Stonehenge. [From the same.] I HAVE now, with considerable labour, (says Mr. Davies,) and, to the best of my abilities, with accuracy and fidelity, translated and explained the Gododin of Aneurin, that the reader, having the whole work under his eye, may draw his own conclusion from it: and this, if I mistake not, must amount to a conviction, that the great catastrophe which the Bard deplores, was no other than that historical event, the massacre of the British nobles by the Saxon king, in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge; and, consequently, that the magnificent temple, or sanctuary, so often introduced, was that identical structure.

From hence it must follow, that this pile could not have been erected, as fable has sometimes reported, in commemoration of the massacre; but that, on the contrary, it was a monument of venerable antiquity in the days of Hengist; and that its peculiar sanctity influenced the selection of that spot for the place of conference between the British and Saxon princes. It is equally clear, that the sacred building did not receive its name, Gwalth Emrys, from Emrys, or Ambrosius, a prince who fought with Hengist: but that, on the other hand, it communicated to him its own name, as he was the president and defender of the Ambrosial stones.

That this ancient structure was sacred to the Druidical superstition, is fully evident, from the language in which it was described, and the great veneration in which it was held by the primitive Bards, those immediate descendants, and avowed disciples of the British Druids.

As the "great sanctuary of the dominion," or metropolitan temple of our heathen ancestors, so complex in its plan, and con. structed upon such a multitude of astronomical calculations, we find it was not exclusively dedicated to the Sun, the Moon, Saturn, or any other individual object of super. stition; but it was a kind of pan. theon, in which all the Arkite and Sabian divinities, of British theology, were supposed to have been present: for here we perceive Noe and Hu, the deified patriarch; Elphin and Rheiddin, the Soo; Eseye, Isis; Kêd, Ceres, with the cell of her sacred fire; Llywy, Proserpine; Gwydien, Hermes; Budd, Victory, and several others.

We learn from the Gododin, that the conference with Hengist, and the fatal banquet, took place upon the Ystre, or Cursus, which is stili discernible, at the distance of half a mile north from the tem. plc. Here, we are told, some temporary buildings of rudely. hewn timber were erected, for the accommodation of the assembly.

It is easy to account for the choice of this spot, in an age of that gross superstition, which over. spread our country in the fifth century. The Celta of Gaul and Britain, during their Pagan state, were, for the most part, governed by their priests, whose custom it was to assemble, at a certain season, to deliberate upon the greatest civil questions, in loco consecrato, or within the verge of their sanctuaries. And as this particular sanctuary of Stonehenge had beeu esteemed pre-eminently sacred before the coming of the Romans, and whilst the Britons were an independent nation, so,

at

at the departure of those foreigners, it had recovered its ancient re putation amongst a people, who were still pertinaciously attached to their national usages and super stitions. And May was the season appointed for the meeting, because it was the solemn anniversary of the British mysteries.

To most readers it must appear singular, that in an age when Bri tain was nominally christian, the Bards should speak with veneration of a heathen temple, in which heathen rites were still celebrated : the fact, however, is recorded against them in their own compositions. It may, indeed, be urged as an excuse for our present au. thor, that he describes the ancient, rather than the actual solemnities of the place; and that during the great Bardic festival, some ancient rites may have been admitted, which were not, at that time, in general establishment: but I do not mean to be his apologist. What ever Aneurin might have called himself, it is evident, from the warmth of his language, when speaking of those mystical charac. ters, Hu, Kêd, Llywy, and the rest, that they were objects of ve neration to him; and so, I am persuaded, they were to the body of the British nation, whose profession of Christianity was сег. tainly very imperfect.

The Bards were generally their priests; and these, as it appears from their own works, were deter. mined bigots to the ancient super. stition. Many of the populace of this age were also disciples of Pelagius, whose great aim it was to blend the heterogeneous tissue of Druidism with a few shreds of

Christianity. Could a people, who had profited so little by the light of the gospel, complain of the act of Providence, in depriving them of. their dominion and their country?

Ancient British Coins. [From the same.]

THE old Britons, as their owu writings testify against them, in an age of the greatest public calamity, and after the gospel had been published in their land, neglected the worship of the true God, and sought protection from heathenish rites, charms, and incantations. These vanities deceived them; their crimes were justly punished, and they lost thesr political existence.

As to the nature of the charms

to which they had recourse, I have shewn, from Thaliessin, that they had certain magical figures of horses impressed upon small pieces of gold and silver, which were delivered to the deluded people, as pledges of supernatural assistance; that these figures were sacred to the gods of heathenism. were deemed efficacious for the defence of the country, and were precisely of the same form, as the monsters which we find upon the ancient British coins.

To this I have added Aneurin's account of a talisman, for the protection of the patriotic warrior, and the destruction of the foe. This talisman had those very symbols which we discover on the coins, and they were so adjusted, as to constitute the figure of a horse, of the same monstrous form which the coins exhibit, and with the 3 II 4

same

same accompaniments. This talis. man was impressed upon gold; many duplicates of it were provided, and it was emphatically styled the talisman of Cunobeline. Its preparation was deemed the highest effort of British magic; it was the shield of the solemn festi. val, sacred to the Arkite god and goddess, whose names and attri. butes appear upon the coins; and it was given to the warriors as a certain pledge, that these divinities would attend them in their enterprize.

If all this will not produce conviction, that many of the British eoins, published by our antiquaries, are the identical talismans intended by our Bardic magi, I have nothing more to urge. Yet I trust, how. ever this may be determined, that the candid critic will acquit me of having taken up the idea upon slight or improbable grounds, and that he will acknowledge, that the Britons ascribed supernatural vir. tues to some trinkets, of similar device.

But whilst I leave the original use and application of these coins to the judgment of the public, I must déclare my own conviction, that the symbols and inscriptions which I have remarked, agree so minutely with the lore of the Bards and Triads, that is evident our writers and engravers had precisely the same system in view. And this unity of design gives the strongest support to the credit of our national monuments.

The fabrication of the coins cannot be stigmatized as a modern device for the purpose of elucidating the Bards; nor will the judicious eritic assert, that the works of the

Bards are recent forgeries, with a view to the explanation of the coins. Both the one and the other have remained inexplicable for ages; but, in my opinion, they may now be regarded as consistent, not only amongst themselves, but also, allowing for local peculiari. ties, with the most ancient and general system of mythology, de. veloped by two of the first antiquaries of our age.

The Bards, the mythological Triads, and the coins, are there. fore proved by mutual evidence, in which there can be no collusion, to be genuine monuments of the heathenish superstition of Britain.

And they unite in their testimony, that this superstition, notwithstanding the singularity of a few minuter features, could boast of no great and fundamental prin. ciple, which was appropriate to itself. Like the general error of other nations, it consisted of certain memorials of the preserva. tion of mankind at the deluge, and some perverted reliques of the patriarchial religion, blended with an idolatrous worship of the host of heaven.