Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	time_n	year_n	19,963	5	5.0438	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69727	Chorea gigantum, or, The most famous antiquity of Great-Britan [sic], vulgarly called Stone-Heng, standing on Salisbury Plain, restored to the Danes by Walter Charleton ...	Charleton, Walter, 1619-1707.; Howard, Robert, Sir, 1626-1698.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1663 (1663)	Wing C3666; ESTC R13338	53,474	82

the vastness of strength and skill in Engines required to the transportation and elevation of stones of such prodigious weight are sufficient Arguments to the contrary considering these things I say why may I not conjecture that the Danes and onely the Danes were the Authors of Stone-heng Sure I am of thus much that this Opinion of mine if it be erroneous is yet highly plausible having this advantage over the others concerning the same obscure subject that it is not so easily to be refuted Nor is it arrogancy in me to affirm that if I have been deceived in entertaining this conceipt in the place of Truth it was because I found it in the livery and colours of Truth However I expect you should consider it is no dishonor to even the best Marks-man not to hit the white when he is forced to shoot in the dark Which consideration being alone sufficient to secure my wel-intended endeavours from too severe and disingenious censure in case it shall hereafter be discovered that I have been mistaken in the Main thing sought after namely the Authors of our Antiquity I doubt not but your Candor will extend it also to the favourable construction of my suppositions concerning the Circumstances In the strength of this confidence therefore I adventure to acquaint you moreover with my conjecture concerning the TIME when Stone-heng was first set up which I take to be in the beginning of the reign of that Excellent Prince Alfred or Alured who as he was the first annointed King of this Island so was he the first Learned King and most munificent Patron to Scholars that ever swaied the Scepter of Britain For all our Chronicles agreeingly deliver that He was scarcely seated in his throne when there came over greater swarms of Danes than ever before to infest his dominions and that after many unfortunate battails with them he was reduced to that extremity that leaving his large Monarchy to the rage and rapine of those insulting Pagans he fled for safety of his life into the Marishes of Sommersetshire where for two years he lay concealed in a poor disguise susteining himself by fishing and fowling Among other adventures that befell this glorious person in this dark Eclipse it is not unworthy remembrance that on a time as he was sitting in the chimney corner in the cottage of a Cow-heard who had entertained him into his service and busied in trimming his bow and arrows a Cake of dough lying to be baked on the hearth before him chanced to be burned which the goodwife imputing to his neglect in great fury cast away his bow and arrows and sharply checking him said Thoufellow dost thou see the bread burn before thy face and wilt not turn it and yet thou art glad to eat it be sore it be half baked Shortly after this learning policy from adversity and deriving courage from necessity he ventured in the habit of a common Minstrel to enter into the Danes Camp in Wiltshire and probably not far from the place where Stone-heng stands and having viewed the manner of their encamping and observed their security he returned back to several of his Lords retreated into the Island called Edlingsey invironed with two Rivers Thane and Parret in Somersetshire and acquainting them in how careless and open a posture he found the Enemy recollected the scatter'd remains of his forces and with these surprising the Danes and putting them first into a panick terror and then to flight gave them so considerable a defeat that they immediately submitted to a Treaty and deliver'd Hostages for performance of conditions Now considering the extreme low ebb of Fortune to which this excellent King was at that time brought and the high flood of prosperity that in the mean while had advanced the Danes over all parts of his Dominions insomuch that nothing seemed wanting to complete their conquest but only to find out the few Defendants who remained in obscurity and withall reflecting upon the former mentioned Custome of that ambitious and martial Nation to erect Courts Royal of huge stones according to the manner described for the Election of their Kings in all Countries where the happy success of their Armes had given them a title to Soveraignty I am apt to believe that having then over-run the whole Kingdom except only Somersetshire and encamping their main Army in Wiltshire for neer upon two years together and setting up their rest in a confidence to perpetuate their newly acquired power they imployed themselves during that time of leasure and jollity in erecting Stone-heng as a place wherein to elect and inaugurate their supreme Commander King of England the weakness of the distressed Alfred affording them a fit opportunity and that country yielding them fit materials for so great and stupedious a work Nor is it improbable that the great supinity and disorder in which the Royal Spie found them when the magique of his Fiddle had charmed them into an imperception of the majesty of his person and procured him a free welcome into their Camp might be occasioned by the jubile they celebrated after they had finished that laborious task and therein newly crowned their King after a triumphal manner such as at once corresponded with the fashion