we may judge what a ftupendous labour it muit have been to bring together, from fo great a diftance, fuch a number of thefe ftones as were used here; and this has induced fome perfons to imagine that the founders had an art of making ftone, which has been many ages lost.

The prefent name is Saxon, though the work is certainly much more ancient than the Saxon times, and fignifies a hanging-ftone, from the hanging parts, architraves, or rather impofts; as the pendulous rocks ftill to be feen in Yorkshire, are called Henges; but the ancient name, Dr. Stukely cenjectures to have been the Ambres, and hence the adjacent town Ambrefbury takes its name.

Stonehenge ftands not upon the fummit of a hill, but near it; however at half a mile diftance, the appearance is awful; but as you come up the avenue in the north-east of it, which fide is moft perfect, the greatness of the contour fills the eye in an aflonishing manner. It is enclofed in a circular ditch, which having paffed, we afcend thirtyfive yards before we come at the

work.

vock below, you fee, as it were, the bowels of a mountain turned infide out.

The whole work, being of a circular form, is about one hundred and eight feet in diameter from out to out. The intention of the founders was probably this: the whole circle was to confift of thirty ftones; each ftone to be four cubits, of about twenty inches English measure each, broad, and each interval two cubits; thirty times four cubits is twice fixty; thirty times two cubits is fixty; fo that thrice fixty cubits complete a circle whofe diameter is fixty. A ftone being four cubits broad and two thick, is double the interval, which is a fquare of two cubits. Change the places between the stones and their intervals, and it will be a good ground-plot for a circular portico of Greek or Roman work; though these bodies of stone, which are in the nature of impofts or cornices, never had, or were intended to have, any moulding upon them like Greek or Roman work; they are wrought perfectly plain, and fuitable to the ftones that fupport them; and the chiffeling of the upright ftones is only aboveground; for the four or five feet in length below ground is left in the original natural form. The upright ftones are made very judiciously to diminish a little way; fo that at top they are but three cubits and a half broad, and fo much nearer, as to fuffer their impofts to meet a little over the heads of the aprights, both within fide and without; by which means the uprights are lefs liable to fall or fwerve.

When you enter the building, whether on foot or horseback, and caft your eyes around upon the yawning ruins, the effect they produce on the mind is not to be defcribed. Other buildings fall by piece-meal, but here a fingle ftone is a ruin. Yet there remains fo much undemolished, as enables us fufficiently to recover its form, when in its most perfect state. When we advance farther, the dark parts It is to be feared, fome indifcreet of the moft ponderous impofts over perfons have been digging about our heads, the chalms of sky between the great entrance, with ridiculous the jambs of the cell, the odd con- hopes of finding treasure, and fo ftruction of the whole, and great- have loofened the chalky foundation; nefs of every part, furprife. If for the upper edge of the impost you look upon the perfect part, you overhangs no less than two feet fancy intire quarries mounted up feven inches, which is very confideinto the air; if, upon the rude ha-rable in an height of eighteen. The

whole

whole breadth at the foundation is I had any impofts, it is fomewhat more

but two feet and a half: and this noble front is now chiefly kept up by the masonry of the mortice, and tenon of the impofts.

than eight feet from the infide of the outer one, and confifts of forty leffer ftones, forming with the outward circles, as it were, a circular porti co, a most beautiful work, and of a pretty effect; they are flat parallelograms, as thofe of the outward circle, and their general and defigned proportion is two cubits, or two and a half, as fuitable ftones were found. They are a cubit thick, and four and a half high, which is more than feven feet; this was their stated proportion, being every way the half of the upper uprights. Thefe ftones are of a harder

The contrivance of the founders in making mortices and tenons between the upright ftones and the impofts, is admirable; but fo contrary to any practice of the Romans, that it alone overfets their claim to the work. Thefe tenons and mortices of this outer circle are round, and fit one another very aptly. They are ten inches and one half in diameter, and resemble half an egg, rather an hemisphere; and fo effectually keep both up-compofition than the reft, the better rights and impofts from luxation, that they must have been thrown down with great difficulty and labour. The whole height of upright and impoft is ten cubits and a half; the upright nine: the impoft over the grand entrance is, in its middle length, eleven feet ten inches, and fo is larger than the reft; and it is alfo a little broader, measuring on the infide.

