FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   >>  
mphitheatre have presented, the vallum and its declivities lined with spectators, whilst the hallowed area was preserved for the officiating Druids, and perhaps the higher order of the people! Gentle Reader! be ye lordling or lowlier born, once more _turn back to the engraving_. We have a subject of yesterday rife and ready for you, on the next page; but _turn to the engraving_. Look again at those circles, and the fantastic forms that compose them, and think of the infatuated thousands that were wont to assemble round them, and of the idolized sons of power that once stood within their hallowed area. Think of those days of sacrifice and superstition--those orgies of ignorance and barbarism--and contrast them with the happy, happy age of religious liberty in which it is your boast and blessing to live--and then you may read "sermons in stones," to the masterminds of your own time. To us, the stones of Abury are part of the poetry of savage life, and of more interest than all the plaster toys of these days. But they may not be so with you and "FINIS." We were once compensated for missing Fonthill and its finery, by witnessing day-break from Salisbury Plain, and associating its glories with the time-worn relics of STONEHENGE! The _engraving_ and data are from Mr. Higgins's Celtic Druids, for the loan of which and a portion of this article, we thank our friend "JAMES SILVESTER," whose valuable note on "_Circular Temples_" must stand over for our next. * * * * * We had penciled for our Supplement the following beautiful lines from Mr. Watts's "Literary Souvenir," but they will be more in place here. _Silbury_ is an immense mound adjoining the road to Devizes, and opposite Abury; Sir R.C. Hoare thinks it part of Abury; but H. and many others think it the sepulchre of a King or Arch-Druid. SILBURY HILL. Grave of Cunedha, were it vain to call For one wild lay of all that buried lie Beneath thy giant mound? From Tara's hall Faint warblings yet are heard, faint echoes die Among the Hebrides: the ghost that sung In Ossian's ear, yet wails in feeble cry On Morvern: but the harmonies that rung Around the grove and cromlech, never more Shall visit earth: for ages have unstrung The Druid's harp, and shrouded all his lore, Where under the world's ruin sleep in gloom The secrets of the flood,--the letter'd store, Which Seth's memorial pillars from th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   >>  



Top keywords:
engraving
 

stones

 
Druids
 
hallowed
 

Supplement

 

beautiful

 

SILBURY

 

Cunedha

 

Temples

 
Circular

penciled

 

Devizes

 
opposite
 
adjoining
 
Silbury
 

sepulchre

 
immense
 
thinks
 

Souvenir

 

Literary


unstrung

 

shrouded

 

cromlech

 

memorial

 

pillars

 
letter
 
secrets
 

Around

 

warblings

 

echoes


buried
 
Beneath
 

feeble

 

Morvern

 
harmonies
 
Hebrides
 

Ossian

 

Salisbury

 

thousands

 
infatuated

assemble

 

compose

 

circles

 
fantastic
 

idolized

 
orgies
 

superstition

 

ignorance

 

barbarism

 

contrast