* That is, a grove so dense and gloomy that no star could penetrate it.

+ Near this spot is a respectable Inn, which commands an extensive and beautiful prospect, and has on its sign-board, one of the best representations of the Cromlech that has yet been painted. The inn affords comfortable accommodation for persons inclined to spend a few days in this part of Kent. Those who establish their quarters here in summer-time, not unfrequently take their wine and coffee in the ancient cell which furnishes occasion for this note. The illustrative Cut has been executed from a drawing made by Mr. Thomas Underwood, formerly draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries.

Hence, some antiquaries have absurdly asserted that this work was erected as a monument over the grave of King Catigern. In the adjoining field are some stones which are supposed to be the remains of another cromlech, but more probably, from their appearance, they formed an altar.*—That verbal communications were made in these oratories, may be reasonably deduced from the following circumstances. In the north of Ireland, the catholic priests used to instruct and catechise the children in their cells;and there is, on the top of a mountain at the head of Loch-lomond, a mass of rock resembling a cromlech, and here the minister of the place assembles the people once a year, and delivers a discourse in the Gaelic language. As the Jews, after their conversion to Christianity, in the days of the apostles, still retained

--

*The following more particular account of these, and some other contiguous monuments, published by the Editor, in his "History of Kent," (vide "Beauties of England and Wales," vol. viii.) may not be unacceptable to our readers.

an attachment to their accustomed ceremonies, so there is reason to believe that the Britons after their conversion to Christianity still had a veneration for the pillar and the cromlech, and preferred performing their worship at those places;-and hence the origin of the custom in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland.

There is a tradition current at Brighton, (as well as in other places) that the attempts to build the church on a spot fixed on for it, were frustrated by the evil spirit, who continued to throw down in the night what the builders had raised in the day; until wearied out, they chose a new spot, and were allowed to proceed in the work without interruption.

The old church at Brighton is erected on such a steep ascent, and in so bleak a situation, that it

were most probably dug up in the immediate vicinity, as the soil for some distance round, is found to abound with similar huge and independent masses. Still nearer to Aylesford, and within one hundred yards from the road to Tottington farmhouse, (formerly the site of a mansion, and moated round) is a remarkable stone, called by Dr. Stukeley, the Coffin, from its shape; its length is upwards of fourteen feet; its breadth, about six; and its thickness, two feet.

Much has been written in regard to the real design of these cromlechs, but more especially of Kit's Cotty House. The long-established opinion that the latter was the monument of Catigern, was first contested by Mr. Colebrooke, (treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries,) who in the second volume of the

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KIT'S COTTY-HOUSE, which stands on the Downs, about one mile north-eastward from Aylesford church, is composed of four huge stones, unwrought; three of them standing on end, but inclined inwards, and supporting the fourth, which lies transversely over 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, eight feet; breadth, seven feet and a half; thickness, two feet; weight, eight tons. Height of that on the north side, seven feet; breadth, seven feet and a half; thickness, two feet; weight, eight tons and a half. The middle stone is very irregular; its medium length, as well as breadth, may be about five feet; its thickness, about one foot two inches; and its weight, about two tons. The upper stone, or impost, is also extremely irregular ; its greatest length is nearly twelve feet; and its breadth, about nine feet and a quarter; its thickness is two feet; and its weight, about ten tons and a half. The width of the recess, at bottom, is nine feet; and at top, seven feet and a half; from the ground to the upper side of the covering stone, is nine feet. 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 seventy 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. Dr. Borlase conjectures that the name, Kit's Cotty House, is a corruption from the British word, Koeton, or Coeton, a quoit.—At the distance of about five hundred yards south-eastward of Kit's Cotty House, has been another Cromlech, consisting of eight or ten stones, now lying in a confused heap, it having been thrown down about the beginning of the last century, by order of the then proprietor of the land, who is said to have intended send-proportionate mould, to secure the dust, or at least to point ing the stones" to pave the garrison at Sheerness," after they had been broken to pieces. This design was prevented by the extreme hardness of the stones, which are of the same kind with those of the other cromlech, and, together with them,

