Page images
PDF
EPUB

to the west of Ambresbury, is certainly more artificial in its structure than Abury, and its construction may therefore be safely referred to a later date. Fig. 5. is a restored plan of this wonder of the west, as it may well be called. The larger circle is 105 feet in diameter, and between it and the interior smaller circle is a space of about 9 feet. Within this smaller circle, which is half the height (8 feet) of the exterior one, was a portion of an ellipsis formed by 5 groups of stones, to which Dr. Stukely has given the name of trilithons, because formed by two vertical and one horizontal stone: the former are from 17 to 184 feet high, the middle trilithon being the highest. Within this elipsis is another of single stones, half the height of the trilithons. The outer circle was crowned with a course of stones similar to an architrave or epistylium, the stones whereof were let into or joggled with one another by means of egg-shaped tenons formed out of the vertical blocks. The ellipsis was connected in a similar manner. Within the inner elliptical enclosure was a block 16 ft. long, 4 ft. broad, and 20 in. thick. This has usually been called the altar stone. Round the larger circle, at the distance of 100 ft., a vallum was formed about 52 ft. in width, so that the external dimension of the work was a diameter of 420 ft. The vallum surrounding these sacred places seems to have been borrowed by the Canaanites in imitation of the enclosure with which Moses surrounded Mount Sinai, in order to prevent the multitude from approaching too near the sacred mysteries. The number of stones composing this monument is variously given. In the subjoined account we follow Dr. Stukely:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Stones.
30

30

40

10

5

19

1

[blocks in formation]

140

Altar

Northwards from Stonehenge, at the distance of a few hundred yards, is a large single stone, which, at the period of its being placed there, has been by some thought to have marked a meridian line from the centre of the circle.

19. Fig. 6. is a view of the present state of this interesting ruin from the west. Mr.

[graphic]

Fig. 6

STONEHENGE.

Cunnington, in a letter to Mr. Higgins, gives the following account of the stones which remain of the monument: -" The stones on the outside of the work, those comprising the outward circle as well as the large (five) trilithons, are all of that species of stone called 'sarsen' found in the neighbourhood; whereas the inner circle of small upright stones, and those of the interior oval, are composed of granite, hornstone, &c., most probably procured from some part of Devonshire or Cornwall, as I know not where such stones could be procured at a nearer distance."

20. Authors have in Stonehenge discovered an instrument of astronomy, and among them Maurice, whose view as to its founders coincides with those of the writers already cited, and with our own. We give no opinion on this point, but shall conclude the section by placing before the reader the substance of M. Bailly's notion thereon, recommending him to consult, in that respect, authorities better than we profess to be, and here expressing our own belief that the priests of ancient Britain were priests of Baal; and that the monuments, the subjects of this section, were in existence long before the Greeks, as a nation, were known, albeit they did derive the word Druid from 8pus (an oak), and said that they themselves were autoXoves (sprung from the earth).

21. M. Bailly says, on the origin of the sciences in Asia, that a nation possessed of profound wisdom, of elevated genius, and of an antiquity far superior to the Egyptians or Indians, immediately after the flood inhabited the country to the north of India, between the latitudes of 40 and 50, or about 50 north. He contends that some of the most celebrated observatories and inventions relating to astronomy, from their peculiar character. could have taken place only in those latitudes, and that arts and improvements gradually

travelled thence to the equator. The people to whom his description is most applicable is the northern progeny of Brahmins, settled near the Imaus and in Northern Thibet. We add, that Mr. Hastings informed Maurice of an immemorial tradition that prevailed at Benares, which was itself, in modern times, the grand seat of Indian learning,-that all the learning of India came from a country situate in 40° of N. latitude. Maurice remarks. "This is the latitude of Samarcand, the metropolis of Tartary; and, by this circumstance, the position of M. Bailly should seem to be confirmed. This is the country where, according to the testimony of Josephus and other historians cited by the learned Abbé Pezron, are to be found the first Celta, by whom all the temples and caves of India were made. Higgins observes on this, that the worship of the Mithraitic bull existed in India, Persia, Greece, Italy, and Britain, and that the religion of the Druids, Magi, and Brahmins was the same 22. (3.) Sacrificial Stones. These have been confounded with the cromlech, but the difference between them is wide. They are simple stones, either encircled by a shallow trench (vallum) and bank (agger), or by a few stones. Upon these almost all authors concur in believing that human immolation was practised; indeed, the name blod, or blood-stones, which they bear in the north of Europe, seems to point to their infernal use. We do not think it necessary to pursue further inquiry into them, as they present no remarkable nor interesting features.

