in aperto mundo atque lucenti praesentes videmus because both the forms and effects of these Deities we behold present before our eyes in a clear and open view Another reason I find also why they built their Temples to Coelus and those other Deities uncovered as Stoneheng because they counted it an hainous matter to see those Gods confined under a roof whose doing good consisted in being abroad Thirdly in regard of the Form of Stoneheng which is circular This figure was proper to the Temples of Coelus and Tellus whom the Ancients called Vesta as Valerianus in his Hieroglyphicks affirms Non solamente la palla ma una simplice piegatura di ruota appresso gli Egizziani demostrava il Cielo Not only saith he the circular form but the meer segment of a circle amongst the Egyptians was an Hieroglyphick of Coelus And to this purpose also Leo Baptista Albertus useth these words Aedem Vestae quam esse terram putarent rotundam ad pilae similitudinem faciebant Unto Vesta whom they reputed to be the Earth they built Temples of a round form globelike Besides observe what Philander commenting on Vitruvius tels us Templorum quanquam alia fiant quadrata alia multorum angulorum Coeli naturam imitati veteres imprimis rotundis sunt delectati Although saith he the Ancients made some Temples square some of six sides others of many angles they were especially delighted with making of them round as representing thereby the Form or Figure of Coelum Heaven Fourthly in respect of the Order whereof Stoneheng built The severity of this Tuscane work retaining in it a shew as it were of that first face of Antiquity as A. Palladio terms it being most agreeable to the nature of this their God reputed the ancientest of all their Deities and Father of Saturn For it was the custome of the Ancients as in part I remembred before to appropriate the severall Orders of Architecture according to the particular qualifications of those they deified Minervae Marti Herculi aedes Doricae fient his enim diis propter virtutem sine deliciis aedificia constitui decet To Minerva and Mars and Hercules Temples of the Dorick Order were made for to these Deities in respect of their valiant actions it was requisite to build without delicacy Veneri Florae Proserpinae Fontium Nymphis Corinthio genere constitutae aptas videbuntur habere proprietates quòd his diis propter teneritatem graciliora florida foliÃsque volutis ornata opera facta augere videbuntur justum decorem To Venus Flora Proserpina the Fountain Nymphs the Corinthian Order was thought most proper because unto these in regard of their tender natures the work seemed to advance a just decorum when made delicate and flourishing and adorned with leaves and volutes Iunoni Dianae Libero Patri caeterÃsque diis qui eadem sunt similitudine si aedes Ionicae construerentur habita erat ratio mediocritatis quod ab severo more Doricorum à teneritate Corinthiorum temperabitur earum institutio proprietatis To Iuno Diana Bacchus and to the other Deities of the same quality building Temples of the Ionick Order they had regard unto the mean that from the severe manner of the Dorick and delicacy of the Corinthian the condition of their indowments might be duly moderated saith Vitruvius To Iupiter Sol and Luna though they made Temples sub divo open to the air and without roofs like this Antiquity yet were they not built of severe and humble but most delicate Orders and accordingly were adorned with costly ornaments and beautified with various enrichments in severall sorts of sculpture as by the ruines of them in divers parts of Italy remaining to this day evidently appears Respecting therefore this Decorum used by the Ancients in building their Temples and that this work Stoneheng is principally composed of a most grave Tuscane manner by just proportions of an agreeable form it is in mine opinion as I said before most agreeable to the quality and condition of that ancient Coelus whom Antiquity reputed the very stem whence all those Deities in the succeeding Ages proceeded Coelus ex eadem conjuge scilicet Tellure procreavit Oceanum Coelum Hyperionem c. novissimum omnium Saturnum suscepit Coelus by the same wise to wit Tellus had Oceanus Coelum Hyperion c. and last of all begat Saturn To which purpose also Lactantius I finde Uranius by his wife Vesta had Saturn and Ops Saturn attaining the government called his father Uranius Coelus and his mother Terra that by this change of names he might the more magnifie the splendor of his originall c. Further I conceive it will not be impertinent to our purpose in hand to deliver what the Ancients have reported of Coelus and wherefore they ascribed divine Honours unto Him According to the Poets Coelus was not that huge machine adorned with stars which Orpheus saith was composed for habitation of the Planets and other Deities and which we behold moving with continuall revolution but a certain man so called son to Aether and Dies that is della virtù ardente della luce famosa of transcendent influence and resplendent brightness as Boccace hath it By Historians especially Diodorus Siculus it 's thus delivered Scribunt primùm regnasse apud Atlantides Coelum Hominésque antea per agros dispersos ad coetum condendásque urbes exhortatum à fera eos agrestÃque vita ad mitiorem cultum extitisse c. They write he which first reigned over the Atlantides was Coelus and that