of their Ancestors and expressed the profuseness of their publick joy For many of our Historians relate that the Danish Army was at that time let loose to luxury and revelling and that the unknown Musician was brought to play before their King Gormund in his tent during a long and magnificent feast But perhaps I may be thought too bold in daring from such slender passages and circumstantial hints thus precisely to guess at the Age of this Antiquity concerning whose Original neither History nor Tradition hath left any glimpse of light whereby the inquisitive might be guided through the darksome vale of Uncertainty to the delightfull mansion of Truth Leaving every man therefore to the liberty of his own thoughts touching this particular as also whatever else hath been said of the Monument it self and its original Designation I here put a period to this Discourse wherein though I have adventured to contend with Oblivion I had no design to usurp upon the Judgment of others 〈◊〉

Burrow cast up in the middle and three orders of huge Stones set in manner of Columns at equal distance the outmost making a large quadrangle of fifty paces length in each side the other two perfect Circles one within another presents it self to the admiration of passengers on a plain about a mile from Roeschild and neer the high way that leads from thence to Frederisksburgh Of this Ol. Wormius hath given a perfect Draught Monument Danicor pag. 35. For a Fourth I have among many others chosen the notable Monument of King Harald Hyldetand whose courage continency and wisedome together with his happy successes in warr are highly celebrated by Saxo Grammaticus which yet remains neer Lethra or Leire in Seland anciently the seat of Kings now a decaid obscure village saxis grandioribus stipatum in meditullio immensa mole quadrata minoribus aliis innixa exornatum compassed about with stones of extraordinary greatness and in the middle ennobled with one Square stone or rock of an immense bulk resting upon the heads of others of inferior magnitude whose picture though in too small a module is taken also by our Author Now from the various structure of these four grand Sepulchres neither of which doth fully quadrate with other it is manifest the Founders were not strict in observing any such set form of placing their stones that might at first view distinguish them from other Monuments unless in this onely that the Exterior Muniment or pale of great stones was commonly either exactly square or neerly approaching that regular figure And yet sometimes they varied from that also as Wormius himself confesseth For albeit in his general description of the fashion of this sort of Sepulchres he tells us they had aream qùadratam quae totam molem grandioribus saxis includeret yet afterward in the same Chapter he mentions some that had not been formed according to that rule His words are Diversi ab his quidam cernuntur tumuli figura oblongiori congerie depressiori saxis grandioribus undique cincti ita ut utramque extremitatem mole vastiora reliquis claudant c. But of this first Kind of Unlettered Danique Monuments we have taken a sufficient survey Let us pass therefore to the Second viz. Fora or Places of Judicature Where judgment was publickly given concerning Right and litigious sutes determined betwixt subject and subject according to the Known laws and constitutions of the country and that either immediately by the King himself where the parties concerned were Noble or the matter in controversie important or otherwise by his deputed Judges in cases of less moment These Courts were like Justice her self naked and open standing not in Cities nor Towns but in fields and spacious campanias nor covered with roofs but with a kind of rude magnificence made only of a certain plot of ground of a Quadrangular or Oval figure set apart by an enclosure of the vastest stones that could possibly be had placed like Columns at equal distance with one great stone for a judgment seat in or neer the middle as appears from the remains of Two anciently very eminent yet visible in Denmark The One in Seland neer the City Drething whose manner of structure and capacity Ol. Wormius having with great diligence survey'd he thus describes it Vidi illud quadraginta sex saxis stupendae magnitudinis cinctum fuisse eminente in ejus meditullio grandiusculo quodam omnia vero in ovalem disposita erant figuram it a quidem ut utrinque ad latera circae medium porta quasi vel aditus pateret meridiem septentrionem versus Longitudo nonagint a passus aequabat latitudo viginti This Forum or Ting in the Danique language was begirt about with forty six stones of wonderfull magnitude and had one great stone standing in the middle all the stones of the Enclosure were disposed into an Oval figure so that about the middle on each side was left as it were a gate or Entrance one toward the South the other toward the North. The length of the oval was ninety paces the breadth twenty The Other neer Aasmuntory undique cautibus septum hemm'd in on all sides with stones equal to Rocks which gave name to the place where it stands that being called Tinget to this day Many other of the same kind are to be seen in other Provinces of Denmark saith our Author As these Courts of Justice were rude in their Fabrique so for many Ages together were the ways of Trial practised in them For from Frotho Magnus who swayed the Danish Sceptre about the most happy time of our Saviour's Nativity down along until the Reign of Suenotto in the year of our Lord 986. all weighty and difficult controversies were decided per Monomachiam by Duel the Defendant being obliged