Archæologia," without the least footsteps, as Mr. Pegge afterwards observed in the fourth volume of the same work, "from etymology, or otherwise, except a vague and uncertain passage in Bede," inclined to suppose it the tomb of Horsa; and in contradiction to the general tradition, removed the burial place of Catigern to the Druidical Circle, at Addington, about eight miles farther to the west, and on the opposite side of the Medway. His conjectures, however, have made but few converts, and the current opinion still inclines to the belief that the Saxon chief, Horsa, was buried at Horsted, (a farm about three miles from Rochester, and just within the liberties of that city), which, says Philipott, in echo to Lambard, "borrows its name from Horsa; and there is something which, even at this day, lies wrapt up in the name that induces us to believe that Horsa, after his slaughter, received the rites of his funeral at this place ;—and, in our grandfathers' memory, there were the scattered remains of diverse huge massy stones, which storms and other impressions of time have altogether demolished: and these certainly were, in elder times, composed into a figure Kit's Cot-House, above Alresford, were framed into the same of a monument, to shroud the ashes of this Horsa; as those at

out to posterity, the memory of Catigern." The spot where Horsa is thought to have been interred, is now a wood, at a short distance from the farm; with nothing to point it out, at present, but the remains of an old pollard. Several celts, (chiefly brass,) ancient spurs, old swords, and other antiquities, + Vide Thorpe's account of Aylesford, in the "Custumale have been found, at different times, in digging on the Downs, Roffense," p. 64--75,

in the neighbourhood of Aylesford.-Ed.

rocks, as the famous one near the Lands-end, in Cornwall, which a lieutenant and his men displaced some years since, and tumbled down to a ledge of the rocks below. Others are on level ground; others on rocky hills on the sea coast; and many in the interior of the country. Some of these are from eighty to one hundred tons weight, yet vibrate, or rock, with a slight pressure of the hand; hence they are termed rocking stones.

amounted to a prohibition to aged and infirm people | stone, sometimes placed on the summit of a pike of to reach it. The reason assigned for this is, that a situation in the town was determined on, but relinquished for similar reasons to those just alledged. The true cause, most probably, was the attachment of the majority of the people to the sacred stones near the spot where the church was ultimately built. These stones gave name to the place, i. e. Brit-hely-stone, or the British holy stone, corrupted into Bright-helmstone, and now contracted into Brighton. It is also probable, that like the priests of Delphos and Dodona, the British priests imposed on the people by pretended oracular responses. There is a tradition respecting the large top of a cromlech, in Cornwall, that was removed to a brook at a distance, and converted into a bridge; it is said that this stone possessed the power of speech, and answered questions put to it, until on a certain time, it cracked in an effort to speak, and has been silent even since. This vague tradition must have originated in the oracular use made of the cromlech from whence the stone was taken.

In many places, particularly in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, (and in the Northern countries) are conical heaps of loose stones: they are called Cairns. The heap of stones to which Jacob gave the name of Galeed, or the circular mound of witness, was of this kind, it was raised to remain as a memorial of the amicable agreement that Laban and Jacob entered into. But we read also in sacred writ, of stones that were heaped over persons in token of disgrace; and this seems to have been the general application of this structure with us. In Scotland it was usual to say to a person with whom another had been offended; never mind, I shall throw a stone upon your cairn yet:" as much as to say, I shall see you come to an ill end. It has been noticed by travellers, that in passing over some parts of the deserts, the Arabs, when they had an opportunity, furnished themselves with a quantity of stones, which on passing some Cairns, they threw upon them.*

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The Logan, or Rocking Stone, is without precedent in sacred history; it consists of an enormous mass of

* Cairns were unquestionably raised in many instances over the bodies of deceased heroes and chieftains; not in evidence of want of desert, but in respect and honour to those deposited beneath these artificial tumuli. Rowland derives the word

from the two Hebrew words, - Kern-nd, or Keren Nedh, that is, a coped heap. Cairns, also, in remote ages, appear to have been a species of altars, on which, among the Celtic nations, great fires were made in honour of Apollo, and thence the name of Karnen (Kapveios) Apollo. Vide Higgins' "Celtic Druids."-ED.