he invited men living dispersedly before throughout the fields to convene and dwell in companies together exhorting them to build Towns and reducing them from wild and savage to the conversation of civill life Taught them also to sow corn and seeds and divers other things belonging to the common use of mankind Ruled likewise over a great part of the world from East to West Was a diligent observer of the stars and foretold men divers things to come The year before confus'd bringing into Order according to the course of the Sun reducing it also into moneths after the Moons course and appointing likewise the severall seasons of the year Whereby many ignorant of the perpetuall course of the stars and amazed at his future predictions did verily believe he participated of Divine Nature and therefore after his death as well for benefits received from him as great knowledge of the stars they conferred on him immortall honours and adored him as a God And as appears called Coelus in regard of his skill in the celestiall bodies as also for divers other causes eternall King of all the world Thus Diodorus It being an ordinary custome among the Heathens to deifie and esteem for Gods such excellent personages as either had well ruled or governed them or done any notable thing among them to their especiall benefit or good
so say a bay mountain valley hill plain wood or forest either any custom rite ceremony or what else belonging to the knowledge of the Countrey or manners of the People but the Romans were then as well acquainted with especially in that part of the Island now call'd England as at this day the Inhabitants themselves are Neverthelesse what mention soever is made by their Historians concerning other matters of the Britans not one word is to be found of this Antiquity or any building of this kind in use amongst them But because some curiously learned have desired somwhat to be spoken for their better satisfaction touching this particular I have been too prolixe In a word therefore let it suffice Stoneheng was no work of the Druid's or of the ancient Britans the learning of the Druid's consisting more in contemplation then practice and the ancient Britans accounting it their chiefest glory to be wholly ignorant in whatever Arts Neither could it be otherwise seeing their life so uncivil so rude so full of wars and consequently void of all literature as Camden relateth Yet before I come to speak of this middle Age if I may so call it wherein the Romans prevailed and to compleat their victories gave first rise to civility in this Island as I began with times of great Antiquity so must I now descend to those lesse ancient and modern wherein as posterity hath suffered an irreparable damage through want of writing in those first times so hath it been almost at as great a losse by too much writing in later times so many Authors so much contrariety so little certainty is found amongst them Who when they could not search out the truth in deed laboured to bring forth narrations invented by themselves without or reason or authority delivering saith Camden their severall opinions rather with a certain pleasant variety to give contentment to their Readers then with any care or judgement to find out the truth of things THOSE ancient Historians who among other actions of the Britans treat of this Antiquity differ much in their severall reports And as it is usuall with Historiographers of other Nations where they cannot give a just and rationall accompt of unwonted accidents beyond the common course of things to fill up their stories with fabulous and incredible relations so no marvell if we hear the like in our own Histories Credibile enim est calamitatem bellicam quae ecclesias unà cum bibliochecis exhauserat infinitis clara vetustatis monumenta abrasisse For evident it is through the calamities of wars saith Leyland which together with infinite Libraries ruined the Churches themselves the certain records of our Antiquities are utterly lost Unde scripturienti de antiquitate Britannica occultissima pleraque omnia Whereby the Writers of the British Stories are all of them for the most part very obscure and doubtfull A. The Altar Giraldus Cambrensis curiously diligent in his relations of the miracles in Ireland amongst other strange things in those parts reckons up this Antiquity Stoneheng Fuit antiquis temporibus in Hibernia lapidum congeries admiranda saith he quae Chorea Gigantum dicta fuit quia Gigantes eam ab ultimis Africae partibus in Hiberniam attulerunt c. There was in Ireland in ancient times a pile of stones worthy admiration called the Giants Dance because Giants from the remotest parts of Africa brought them into Ireland and in the plains of Kildare not farre from the Castle of the Naase as well by force of Art as strength miraculously set them up These stones according to the British story Aurelius Ambrosius King of the Britans procured Merlin by supernaturall means to bring from Ireland into Britain And that he might leave some famous monument of so great a treason to after ages in the same order and art as they stood formerly set them up where the flower of the British Nation fell by the cut-throat practice of the Saxons and where under the pretence of peace the ill secured youth of the Kingdom by murdrous designs were slain Rainulph Monk of Chester speaking of Aurelius alias