to combat the Plaintiff openly within the lists of the Court and prove the goodness of his cause by the sharpness of his weapons without other Advocate but his own courage A very savage and unequal manner of trial this where always the Sword of Justice was put into the hand of the Criminal where many times Right had no Vindication but from Fortune and the most Innocent if overcome was either to die upon the place of his purgation or what 's more grievous to become Slave to his unjust Accuser Yet men were hereto bound by a severe Law made by the said Frotho and recited by Saxo Grammaticus Hist. Danic lib. 5. After the Beams of the Christian Faith shining on those northern Nations and in some degree overcoming the gloominess of their barbarous Manners and Customes that Law was abrogated and in the place of Duels the somewhat less cruel but not much less uncertain way of Trial per Ordelium by Fire-Ordeal succeeded and was continued in the same Courts till about the year of Christ 1350. it was condemned by a decree of the Lateran Council and an Edict of King Woldemarus II. an Extract of which you may find in Wormius Monum Danic lib. 1. cap. 11. Then began all causes to be determined by the judgment of twelve Jurors as here with us in England not but this way was much more antient for it is ascribed to Regnerus sirnamed Lodbrog who ruled in Denmark about the year of Christ 820 and as some Danish Writers boast was derived from him to our Etheldred but it seems not to have been either by universal custome established or by strict and penal Laws enforced so as totally to exclude the Ordeal in all cases until the said Woldemarus his days And Harald the vijth after the abolition of Duels introduced a new but pernicious manner of determining contentions by which the Party accused might purge himself of whatever Crime charged upon him Solo juramenti sacramento by onely his own single Oath idque contra omnem testium fidem and that against the clearest testimony of Witnesses as Saxo Grammat hath left upon record lib. ij But the unreasonableness hereof was so great and

the evil consequences so many that it could not continue long Notwithstanding the ways of Trial were thus various yet the places were still the same namely these open and rude Courts here described From which we pass to the Third sort of Danique unletter'd Monuments viz. Places of Combats or Fights These were indeed always designed by Great stones but not constant to any one Figure so as to be thereby alone distinguishable without the help of Tradition For though Saxo Grammat lib. 1. cap. 29. willing to give some directions how from the several Ordinations of the Stones Posterity might guess aright at the several Occasions upon which they were set up delivers this as a general Rule Recto longo ordine pugilum certamina quadrato turmas bellantium sphaerico familiarum designantia sepulturas ac cuneato equestrium acies ibidem vel prope fortunatius triumphasse yet Wormius professeth he much doubted whether this order were every where strictly observed or not afterward alleging Examples of different Figures One he mentions out of the Author of Histor. Bremensis lib. 2. cap. 9. that consisting of one mighty Stone was erected in memory of a Duel fought near a place named Agrimeswedel in which a famous Combatant Biurguido overcame and slew a Champion of the Slavi and acquired immortal honor Others he speaks of that were marked with many huge stones set equally distant each from other in a streight line some that were truly Girques and some Quadrangular all which together with the Laws and Manner of such Camp-fights betwixt the Champions of several Kings You may see fully described by him Monum Danic lib. 1. cap. 9. In the mean time I hasten to the Danish Trophies Or Monuments of great Battels fought and Victories obtain'd Which though agreeing among themselves in their durable and massie Materials are nevertheless irreconcilably discrepant in their Forms So that in these as well as in the other sorts hitherto survey'd the Founders seem to have entrusted the remembrance of their glorious Successes as much to the voice of Fame and popular Tradition as to the obscure signification of any one Figure or Scheme observed in the Monuments themselves or else varying the Platforms of their Triumphal Piles according to the various circumstances of their Encounters and fortunate Atchievments and the commodities of the place they left Posterity who could not arrive at certain knowledge of those Circumstances to grope after their particular Stories in the darkness of uncertain conjectures This our Author Ol. Wormius was too ingenuous to excuse or conceal and therefore though in compliance with the former perswasion of his Country he tells us Integri exercitus stragem lapidum quadrata in plano dispositione indicasse That the antient Danes by stones disposed into a Quadrangle shewed the overthrow of a whole Army of their Enemies upon or near that place yet he immediately subjoyns Verum non ubique ab omnibus praecise observatnm fuisse hunc ordinem ac dispositionem saxorum plane mihi persuadeo But I perswade my self fully that this order or disposition of the stones was not precisely observed by all in all places However it imports us not to pretermit an Example or two of these huge Triumphal Antiquities In the Diocess of Bergen on a wide mountainous place near a Village called Tysnes you may with a delightful wonder behold six stones of an incredible magnitude resembling Pyramids erected at equal distances in two semi-circles one within another each environed with two entire circles of lesser stones of Oval figure