At a place in Derbyshire was a very large stone of this kind, which in their zeal against idolatry and superstition, Cromwell's soldiers broke into pieces, when they discovered that the stone was rendered thus moveable by a pivot worked in one stone, and a socket in the other. This must have been effected in large masses on the tops of high rocks, like that at

It should be stated, however, in justice to the party who in a mere thoughtless frolic overthrew this venerable remain, that it was shortly afterwards re-instated in nearly its original position, by the perpetrators of the mischief; who, whilst thus making honourable amends for their previous folly, evinced great ingenuity and skilfulness in the construction of the apparatus by which they effected the restoration. In Fisher's "Cornwall Illustrated," is a very romantic view of the Logan rock, and its surmounting rocking stone.--

This remarkable event merits a more circumstantial detail. The Logan Stone is an immense mass of granite, the weight of which has been computed by different persons at from seventy to ninety tons. Whilst the Nimble Cutter, commanded by Lieutenant Goldsmith, was lying off the Land's End, on the preventive service, that officer went on shore (April 8th, 1824) with fourteen of his men, and after much perseverance, by means of handspikes and a handscrew, called by sailors Jack in the Box, they succeeded in throwing over the stone. This inconsiderate and mischievous act excited great indignation throughout Cornwall; but, at length, the amende honourable was nobly made, and in the beginning of December, in the same year, after three days' laborious exertion, the Logan Stone was replaced upon its point of equilibrium, and now “rocks as before." Large chain cables were fastened round the stone and attached to the blocks by which it was lifted; and this was affected by the aid of three pair of large sheers, six capstans, worked by eight men each, and numerous pulleys. On the first day, when the rock was first swung in the air by its complicated tackling, in the presence of about two thousand persons, much anxiety was expressed as to the success of the undertaking; the ropes were much stretched, and the pulleys, the sheers, and the capstans, all screeched and groaned; the noise of the machinery being audible at some distance. Sufficient stays, however, were supplied to prevent accident; and on the third day the work was successfully accomplished by the united labours of about sixty men. Lieutenant Goldsmith, himself, directed the operations; and by the great personal attention and skill which he exerted in this hazardous enterprize, was acknowledged to have fully compensated for his thoughtless frolic in overthrowing the stone.-Ep.

the Lands-end, at the expense of much time and labour. Some of these appear to have been formed by accident; the falling, or decomposing rock having rested on a point, on which it was so delicately poised as to admit of being put in motion by the hand.

The purpose to which these stones was applied, can now only be conjectured. That which Mason has assigned to them, in his drama of Caractacus, is a highly probable one; viz. that the British priests, in whom were united the priest and the judge, made these logan or rocking stones the test of the innocence, or guilt of the persons brought to their tribunal. In illustration of this, he introduces two young men, charged with being traitors to their king and country, and placed before the judgment seat of the Druids; whom the Arch-Druid thus addressed, at the same time pointing to this solemn test.

Turn

"Thither youths

your astonish'd eyes-behold yon huge
And unhewn mass of living adamant!
Which, pois'd by magic, rests its central weight
On yonder pointed rock.-Fix'd as it seems,
Such are its strange and virtuous properties,
It moves, obsequious to the slightest touch

Of him, whose breast is pure; but-to the traitor !
Although a giant's prowess nerv'd his arm,
It stands as firm as Snowden. No reply;
The Gods command, that one of you should now
Approach, and touch it.---Priests, in your snowy vests
The lots deposit, and, as our wont is,
Present them to the younger.

It is certain from the structure of this test, that

it must move on being touched, unless prevented previously, which might easily be done by the insertion of a small wedge between the pivot and the edge of the socket in which it was intended to move.

common name in Cornwall and Scilly is Tolmen, or the "Hole of Stone;" it consists of a large spherical stone, supported by two others, between which there is a passage. There are two of these on the Scilly isles, one on St. Mary's Island, at the Salakee downs; the other on the little isle of Northwithee. The top stone of the first of these is forty-five feet in girt, horizontally, by twenty-four perpendicular measurement.-But the most astonishing monument, of this kind, is in the tenement of Mên, 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 thirty-three feet, being in a direction due north and south. Its height, measured perpendicularly, over the opening, is fourteen feet six inches; and the breadth, in the widest part, eighteen feet six inches, extending from east to west. I measured one half of the circumference, and found it, according to my computation, forty-eight and a half feet, so that this stone is ninety-seven feet in circumference, lengthways and about sixty feet in girt, measured at the middle; and by the best information it contains about seven hundred and fifty tons. Getting a ladder to view the top of it, we found the whole surface worked, like an imperfect or mutilated honeycomb, into basins; one, much larger than the rest, was, at the south end, about seven feet long."

The salutary idea attached to passing through these apertures is very probably a modern one.