Aurelianus Ambrosius by others called Ambrosius Aurelianus saith as Sir Iohn Trevisa the Priest in old English laid it down His brother Uter Pendragon by help of Merlin the Prophet brought Choream Gigantum that is Stonehenges out of Ireland Stonehenge is now in the plain of Salisbury of that bringing of Stonehenge out of Ireland speaketh the British story if it should lawfully be ytrowed It appears Rainulph of Chester as easie credit as he gave to strange stories had not much confidence in this and if according to Geffrey Monmouth or Matthew Westminster I should set it down I presume you would be of his mind But I affect not such conceits they are neither fitting my discourse nor your perusall Neverthelesse seeing none of them tell us by what ways or Arts Giants as they will have it brought them from the remotest parts of Africk into Ireland for it seems they could not hansomly find a Merlin to help them therein also I shall take so much leave following Geffrey Monmouths steps as to give you at least some part of the story and relate according to their opinions how they came from Ireland hither After Geffrey Monmouths discourse of Uter Pendragons victory over the Irish who with Merlin forsooth and a great Army were sent by A. Ambrosius to fetch the Giants dance Lapidum structuram adepti saith he gavisi sunt admirati circumstantibus itaque cunctis accessit Merlinus ait utimini viribus vestris juvenes ut in deponendo lapides istos sciatis utrum ingenium virtuti aut virtus ingenio cedat c. i.e. Having found the structure from joy they fell into admiration and standing all of them at gaze round about it Merlin draws near and thus bespeaks them Use now your utmost strength young men that in taking away these stones you may discover whether Art to strength or strength gives place to Art At his command therefore they bring severall sorts of engines and addresse themselves to pulling it down Some ropes some cables some had made lathers ready that what they so much desired might be effected but in no wise able to atcheive their purpose Deficientibus cunctis solutus est Merlinus in risum saith Geffrey suas machinationes confecit Denique cum quaeque necessaria apposuisset leviùs quà m credi potest lapides deposuit depositis autem fecit deferri ad naves introponi sic cum gaudio in Britanniam reverti coeperunt All of them tired Merlin breaks out into laughter and provides his engines Lastly when he had set all things in a readinesse hardly to be beleev'd it is with what facility he took them down being taken down he caused them to be carried to the Ships and imbarqued and so with joy they began their return towards Britain Leaving it for us to suppose
greater punishment for their Prisoners to enjoyn them continuall labour If observe their Order in building the only Order of Architecture which Italy may truly glory in the invention of is the Tuscane Order so called because first found out by the Tuscans that in a more then ordinary manner they might reverence their Deities in Temples composed thereof Ianus their first King according to the common opinion of divers ancient Historians being the first of all others that built Temples to the Gods Which Order though first used by the Tuscans certain it is the Romans took from them and brought it in use with other Arts in severall parts of the world as their conquests led them on Now of this Tuscan Order a plain grave and humble manner of Building very solid and strong Stoneheng principally consists So that observing the Order whereof Stoneheng built there being no such Elements known in this Island as distinct Orders of Architecture untill the Romans introduced them the very work it self of so great Antiquity declares the Romans Founders thereof Who that hath right judgement in Architecture knows not the difference and by the manner of their works how to distinguish Aegyptian Greek and Roman structures of old also Italian French and Dutch buildings in these modern times Is not our Shipping by the mould thereof known throughout the world English built Who did not by the very Order of the work assure himself the body of the Church of S. Paul London from its Tower to the West end anciently built by the Saxons as the Quire thereof from the said Tower to the East end by the Normans it being Gothick work yet that there might be a Roman Temple in old time standing in that place I will not deny the numbers of Oxeheads digged up and anciently sacrificed there setting all other reasons aside so probably manifesting the same And in all likelihood the Romans for so notable a structure as Stoneheng made choice of the Tuscane rather then any other Order not only as best agreeing with the rude plain simple nature of those they intended to instruct and use for which erected but also because presuming to challenge a certain kind of propriety therein they might take occasion thereby to magnifie to those then living the virtue of their Auncestors for so noble an invention and make themselves the more renowned to posterity for erecting thereof so well ordred a building Besides the Order is not only Roman but the Scheam also consisting of four equilaterall triangles inscribed within the circumference of a Circle by which this work Stoneheng formed was an Architectonicall Scheam used by the Romans Whereof I shall have more occasion to speak when I come to set down for