23. (4.) Cromlechs and Cairns. The former of these seem to stand in the same relation to the large circles that the modern cell does to the conventual church of the Catholics. They consist of two or more sides, or vertical stones, and sometimes a back stone, the whole being covered with one not usually placed exactly horizontal, but rather in an inclining

position. We here (fig. 7.) give

a representation of one, that has received the name of Kit's Cotty House, which lies on the road between Maidstone and Rochester, about a mile northeastward from Aylesford church, and is thus described in the Beauties of England and Wales. It is composed of four huge stones unwrought, three of them standing on end but inclined in. wards, and supporting the fourth, which lies transversely over

[graphic]

them, so as to leave an open recess beneath. The dimensions and computed weights of these stones are as follows: - height of that on the south side 8 ft., breadth 7 ft., thickness 2 ft., weight 8 tons; height of that on the north side 7 ft., breadth 7 ft., thickness 2 ft., weight 8 tons. The middle stone is very irregular; its medium length as well as breadth may be about 5 ft., its thickness about 1 ft. 2 in., and its weight about 2 tons. The upper stone or impost is also extremely irregular; its greatest length is nearly 12 ft., and its breadth about 94 ft.; its thickness is 2 ft., and its weight about 10 tons: the width of the recess at bottom is 9 ft., and at top 7 ft.; from the ground to the upper side of the covering stone is 9 ft. These stones are of the kind called Kentish rag. Many years ago there was a single stone of a similar kind and size to those forming the cromlech, about 70 yards to the north-west: this, which is thought to have once stood upright, like a pillar, has been broken into pieces and carried away." Another cromlech stood in the neighbourhood, which has been thrown down. The nonsense that has been gravely written upon this and similar monuments is scarcely worth mention. It will hardly be believed that there existed people who thought it was the sepulchral monument of king Catigern, from similarity of name, and others who consider it the grave of the Saxon chief, Horsa, from its proximity to Horsted. Cromlechs are found in situations remote indeed, a specimen being seated on the Malabar coast; and in the British isles they are so numerous, that we do not think it necessary to give a list of them.

24. The cairn or carn which we have in this section coupled with the cromlech, perhaps improperly, is a conical heap of loose stones. Whether its etymology be that of Rowland, from the words 7 (kern-ned), a coped heap, we shall, from too little skill in Hebrew, not venture to decide; so we do not feel quite sure that, as has been asserted, they were raised Our notion rather inclines to their over the bodies of deceased heroes and chieftains. having been a species of altar, though the heap of stones to which Jacob gave the name of Galeed, if it were of this species, was rather a memorial of the agreement between him and Laban. It can scarcely be called an architectural work; but we should have considered our notice of the earlier monuments of antiquity incomplete without naming the cairn. 25. (5.) Logan or Rocking Stones. These were large blocks poised so nicely on the The weight of the points of rocks, that a small force applied to them produced oscillation. celebrated one in Cornwall, which is granite, has been computed at upwards of 90 tons.

The use of these stones has been conjectured to be that of testing the innocence of persons accused of crime, the rocking of the stone being certain, unless wedged up by the judge of the tribunal, in cases where he knew the guilt of the criminal: but we think that such a purpose is highly improbable.

26. (6.) Tolmen or Colossal Stones. - The Tolmen, or hole of stone, is a stone of

considerable magnitude, so disposed upon rocks as to leave an opening between them, through which an object could be passed. It is the general opinion in Corn wall that invalids were cured of their diseases by being passed through the opening above mentioned. "The most stupendous monument of this kind," (sec fig. 8.) says Borlase, "is in the tenement of Men, in the parish of Constantine, in Cornwall; it is one great oval pebble, placed on the points of two natural rocks, so that a man may creep under the great one, between the supporters, through a passage of about three feet wide, by as much high. The longest diameter of this stone is 33 ft., being in a direction due north and south. Its height, measured perpendicularly over the opening is, 14 ft. 6 in., and the breadth, in the widest part, 18 ft. 6 in., extending from cast to west. I measured one half of the circumference, and found it, according to my computation, 48 ft., so that this stone is 97 ft. in circumference, lengthwise, and about 60 ft. in girt, measured at the middle; and, by the best information, it contains about 750 tons." We close this section by the expression of our belief that the extraordinary monuments whereof we have been speaking are of an age as remote as, if not more so than, the pyramids of Egypt, and that they were the works of a colony of the great nation that was at the earliest period settled in central Asia, either through the swarm that passed north-west over Germany, or south-west through Phenicia; for, on either route, but rather, perhaps, the latter, traces of gigantic works remain, to attest the wonderful powers of the people of whom they are the remains.