In Nor

Dr. Borlase here seems to have viewed this part of his subject solely through the medium of the antiquary; the geololike cavities to decomposition; and they are to be seen where gist views it in a very different light, and attributes these basonthere is not the least vestige of druidical antiquity. It would

Another relic of British antiquity is that which is termed the Tolmen, that is the " Hole of Stone." The Tolmen was either an immense stone, so placed on an opening or small chasm in the rocks, as that an aper-appear to have commenced with soft places in the rock, which ture was formed between its supporters; or it was a stone with a hole artificially pierced through it, of a size sufficient to admit a child, and some of them a grown person, to be passed through.

In Cornwall, it was the general opinion that, by being thus passed through or under a tolmen, children were cured of weakness in their limbs; as were invalids of every description, of their different maladies. This was the belief and practice in Cornwall at no very distant period. Borlase notices the Tolmen in the following manner:-"There is," says he, "another kind of stone deity, which has never been taken notice of, by any other author that I have heard of; its

have retained moisture, and thus subjected those parts to the and frost and thaw in winter. These spots seem to have been decomposing effects of alternate heat and moisture in summer, the central points from which the decomposition has proceeded, in different directions, sometimes producing circular and at other times elliptical cavities; and it is surprising how accurately some of the circles are formed; so that, if previously correct, nor is the spherical scooping performed with less marked out with compasses, they could not have been more nicety. When a number of these have formed near each other, and by their gradual extending come in contact, they have then produced the honey-comb appearance, which Dr. Borlase describes. It still is probable that some of them may have been would be visible, as in the knobs and cavities of the trilithons made by art; but, in this case, the mark of the iron instrument at Stonehenge.

mandy is a church, having in it two columns so near | riment, at the expense of the unsuccessful essayist. each other, that only persons of modern bulk can It is not improbable that, originally, this ceremony press through the opening between them. Most had a symbolical meaning, and had a reference to people who visit this church are invited to make the passing from one state to another.-The subjoined attempt, which is frequently attended with some mer- cut represents the Constantine Tolmen.*

We have now completed a cursory view of those remains of stone erections in this country, which are generaly attributed to the British Druids. Destitute of inscription or sculpture, which might refer them to any particular period or origin, we have had to derive what knowledge is at this day attainable, from their respectire semblances to the unhewn pillars, &c. of patriarchal times, as described in the pages of sacred history; nor has our research, it is presumed, been altogether an unsatisfactory one, since we have, in the first place, ascertained that they are of patriarchal origin, and common to both Israelites and Canaanites, the latter being a name given to the Phoenicians on accourt of the commercial habits of that people.

that they were all the work of Sidonian maids. These notices were taken of the Tyrian and Sidonian manufactures about one thousand years before the present era; the state of their commerce and skill in navigation, at the same period, is evident from the circumstance of the King of Tyre and King Solomon's fitting out a fleet of discovery, that was absent three years sailing along the Mediterranean shores of Africa, circumnavigating the whole of that peninsula, and returning by the red sea to the Isthmus of Suez.

The article of tin being mentioned by Moses is a proof that the Phoenician colony in Cornwall was then settled, and working the tin mines in his days, that is 1500 years B. C. An additional proof of the presence of the Phoenicians in Britain is the remains of their language in this country and in the north of Ireland, where the language of one province is decidedly Phoenician, as Colonel Vallancey has most clearly proved, in his

mining the origin of these ancient remains in our own

We have also ascertained that the Phoenicians thenselves, introduced them into this country, which they had discovered in the course of their enterprizing voyages, and on account of the tin which Cornwall preduces, they settled a colony there; as they did in" Collectanea De Rebus Hibernicis."-By thus deterevery place which favoured the extension of their conmerce and the encouragement of their manufactures, in which the Tyrians and Sidonians far surpassed all other nations. Of this we may form an adequate idea from the various works which Hiram the Tyrian was capable of executing, as recorded in 2 Chronicles chap. ii. Homer, also, to enhance the character of some curious pieces of needle-work, says

There are monuments of this kind in Ireland; one of which, called St. Declan's Stone, is thus noticed in the "History of the County of Waterford," p. 70. "It lies shelving upon the point of a rock, and on the patron-day of this saint, great numbers creep under this stone three times, in order, as they pretend, to cure and prevent pains in the back. This stone, they tell you, swam miraculously from Rome, conveying upon it St. Declan's bell and vestments."—ED.