Right Honourable, IN a family that has been in all ages remarkably the friend of the muses, I think myself happy, that I have a particular claim. To You, my Lord, this dedication is devolv’d by hereditary right. Through Your father’s auspices and encouragement, I began and continued the work. He was ever pleas’d to look upon my mean performances with a favourable eye; and to assist me out of the inexhaustible fund of his own knowledge, in all kinds of ancient learning; and promised to patronize

HISTORY is political wisdom, philosophy is religious. The one consists in the knowledge of memorable things, and application of that knowledge to the good conduct of life: in embracing the good, and avoiding the ill consequences and examples of actions. So the other teaches us to entertain worthy notions of the supreme being, and the studying to obtain his favour: which is the end of all human and divine wisdom. Religion is the means to arrive at this purpose. In order to be satisfied what is tr

THE writers on antiquities generally find more difficulty, in so handling the matter, as to render it agreeable to the reader, than in most other subjects. Tediousness in any thing is a fault, more so in this than other sciences. ’Tis an offence, if either we spend much time in a too minute description of things, or enter upon formal and argumentative proofs, more than the nature of such accounts will well bear. Nevertheless the dignity of the knowledge of antiquities, will always insure a suffi

I shall begin with Rowlright or rather Rowldrich , and as a specimen of what requisites are sought for in these enquiries, I shall draw them up in a kind of order: which may be useful in all researches of this sort. 1. A situation on high ground, open heaths, by heads of rivers. ROWLDRICH is a temple of the Druids of the first kind, a circular work which has been often taken notice of in print, lying in the north-west part of Oxfordshire : upon high ground, where the counties of Oxford , Warwick

WHEN we contemplate the elegance of this country of Wiltshire , and the great works of antiquity therein, we may be persuaded, that the two atlantic islands, and the islands of the blessed, which Plato and other ancient writers mention, were those in reality of Britain and Ireland . They who first took possession of this country, thought it worthy of their care, and built those noble works therein, which have been the admiration of all ages. Stonehenge we have endeavoured to describe; and we are

THE situation of Abury is finely chose for the purpose it was destin’d to, being the more elevated part of a plain, from whence there is an almost imperceptible descent every way. But as the religious work in Abury , tho’ great in itself, is but a part of the whole, (the avenues stretching above a mile from it each way,) the situation of the intire design is likewise projected with great judgment, in a kind of large, separate plain, four or five miles in diameter. Into this you descend on all si

THE great circle of stones last described, together with the ditch and rampart inclosing all, may be esteemed as the præcinctus of the temple, not properly the temple; but including the area thereof. There are strictly within this great compass, two temples, of like form and dimensions: each temple consists of two concentric circles. The line that connects their centers, runs from north-west to south-east: which line passes thro’ the center of the whole area. The outer circles of them consist ea

SEVERAL Roman coins have from time to time been found here, and in the neighbouring fields. A mile off goes the roman way, which I have described in my Itinerary , p. 132. call’d Via Badonica , being the way from London to Bath . It comes from Marlborough Cunetio , crosses the Hakpen-hill by Overton-hill , quite over the neck of the snake belonging to our temple, goes close by Silbury-hill , thro’ Bekamton-fields ; then, a little southward of the tail of the snake, ascends Runway-hill , up the h

THE Druids, by throwing outwards the earth dug out of the huge circular ditch environing the town, demonstrated to all comers at first sight, that this was a place of religion, not a camp or castle of defence. They prevented its ever being us’d as such, which must have ruin’d their sacred design. Moreover it adds to the solemnity of the place; it gives an opportunity for a greater number of people to assist at the offices of religion. This further great convenience attends the disposition of dit

AFTER I had carefully laid down the plan of Kennet avenue, and not understanding the full purport of it; in the year 1722, I found out this other, extending itself above a mile from the town of Abury , by another direction. It goes toward the village of Bekamton , therefore I call it Bekamton avenue. ’Tis really the hinderpart of the hieroglyphic snake, which the Druids meant here to picture out, in this most portentous size. The former avenue goes out of Abury town at the south-east point; this

SO many ages as Abury was the great cathedral, the chief metropolitical or patriarchal temple of the island, no wonder there are an infinite number of these barrows about it. Great princes, and men within a considerable tract of country round here, would naturally choose to leave their mortal remains in this sacred ground, more peculiarly under the divine regard. Every hill-top within view of the place is sure to be crowned with them. As at Stonehenge , so here, there are great varieties of them

THERE is still another of these long archdruids’ tumuli at Abury , which leads me to describe a kind of ancient monuments which I meet with here, and near Stonehenge and elsewhere; which I take to be houses of the Druids, or their courts of judicature, or both. The principal of them here, is a remarkable thing, upon the Hakpen-hill east of Abury , near a mile, between it and Rockley . That part of the downs thereabouts is called Temple-downs , and the thing is called old Chapel . Lord Winchelsea

IN my description of Abury , and its parts, I endeavour’d to make every thing as plain as I could from fact and view; but now we come to our speculative part, I can only propose to entertain, perhaps, the reader’s curiosity, with what light I could gather from ancient learning concerning it. We have seen by our description, that the plan on which Abury is built, is that sacred hierogram of the Egyptians , and other ancient nations, the circle and snake. The whole figure is the circle, snake, and

ZOroaster Magus, in Euseb. p. e. II. 7. Plato , Porphyry , and others of the old philosophers, define God to be every where and no where, who fills all space, and is contain’d in none; “from whom came all things that are, and which are not yet; eternal, immutable, omnipresent, incomprehensible, immaterial, without parts, beginning or end.” If we put this definition into a geometrical figure, in order to form a symbol, we cannot possibly do it better than by describing the circle. A circle then i

NOT much later in time than Phut , lived that other celebrated hero of antiquity, the Egyptian , Phœnician , Tyrian Hercules ; whom I take to be a principal planter of Britain . He was of Phœnician extract, born in Egypt and king there, founder of Tyre , and the most famous navigator: the first that pass’d thro’ the Mediterranean , and ventur’d into the great Ocean . I have wrote his history copiously, from which I must recite some deductions only, useful to our present purpose. Hercules call’d

NONE more famous in Grecian history than Cadmus , who brought them the use of those letters that convey’d their history to us, and preserv’d the little knowledge we can chiefly have of profane antiquity. He was son of Agenor , by which word the Greeks chose to pronounce the difficult one of Canaan . Alexander Polyhistor cites out of Eupolemus ; “from Saturn (who is Cham ) came Belus and Canaan , and Canaan begat the father of the Phœnicians , or Phœnix . Eusebius, pr. ev. 9 has it too. Again, Eu

I  HAVE given the reader an account of three eminent builders of these Dracontia , or serpentine temples, in the earliest times after the flood, and in the more eastern parts of the world; as well as described one of those works in our island. There are many more such builders and buildings, which will be easily found out by those that are conversant in ancient learning. This figure of the circle and snake, on which they are founded, had obtained a very venerable regard, in being expressive of t

WHEN I wrote my Itinerary , I travelled a good deal of the Hermen-street road, and the Foss road, having Mr. Samuel Buck in my company. At that time I engag’d him to take in hand the work, which he has so laudably pursued, and sav’d the remembrance of innumerable antiquities in our island, by that collection of elegant prints which he has publish’d. When we were on the banks of the Humber , the name of Barrow invited my curiosity, and it was fully answer’d, by finding that most noble antiquity t