[graphic]

Fig. 8.

TOLMEN IN CORNWALL

[ocr errors][merged small]

SECT. II.

PELASGIC OR CYCLOPEAN ARCHITECTURE.

21. Pelasgic or Cyclopean architecture, (for that as well as the architecture of Phoenicia, seems to have been the work of branches of an original similarly thinking nation) presents for the notice of the reader, little more than massive walls composed of huge pieces of rock, scarcely more than piled together without the connecting medium of cement of any species. The method of its construction, considered as masonry, to the eye of the architect is quite sufficient to connect it with what we have in the preceding section called Druidical or Celtic architecture. It is next to impossible to believe that all these species were not executed by the same people. The nature and principles of Egyptian art were the same, but the specimens of it which remain bear marks of being of later date, the pyramids only excepted. The Greek fables about the Cyclopeans have been sufficiently exposed by Jacob Bryant, who has shown that the Greeks knew nothing about their own early history. Herodotus (lib. v. cap 57. et seq.) alludes to them under the name of Cadmians, saying they were particularly famous for their architecture, which he says they introduced into Greece; and wherever they came, erected noble structures remarkable for their height and beauty. These were dedicated to the Sun under the names of Elorus and Pelorus. Hence every thing great and stupendous was called Pelorian; and, transferring the ideas of the works to the founders, they made them a race of giants. Homer says of Polyphemus,

Και γαρ θαυμ' ετέτυκτο πελώριον, ουδε εώκει
Ανδρι γι σιτοφάγῳ, αλλά ρίῳ ὕληεντι.

Virgil, too, describes him " Ipse arduus, alta pulsat sidera." Famous as lighthouse builders wherein a round casement in the upper story afforded light to the mariner, the Greeks turned this into a single eye in the forehead of the race, and thus made them a set of monsters. Of the race were Trophonius and his brother Agamedes, who, according to Pausanias (lib. ix.) contrived the temple at Delphi and the Treasury constructed to Urius. So great was the fame for building of the Cyclopeans that, when the Sybil in Virgil shows Eneas the place of torment in the shades below, the poet separates it from the regions of bliss by a Cyclopean wall:

[blocks in formation]

28. The walls of the city of Mycene are of the class denominated Cyclopean, thus denounced for ruin by Hercules in Seneca :

Quid moror? majus mihi
Bellum Mycenis restat, ut Cyclopea
Eversa manibus moenia nostris concidant."

Hercules Furens, act. 4. v. 996.

29. The gate of the city and the chief tower were particularly ascribed to them (Pausanias, b. ii.) Argos had also the reputation of being Cyclopean. But, to return to Mycene, Euripides, we should observe, speaks of its walls as being built after the Phoenician rule and method:

[blocks in formation]

30. Fig. 9. is a representation of a portion of the postern gate of the walls of Mycene, for the purpose of exhibiting to the reader the character of the masonry employed in it.

31. The walls of Tiryns, probably more ancient than those we have just named, are celebrated by Homer in the words Τίρυνθα τειχιόεσσαν, and are said by Apollodorus and Strabo to have been built by workmen whom Prætus brought from Lycia. The words of Strabo are, Τίρυνθι δρμητηριῳ χρησασθαι δοκεί Προιτος, και τειχισαι δια Κυκλώπων· οὓς ἑπτα μεν είναι, καλείσθαι δε Γαστερόχειρας, τρεφομένους εκ της τέχνης, Protus appears to have used Tiryns as a harbour, und to have walled it by the assistance of the Cyclops, who were seven in number, and called Gastrocheirs (bellyhanded), living by their labour. "These seven Cyclops," says Jacob Bryant, "were, I make no doubt, seven Cyclopean towers built by the people." Further on, he adds, "These towers were erected likewise for Purait, or Puratheia, where the rites of fire were performed: but Purait, or Puraitus, the Greeks changed to Prætus; and gave out that the towers were built for Prætus, whom they made a king of that country." The same author says that the Cyclopeans worshipped the sun under the symbol of a serpent; thus again

[graphic]

connecting them with the builders of Abury. Fig. 10. is a view of portions of the walls of Tiryns, taken from the Rev. T. S. Hughes's Trarels in Allania. Later works are named on p. 14.