Of the outer circle of Stonehenge, which in its perfection confifted of kxty ftones, thirty uprights, and thirty impofts, there are feventeen uprights left ftanding, eleven of which remain contiguous to the grand entrance, with five impotts upon them. One upright at the back of the temple, leans upon a ftone of the inner circle. There are fix more lying upon the ground, whole or in pieces; fo that twentyfour out of thirty are fill visible at the place. There is but one impoft more in its proper place, and but two lying upon the ground; fo that twenty-two have been carried off. Hence Dr. Stukely infers this temple was not defaced when chriftia nity prevailed; but that fome rude hands carried the ftones away for other ufes. So much for the larger circle of tones with impofts.

As to the leffer circle, which never

to refift violence as they are lesser ; and they have fufficient faftenings in the ground. There are but nineteen of the forty left; and only ten of them are ftanding in their original fituation; five in one place con tiguous, three in another, two in another.

The walk between these two cir cles, which is three hundred feet in circumference, is very noble, and very delightful.

The adytum, or cell, into which we may fuppofe none but the upper order of druids were to enter, is com pofed of certain compages of ftones, which our author calls trilithons, because made each of two upright ftones, with an impoft at top, and there are manifeftly five of thefe remaining, three of which are entire, two are ruined, in fome meafure; but the ftones remain in fitu. It is a magnificent niche, twenty-feven cubits long, and the fame in breadth, measuring in the widest place. The ftones that compofe it are really ftupendous; their height, breadth, and thickness, are enormous: and to fee fo many of them placed together, in a nice and critical figure, with exactness; to confider, as it were, not a pillar of one ftone, but a whole wall, a fide, an end of a temple of one itone; to view them curiously

curiously, excites an emotion in the | the weather. Our author took a

mind which words cannot exprefs. One very remarkable particular in the conftitution of this adytum has efcaped all obfervers before our author, which is this: As this part is compofed of trilithons fet two and two on each fide, and one right before, they rife in height and beauty of the ftones, from the lower end of the adytum to the upper end; that is, the two hithermoft trilithons correfponding, or thofe next the grand entrance, on the right hand and on the left, are exceeded in height by the two next in order; and thofe are exceeded by that behind the altar, in the upper end of this choir; and their heights, refpectively, are thirteen cubits, fourteen cubits, fifteen cubits.

walk on the top of it, but thought it a frightful fituation. The trilithon of the upper end was an extraordinary beauty; but probably through the indifcretion of fomebo, dy digging between them and the altar, the noble impoft is dislodged from its airy feat, and fallen upon the altar, where its huge bulk lies unfractured. The two uprights that fupported it, are the most delicate tones of the whole work. They were, our author thinks, above thirty feet long, and well chiffeled, finely tapered, and proportioned in their dimenfions, That fouthward, is broken in two, lying upon the altar: the other ftill ftands entire, but leans upon one of the ftones of the inward oval; the root end, or unhewn part of both, is raised fomewhat above the ground, The trilithon towards the weft is entire, except that fome of the end of the impoft is fallen elean off, and all the upper edge is very much diminifhed by time. The laft trilithon on the right hand of the entrance into the adytum has fuffered much. The outer upright, being the jamb of the entrance, is ftill ftanding; the other upright and impoft are both fallen forwards into the adytum, and broken each into three pieces, as fuppofed, from digging near it. That which is ftanding has a cavi ty in it, in which two or three perfons may fit warm from the weather.

The impofts of these are all of the fame height, and ten cubits may be fuppofed their medium meafure in length. The artifice of the tenons and mortices of thefe trilithons, and their impofts, the conformity they bear to that of the outer circle, is admirable, every thing being done geometrically, and as would beft anfwer every purpose, from plain and fimple principles; and it is wonderful that, in the management of fuch prodigious ftones as thefe, fixed in the ground, and rammed in like pofts, there is not more variation in the height, diftance, and other circumstances.

Of these greater ftones of the adytum, as has been before obferved, there are none wanting, being all on the spot, ten uprights and five cornices. The trilithon firft on the left hand is intire, in fitu, but vaftly decayed, efpecially the cornice, in which fuch deep holes are corroded, that in fome places the daws make their nefts in them. The next trilithon on the left is intire, compofed of three moft beautiful tones. The cornice, happening to to be of a very durable English martle, has not been much impaired by

Stonehenge is compofed of two circles, and two ovals, respectively concentrive. The flones that form thefe ovals rife in height, as nearer the upper end of the adytum; and their mediate measure is four cubits and four palms. They are of a much harder kind than the larger ftones in the leffer circle; the founders, no doubt, intending that their leffer bulk fhould be compenfated by their folidity. Of these there are only fix remaining upright; the

ftumps