and in the middle of the intercolumnary spaces in each semi-circle a great multitude of the like stones heaped one upon another till they amount toward a Cone and all in a most elegant order set up in memory of a bloody Battel fought upon the place as the people of the Country report by hear-say from their fore-fathers though their relations differ in many circumstantial particulars After this description our Author addeth Plura ejusdem generis alibi in eadem Dioecesi videre observaré licèt figura quidem diversae sed eundem in usum fabrefacta But what need we travel into Denmark for Patterns of this kind of Monuments when we have two most notable ones here at home one in Cornwal another in Oxfordshire which if you have not beheld with your own eyes and dare give credit to M ● Camdens you may have them represented to you in these his Descriptions Near St Neoths in Cornwal saith he upon a plain adjacent to a wondrous pile of Rocks heaped up together upon one stone of lesser size fashioned naturally in form of a Cheese so as it seemeth to be pressed like a Cheese whereupon it is named Wring-Cheese are to be seen many great stones in some sort four-square of which seven or eight are pitched upright of equal distance asunder The neighbour Inhabitants term them Hurlers as being by a devout and godly error perswaded they had been Men sometimes transformed into Stones for profaning the Lord's Day with hurling the Ball. Others would have it to be a Trophy or Monument in memorial of some Battel And so doubtless this was and not improbably left by the Danes Not far from Burford upon the very border of Oxford-shire is an antient Monument to wit certain huge stones placed in a circle The common people call them Roll-rich stones and dream they were sometimes Men by a miraculous Metamorphosis turned into hard stones The Draught of them such as it is pourtraied long since here I represent unto your view For without all form and shape they be unequal and by long continuance of time much impaired The highest of them all which without the Circle looketh into the earth they call the King because he should have been King of England forsooth if he had once seen Long Compton a little Town lying beneath and which one may see if he go some few paces forward other five standing at the other side touching as it were one another they imagine to have been Knights mounted on Horseback and the rest the Army These would I verily think to have been the Monument of some Victory and haply erected by Rollo the Dane who afterward conquered Normandy For what time He with his Danes troubled England with depredations we read that the Danes joyned Battel with the English thereby at Hoch Norton a place for no one thing more famous in old time than for the woful slaughter of the English in that foughten field under the Reign of King Edward the Elder To these may be annexed another eminent Trophy known by the name of Stipperstones standing upon Huckstowe Forrest in Shropshire consisting of great piles of stones and others like Rocks perpendicularly erected thickly together and set up to perpetuate the renown of a fatal defeat given to the Britans by Harald Concerning which Giraldus Cambrensis hath this clear testimony Harald in person being himself the last footman with foot-men and

have Dane the first to have been likewise elected and inhroned as the name Danerliung which to this day it bears seems to witness And the reason he gives why there is one in each of these three Provinces is that anciently they were distinct Principalities and under the dominion of as many petty Kings though now reduced under the soveraignty of a Monarch the present King of Denmark Nor are we destitute of the like in England For in Cornwall on a large plain called Biscaw Woun near a village named St. Buriens stand erected in a circle nineteen huge stones distant each from the other about twelve foot with one stone far higher and greater than the rest in the Centre Which though Camden supposeth to be some Trophy left by the Romans under the later Emperors or else by Athelstane the Saxon when he had subdued the Cornish men yet considering on one side that the Romans used not to eternize their victories here or else where by any such Trophies and on the other that there was a time when the Danes also had not only Cornwall but all England beside under their barbarous subjection and that this Monument doth in all particulars correspond with the Courts of Elections Royal in Denmark of which I am now speaking considering this I say no reason appears to the contrary but I may assent to the opinion of Wormius that it was after a great defeat of the English Saxons by his Country-men erected for the Election of their own King and the investiture of him with the soveraignty of his newly acquired Principality Here perhaps You 'l be a little surpriz'd if I adventure to make our Stone-heng it self bring up the rear of this last and most Gigantique division of Danique Antiquities But it is my Conjecture the ultimate scope of my so laborious Enquiry the point in which all the lines of this long discourse concentre Wherefore having now at length brought you to a place where You may at once behold the strength of all those several Reasons that conspired to suggest that opinion to me it is fit I should draw them together in as small a compass as I can and so present them to your consideration while what hath been delivered both of all the Danish Unletter'd Monuments in general and in particular of their Courts for Election of Kings is yet fresh in your memory And this I conceive may be most concisely and most advantagiously