[graphic]

32. Mr. Hamilton (Archæologia) divides the specimens of Cyclopean buildings into four æras. In the first he includes Tiryns and Mycene, where the blocks composing the masonry are of various sizes, having or having had smaller stones in their interstices. Second, as at Julis and Delphi, masonry without courses, formed of irregular polygonal stones, whose sides fit to each other. Third, that in which the stones are laid in courses of the same height, but unequal in length of stones; of this species are specimens in Boeotia, Argolis, and the Phocian cities. Fourth and last, that in which the stones are of various heights, and always rectangular, whereof examples are found in Attica. It may be here mentioned that, in the Etrurian part of Italy we find examples of Cyclopean works of the class, which Mr. Hamilton places in the second æra; as at Norba in Latium, Cora, Signia, and Alatrium; in the three last whereof the walls resemble those of Tiryns, Argos, and Mycene; also at Fiesole, Arezzo, and other places.

Fig. 10.

PART OF THE WALLS OF TIRYNS.

33. We shall now return to some further particulars in relation to Tiryns and Mycene, from which a more distinct notion of these fortresses will be obtained; but further investigation of those in Italy will hereafter be necessary, under the section on Etruscan architecture. The Acropolis of Tiryns, a little to the south-east of Argos, is on a mount rising about fifty

feet above the level of the plain, the foundations of its inclosure being still perfect and traceable, as in the annexed figure (fig. 11.). The ancient city is thought to have sur

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

rounded the fortress, and that formerly the city was nearer the sea than at present. Bryant, with his usual ingenuity, has found in its general form a type of the long ship of Danaus which, we confess, our imagination is not lively enough to detect. On the east of the fortress are quarries, which furnish stone similar to that whereof it is built. It had entrances from the east and the west, and one at the south-eastern angle. That on the east, lettered A. is pretty fairly preserved, and is approached by an inclined access, B, 15 ft. wide, along the eastern and southern sides of the tower, C, which is 20 ft. square and 40 ft. high, passing, at the end of the last named side, under a gateway, composed of very large blocks of stone, that which forms the architrave being 10 ft. long, and over which, from the fragments lying on the spot, it is conjectured that a triangular stone was placed; but thereon is no appearance of sculpture. D is the present entrance. The general thickness of the walls is 25 ft., and they are formed by three parallel ranks of stones 5 ft. thick, thus leaving

Fig. 12. GALLERY.

two ranges of galleries each 5 ft. wide and 12 ft. high. The sides of the galleries are formed by two courses of stone, and the roof by two other horizontal courses, sailing over so as to meet at their summit, and some what resembling a pointed arch. (See fig. 10.) That part of the gallery, fig. 12., now uncovered, is about 90 ft. long, and has six openings or recesses towards the east, one whereof seems to have afforded a communication with some exterior building, of whose foundation traces are still in existence. The interval between these openings varies from 10 ft. 6 in. to 9 ft. 8 in.; the openings themselves being from 5 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. 10 in. wide. It is probable that these galleries extended all round the citadei though now only accessible where the walls are least perfect, at the southern part of the inclosure. There are no remains of the south-eastern portal. It appears to have beer connected with the eastern gate by an avenue enclosed between the outer and inner curtain, of which avenue the use is not known. Similar avenues have been found at Argos and other ancient cities in Greece. The northern point of the hill is least elevated, and smaller stones have been employed in its wall. The exterior walls are built of rough stones, some of which are 9 ft. 4 in. in length and 4 ft. thick, their common size being somewhat less When entire, the wall must have been 60 ft. high, and on the eastern side has been entirely destroyed. The whole length of the citadel is about 660 ft., and the breadth about 180 ft., the walls being straight without regard to inequality of level in the rock.

34. The Acropolis of Mycene was probably constructed in an age nearly the same as that of Tiryns. Pausanias mentions a gate on which two lions were sculptured, to which the name of the Gate of the Lions has been given (fig. 13.) These are still in their original position. It is situate at the end of a recess about 50 ft. long, commanded by projections of the walls, which are here formed of huge blocks of square stones, many placed on each other without breaking joint, which circumstance gives it a very inartificial appearance. The epistylium of the gate is a single stone 15 ft. long and 4 ft. 4 in. high. To the south of the gate above mentioned the wall is much ruined. In one part something like a tower is discernible, whose walls, being perpendicular while the curtain inclines a little inward from its base, a projection remained at the top by which an archer could defend the wall below. The blocks of the superstructure are of great size, those of the substructure much smaller. The gates excepted, the whole citadel is built of rough masses of rock, nicely adjusted and fitted to each other, though the smaller stones with which the

« PreviousContinue »