what use this Antiquity at first erected Again the Portico at Stoneheng is made double as in structures of great magnificence the ancient Romans used so at the foot of the Capitol the Temple to Iove the Thunderer built by Augustus Caesar so the Pantheon at Athens royally adorned with one hundred and twenty vast columnes of rich Phrygian marble by the Emperour Adrian But some may alledge the Romans made the Pillars of their double Portico's of one and the same symmetry or very little different which in this Antiquity otherwise appearing cannot be a Roman work To as much purpose it may be alledged the Temple of Diana at Magnesia was no Greek work because the Pillars of the inner Portico were wholly left out Yet it 's true the Romans usually made them as is objected and the reason was because of the weight the inner Pillars carried now in this work no roof being to be sustained nor any manner of weight born up though the judgement of the Architect thereby to save labour and expence ordered the stones making the Portico within of a far lesse proportion then those of the outward circle it retains neverthelesse the proper Aspect principally aim'd at by the ancient Architects in use amongst the Romans and consequently for ought alledged to the contrary by them built In this Antiquity there is a Portico also as I may rightly term it within the Cell or greater Hexagon reduced likewise into the same figure Now that the Romans used to make Portico's on the inside of their buildings as well sacred as secular by the ruines of their Basilicaes or Courts of Iudicature by that Temple without a roof anciently dedicated to Iove in Mount Quirinalis now the Horse Mount in Rome by the Temple of Bacchus there of a round form at this day consecrate to S. Agnes without the gate Viminalis manifestly appears But in what ever structures else the Romans used them certain it is within their most stately Temples which lay uncovered and had no roofs they always made such Portico's and though in other Temples they sometimes dispos'd them yet from Vitruvius it may be gathered they properly belonged to the Aspect Hypaethros which was uncovered and rooflesse as this Antiquity Stoneheng he peremptorily assigning Portico's to be made on the inside of no kind of Temples but those His words are Hypaethros in interiore parte habet columnas remotas à parietibus ad circuitionem ut porticus peristyliorum Temples open to the air and without roofs have columnes on the inside distant from the walls as Courts Portico's about them Even after the same decorum as at Stoneheng Furthermore if cast an eye upon their artifice and manner of workmanship Stoneheng appears built directly agreeable to those rules which the Romans observed in great works For the Roman Architects in distinguishing the manner of their Temples always observed as Vitruvius in his third book teacheth us the greater the Columnes were the closer they set them together so in this Antiquity the stones being great the spaces betwixt them are likewise narrow The Architraves also in this work were all of them set without morter and fixed upon the upright stones by tenons as formerly described in the very same manner as in great structures where the stones solid and of more then ordinary greatnesse the Romans were wont to doe They laid them without any unctuous incorporating matter nullo fulta glutino saith Leo Baptista Albertus And divers examples of this kind might be brought I my self amongst other Antiquities have seen the ruines of an Aquaeduct built by the Romans in Provynce running through a deep valley and raised in height equall to the adjacent Mountains upon huge Arches-fifty eight foot wide the stones whereof being of extraordinary scantlings were laid without any cement or morter to incorporate them with the rest of the work And where occasion guided their judgements to the observance of this rule they united and compacted the stones together by certain ligatures or holdfasts the Italians call them Perni pegs or tops for such they resemble and we from the verb tenere to hold not improperly calling them tenons quae inferiores und superiores in lapides infixae cavatae
the same place again I may not omit neverthelesse that severall Authors deliver the Lupercalia were instituted in thankfulnesse to Lupa or the wolf that gave Romulus suck and the course of those games beginning at Mount Palatine not so much in remembrance it seems of Pans Temple there as from the Lupercal or the very place they say where Romulus was cast out Dionysius of Halicarnassus tels us the Arcadians built the aforesaid Temple to Pan idoneo invento loco c. when they had found out a convenient place for it adjoyning to their habitations the condition or nature of which place is not unworthy your observation for by his description thereof we shall easily perceive what manner of situation was by the Arcadian Shepherds held proper for performing the ceremonies of their God Pan. His words are Erat tum ut fertur spelunca sub tumulo magna denso querceto contecta sub petris profundi fonticuli solúmque rupibus contiguum nemorosum frequentibus ac proceris opacum arboribus ibi ara deo extructa more patrio sacra fecerunt Under the Hill to wit Mount Palatine was anciently as report goes saith he a great cave or den covered over by a thick grove deep wells or riverets running amongst the stones of