderfully augmented by the serpentine avenues, or sacræ viæ, extending over hill and dale, for the space of a mile on each hand. In 1722 the number of stones remaining in the Kennet avenue were seventy two. '

The first time I visited this place, which was about the year 1808, I was delighted in passing through a portion of this avenue that contained fifteen or twenty rude stones on each side, and presented a most gratifying specimen of this part of the structure; many of the stones were much corroded by the weather, but there were holes in the sides of some of them that appeared to be cut in the stone at first, and intended as basons; their being thus in the road to the temple, reminded me of the Psalmist's address to the Almighty, "I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I approach thine Altar.

Many instances occur which lead one to believe that the worship of the Canaanite and Phenician idolators differed more in the object of their worship than than in the manner of it, which being derived from the same source, naturally retained some semblance of each other.

I have no language adequate to expressing my painful disappointment and chagrin, when, in revisiting this place about two years ago, I saw nothing but a few straggling stones on one side of the former avenue, with not a single vestige of those that composed the other side; to have had one sight of the last portion of this noble vista was, however, some alleviation of the mortification I felt at that time, as well as on a more recent visit to these interesting remains of primeval Britain.

Several circumstances seem to have concurred in determining the founders of Abury in their choice of this spot for the erection of their temple, and encouraged them to stretch out their design to so vast an extent. The place is almost surrounded with hills, so as to give it a large portion of that solemnity which results from silence and seclusion: on these hills, and in a valley at no great distance, are numerous masses of stone of enormous magnitude, some of them are close to the Bath Road, and are known to travellers by the name of the Marlborough Gray Weathers, having much "the semblance of a flock at rest;" another circumstance of no minor importance was the existence of a fine spring of water very near. Magnificent in itself, and situated amidst scenes of natural sublimity, this amazing structure, when entire, must have had a powerful effect on the minds of the ignorant and superstitious Britons; in aid of which, ceremonies of an august and imposing nature would not be wanting. The philosophic traveller feels the propriety of their choice, the moment he quits the highway and enters the calm and placid vale, which contains the few fragments of this once mighty structure.

Very inferior in the magnitude of its masses, and in the extent of its Ground Plan, but more complex and artificial in its structure is STONEHENGE, a vestige of British antiquity much better known than the last, because more obvious to the eye of the traveller, being very near several roads that cross that part of Salisbury Plain on which it stands.

Ε

We are again indebted to the indefatigable Stukely for the plan and dimensions of this celebrated British work. For the Ground Plan and ruins of Stonehenge, see the Drawings 18 and 19.

The ruins of this temple are on a slight elevation of the Plain, about two miles Westward of Ambresbury: it consisted of one circle of vast stones, sixty cubits in diameter, within this was a concentric circle of smaller stones, leaving a noble circular promenade of three yards wide, and a circumference of more than one hundred yards; within this second circle, at a still greater distance, was an ellipsis, formed of five Trilithons, that is, a pair of uprights and a cross stone at top: the uprights of these were from seventeen to eighteen feet and a half high, the middle trilithon, or that farthest from the eye, being the highest. Within the ellipsis, leaving a moderate space between it and the trilithons, was a concentric ellipsis of single stones or pillars, about half as high as the trilithons: the pillars forming the concentric circle were also half the height of the colonnade which enclosed it: the external uprights were bound together by a circular coping, or corona, of heavy stones, well fastened together by mortices and tenons: within the adytum, and facing the entrance, was a large stone of hard blue marble, sixteen feet long, four broad, and twenty inches thick. At the distance of sixty cubits from the outer circle was a trench, thirty cubits in width, so that the whole diameter of the temple, from the outside of the trench on one side to the opposite exterior of the trench, was two hundred and forty cubits. The outer trench or boundary, with which these structures were frequently surrounded, seems to have been an imitation of what Moses did at Sinai, by the divine command, and possibly repeated on other occasions, and probably for the same purpose, viz, that of limiting the people's approach to these consecrated places the command to Moses was, "set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it, "

The following detail of the stones which composed this work is from Dr. Stukely.

There seems to have been another stone by the

the Vallum, opposite to the entrance

the}

1

The characteristic of all these temples is a Pillar at a distance, as at Stonehenge, Roll-Right, &c. or, in the centre, as at Abury and other places.

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