effected by way of Parallel or Comparison in this plain and easie Method The Ancient Courts of Parliament in Denmark alwayes STONE-HENG likewise I. I. WEre situated in large and open Plains not far from some Town of competent reception at least for people of the best Quality and STands in a spacious Plain about two miles distant from Ambresbury anciently a Town of great note and II. II. In or neer to the middle of the Kingdom that such as were summoned to convene upon the Election of a King or other affair of publick importance might repair thither with equal conveniency and In a mediterranean or mid-land Country for so Camden calls Wiltshire and III. III. Upon a gently rising ground for the advantage of prospect and that the Common people assembled to confirm the suffrages of the Electors by their universal applause and congratulatory acclamations might see and witness the solemn manner of the Election Uppon a plot of ground somewhat more eminent than the circumjacent Plain which enlargeth the prospect of the Pile and which cannot be approached but by an easie ascent on all sides IV. IV. Were open on the Top and sides that so the King elect standing in the middle might be beheld from all quarters of the neighbouring Plain and the Votes of the Electors the better heard by the multitude standing round about at a becomming distance Is uncovered above or roofless and environed not with continued walls but stones pitcht upright so that such as stand on any side without may perceive what 's done within V. V. Made onely of huge stones the largest that could possibly be found any where in the Country rude unhewn of no certain figure Made of stones of vast magnitude and unhewn as they came from the Quarry of no regular figure and VI. VI. And these set upright at equal distance each from other in a Circle that so the Electors standing upon them might make a round These set in round equally distant among themselves and perpendicular VII VII With one stone taller and bigger than the rest erected in the Centre for the King to stand upon and shew himself to the people at the time of his Inauguration and receive their joyfull Acclamations wishes of felicity and other testimonies of submission and fealty With one Stone in the inmost circle now lying along and broken but at first set upright and then probably placed at the very centre of the whole work whose remaining fragments put together make according to Mr. Jones his accompt sixteen feet in length Which is as likely to have been a Bongstolon as the Danes call theirs or Kings throne as an Altar VIII VIII Without any Inscription o Letters ingraven upon any one of the Stones because the Fabrique was sufficiently Known by its proper Form and the Use in a peculiar manner customary to the Danes Having no Epigraph cut or trencht in any of the Stones as carrying a sufficient evidence of its Designment and use in the figure of its platform and perfection in all essential parts and speaking its Founders in the in these dayes well-understood language of its vastness and the similitude it bore to others erected by the same Nation in their own Country Thus far You see the Parallel holds in all particulars even to a high degree of Resemblance there being no one thing in the Antique Courts of Parliament yet remaining in Denmark which is not to be found also in our Stone-heng Something 's I must acknowledge are observed in This more than in those and lest I might be thought over-favourable and partial to my own Conceipt if I should omit to note them I shall particularly observe what they are The First apparent Difference then consists in this that in Stone-heng the number of stones is much greater Which notwithstanding may without much difficulty or straining be reconciled by reflecting upon the Examples of the Courts of Elections Royal in Denmark newly alleged For though Ol. Wormius saith that those consisted for the most part of twelve huge stones set upright after the manner of Pyramids or Columns in the circumference of a Circle and one more eminent in the Centre yet so far is he from confining all of the same sort to that or any other definite number that he brings several instances of some that came short of and others that much exceeded it So that from thence we may safely collect that in old time the Danes made their Courts of this Kind sometimes of fewer sometimes of more Columns according to

the scarcity or abundance of fitting stones in the Country in which they occasionally raised them if not also according to the lesser or greater number of Electors who were to stand and vote upon them Nor is it to be unregarded that at Stone-heng the inmost Circle if at least that may be called a Circle which really is a Polygon such flat and broad Pillars being in respect of their want of Convexity on their out-sides incapable to make a perfect Circle contains onely twelve stones which agrees exactly with the most ancient patterns The Second is this that Stone-heng hath Three circular orders of Stones whereas the Others have no more than one Which nevertheless may receive a satisfactory Solution as the former either from the greater plenty of convenient stones in Wiltshire yea in sundry places not very remote from the work it self of which wee shall shortly have occasion to take particular notice or from the greater number of Electors who being of the Nobility and principal Officers of Armies in process of time were multiplied to a more numerous list than in former ages as may be observed in all other nations also or perhaps from hence also that Stone-heng was designed both for a Sepulchral Monument of one King or