the cave and round about it a wood by the many and tall trees growing therein very dark and obscure there the Altar of the God was placed and his Sacrifices after their Country manner performed Now is Stoneheng thus sited or was there ever any such like place near this Antiquity of all the places in England that I know none comes nearer that cave then Ochy-hole in Somersetshire And if the Ancients held such dismall situations only proper for Pans Temples then without peradventure Stoneheng was never erected in honour of him they being no innovators in their superstitions A further observation may be made to our purpose upon the aforesaid description Erat tum antrum magnum it was anciently saith Dionysius a great cave But in his own time which was under Augustus the Romans had so choked up the place with building that the manner how Pans Temple in old time stood was hardly to be discovered nunc quidem aedisiciis saith he fanum circumquaque sepientibus difficilis conjectura est qualis olim loci natura fuerit At this present verily the Temple being every way environed with buildings it is hardly to be conjectured in what manner of place it anciently stood This was the cause which enforced him to deliver to posterity the former description meerly upon report Certainly then the Romans employing the place to profaner uses Pans Deity was little esteemed by them otherwise they would never have polluted it by setting up private houses upon the place consecrated to him Now the Romans slighting him after this manner at home little reason appears so magnificent a structure as Stoneheng should be erected by them for adoration of Pan in other Countreys Furthermore the Sacrifices in times of old offered to Pan were milk and honey offered up in simple Shepherds crocks or earthen pitchers quare non ritè sacrificabant qui tauros illi immolabant aut qui in aureis poculis lac aut vinum offerebant c. Wherefore they sacrificed not aright saith Natalis Comes who immolated Buls or Oxen unto him or out of golden cups poured forth milk or wine upon his Altars for goblets of that metall were proper onely for the supernall and celestiall Deities not to terrestriall and such as had care of Heardsmen or Shepherd Swains To which purpose also the same Author out of Apollonius Smyrnaeus remembers Pan thus speaking of himself Sum Deus agrestis cur his sunt aurea sacris Pocula quo vinum funditis Italicum Ad petram cur stat taurus cervice ligatus Parcite non haec est victima grata mihi Pan montanus ego sum ligneus ipsáque vestis Pellicea est mustum è fictilibúsque bibo In English thus A rurall God am I in golden cup The Falern wine why then d'yee offer up Why at mine Altar stands the stern Bull bound Or Oxe that 's fat with laurell girland crown'd Spare ye such cost no gratefull victimes these Are unto me others lesse costly please A Mountaineer a wood-man clad in skin Am I your wine in earthen vessels bring But the Sacrifices anciently offered at Stoneheng already remembred were Buls or Oxen and severall sorts of beasts as appears by the heads of divers kinds of them not many years since there digged up As for that of the Pantheon it is very well known the Ancients so called it not in any relation to Pan but because it was sacred to Iove the Revenger and according to others to Cibele and all Gods For which reason Boniface the fourth obtained licence from the Emperour Phocas to consecrate it to the Virgin Mary and all Saints And who knows not the Architecture thereof wholly different from this of Stoneheng The Pantheon hath its Cell enclosed with a continued solid wall and the Portico only in front of the delicate Corinthian Order of which Order the inner part consisted likewise being vaulted in most admirable and magnificent manner From whence Dion Cassius delivers his opinion inde id nominis habere quòd forma convexa fastigiatum coeli similitudinem ostenderet it to be called the Pantheon because by the form of that vault wherewith covered it represented the concave of Heaven or as others will the figure of the world for the world being mans house the firmament is as the vaulted roof thereof At the crown of the vault it had an opening by which only it received light and air But this Antiquity Stoneheng built of a grave and humble Order as is said before had a double Portico continuing round about it the Cell thereof free and open and every way exposed to the air received light from all parts Wherefore leaving these Stoneheng was dedicated as I conceive to the God Coelus by some Authors called Coelum by others Uranus from whom the Ancients imagined all things took their beginning My reasons are First in respect of the situation thereof for it stands in a Plain remote from any Town or Village in a free and open air without any groves or woods about it Secondly in regard of the Aspect for Stoneheng was never covered but built without a roof Which Decorum the Romans ever observed both in the Situation and Aspect of the Temples dedicated to this their God and to Iove the Lightner the Sun and the Moon Iovi fulguratori Coelo Soli Lunae aedisicia sub divo Hypaethráque constituuntur To Jove the Lightner and to Coelus and to the Sun and to the Moon they erected buildings in the open air and uncovered saith Vitruvius in the second Chapter of his first Book Take with you also his reason Horum enim Deorum species effectus