General there slain in battail and for a Court of Election for his immediate Successor For you may remember I have already acquainted You how usual a thing it was amongst the Danes to celebrate the Funeral of one Prince and solemnize the Inauguration of another at one and the same time and in one and the same place perpetuating the memory of both by circles of vast stones and that I exemplified this in the massive Tomb of King Harald Hyldetand which was both a Sepulchral Monument for Him and a Court of Election for succeeding Kings for many ages after Nor have I omitted to supply you with descriptions of two famous Danique Antiquities that consist of a Threefold order of Stones all of magnitude equal to if not much transcending those of Stone-heng The Third and last point of Disparity is that in Stone-heng the outmost and inmost rounds of Columns are furnished with Epistyles or Architraves resting upon their heads but none such are found upon the upright stones in any of the Courts of Election in Denmark But this as the two former may be referred to the great abundance of such stones in Wiltshire more than in any province of Denmark where they were not to be had but rarely as is intimated in that text of Petrus Lindebergius formerly quoted Dani cum propter defectum Saxorum pyramides obeliscos extruere minime potuerint olim in memoriam Regum He ōum ex terra coacervata ingentem molem montis instar eminentem statuêre The Danes when they could not for want of stones erect Pyramids and Obelisces heretofore they cast up a huge Mount of Earth in memory of their Kings and Heroes Nor was it unusual to them to raise up from the ground stones of wonderful scantlings and impose them in manner of Architraves upon the tops of others especially in their works of greatest Magnificence and where they intended to raise admiration in posterity at the prodigious strength and extraordinary means required to advance such huge weights to so great a height as I have formerly proved both by authentique Testimonies and agreeable Examples Being therefore through the fortunate success of their Arms in possession of England and assembling in Wiltshire where they met with store of materials fit for their purpose and proposing to themselves to erect a stately Monument after the fashion of their own Country with some addition of vastness correspondent it is not improbable that they made choice of this kind of Superstructure of Architraves or plain long stones laid overthwart upon the tops of the Columns as that which might both hold some analogy with other Monuments in their own Nation and also be of considerable use in affording more convenient and firm footing for such persons of honourable condition who were principally to give their Votes at the Election of the King standing in round upon the stones especially when their late Victories had augmented the stock of their Nobility and who perhaps were by this time more than could stand upon the single Columns and needed the addition of Architraves to support them at the Solemnity And thus you see how the points of Dissimilitude or Inconformity betwixt Stone-heng and its more antique Patterns in Dane-land may be reasonably solved However it cannot be denied but they are both in number and weight much inferior to the particulars of the precedent Parallel or Resemblance and therefore ought not to be put in the Balance against them nor to be thought of such importance as to detract from the verisimility of my Conjecture that Stone-heng was principally if not wholly designed and raised for a Court-Royal But this Discovery at least if it may deserve that name is a work of Supererogation my undertaking from the first having been onely to make it appear highly probable that Stone-heng originally was a building of the Danes Which if I mistake not I have to a competent degree of satisfaction effected Nevertheless I must not forget to observe one thing more not unworthy serious consideration which is this That among all our antient Historians who wrote of the state of Britain as well before as under the Romans and Saxons recording not onely all the most memorable actions passages and memorials whatever but also inferiour occurrents and that even to superfluity no one hath so much as mentioned Stone-heng until a long time after the Danes had conquered England and were afterwards forced to resign it to the English again upon the decease of Hardi Canute For the first Author in whom any word is found concerning it was Geffery of Monmouth who together with his fellow Historiographers William of Malmesbury Henry of Huntington and Simon of Durham lived in the days of King Stephen No contemptible Argument that in England no such Monument as Stone-heng was extant until the Danes had over-run and conquered this Nation it being hard to conceive that those Writers who committed to record matters of much smaller moment and according to the Monkish humour of those darker times so much delighted themselves in relating wonderful accidents and extraordinary adventures would have condemned to oblivion so eminent a thing as Stone-heng and in a deep silence have passed over the most admirable Antiquity of Great Britain And as for the vulgar conceit that the great decay of the Structure shews it to have been more antique than the Danish Invasion and Conquest here it may be easily solved by answering that the ruines evidence themselves to be the effect not of Time the stones themselves being of a temper so compact and hard that the iron teeth of that consuming Enemy cannot gnaw or corrode them nor any force of tempests impair them in the least but of the