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COXE’s TRAVELS IN DENMARK. 349
it was another mound, on the top of which another large ftone was placed in a fimilar
manner on four others. I remarked veftiges of trenches; but as the place was covered
with underwood, and night approached, I could not trace their dire¢tion.”’
Yo our inquiries in feveral parts of Sweden, concerning the origin of thefe ancient
relics, the peafants generally anfwered, that they were eredled bya race of giants for-
merly inhabiting thefe countries. We have many fimilar monuments in our ifland, and
particularly that of the Rol-rich ftones, near Burford in Oxfordfhire, the Snake’s Head
of Overton Temple, as defcribed by Stukeley * ; fome of thofe which are delineated in
Borlafe’s Antiquities of Cornwall, and that circular range in Cumberland, of which Mr.
Pennant t has given an engraving in his Tour to Scotland, feem moft to refemble thofe
which I obferved in Sweden and Denmark. I cannot, however, but add, that Olaus
Wormius, and other authors, highly exaggerate when they deduce any refemblance be-
tween the ftupendous fabric of Stone Henge, and thefe trifling, though genuine, remains
of high antiquity, and {till more erroneoufly conclude from that fanciful refemblance,
that Stone Henge { was conftruéted by our Anglo-Saxon anceftors, who migrated from
thefe northern parts.
Endlefs controverfies have arifen among the learned concerning their origin and
deftination ; and each author maintains that they were raifed by that particular nation,
or fect, which beft fuits his favourite hypothefis. \ Thus they are ftyled by different au-
thors, Celtic, Gothic, Danifh§, Saxon, Piatic ; and by others have been folely attri-
buted to the Druids, a favourite order of men, under whom we are too apt to fhelter
our ignorance. Although thefe rude monuments are undoubtedly of fuch high anti-
quity as almoft to baffle our inquiries, yet we may infer, from hiftorical evidence, that
they had not all the fame original deftination ; fome were raifed as memorials of ma
* Stukeley’s Abury, p. 4. tab. ili. p. 40. and tab. xxi,
+ Tour into Scotland, and annexed plate.
$ It is curious to trace the different fyftems which have been framed concerning the origin of Stone
Fieage s and to obferve upon what vague and uncertain principles each author has founded his hypo-
thelis.
The celebrated archite&t, Inige Jones, in a work entitled ‘ Stone Henge reftored,” endeavours to afé
certain, but without fufficient proof, that it was a Roman temple, confecrated to Coelum, and conkruGted
between the times of Agricola and Conftantine the Great. Dr. Charleton, on the contrary, in his * Stone
Henge reftored to the Danes,” entirely overturns the fyftem of Inigo Jones; and contends, with more in»
‘ genuity than argument, that it was built in the beginning of Alfred’s reign by the Danes, who over-ran
great part of England, as a place for the election of their kings.
John Webb, Ef. in “ A Vindication of Stone Henge reftored,” refutes, with much learning, the opis
nion of Dr. Charleton, but fails in re-eftablifhing the fyftem of Inigo Jones. Some fuppofe it to have
been ereéted in memory of four hundred and fixty Britons maflacred by Hengift; a chimerical notion,
arifing merely from the fimilarity of the words Henge and Hengift; others, that it was raifed in honour of
Aurelias Ambrofius, the laft Britifth king ; anda few that it was a fepulchral monument of Bonduca, by
the Old Britons.
Dr. Stukeley, in his elaborate treatife on Stone Henge, has completely overturned all thefe
fyftems of former writers; but is not equally fuccefsful in eftablifhing his favourite pofition, that it was a
Druidical temple.
In a word, all that can be collected, from a diligent examination of the feveral fyftems, is, that it isa
monument of very high antiquity, far beyond the reach of hiftory or tradition; and that there are not fuf-
ficient data by which any certain opinion can be formed of its origin.
§ Olaus Wormius, in the true fpirit of national prejudice, fuppofes all thefe monuments to have been
erected by the Danes, becaufe great numbers are found in Denmark, upon which affertion Stukeley ob-
ferves, their being in Denmark does not prove them to have been founded by the Danes, as they exifted in
that country long before any mention is made in hiftory of the Danes; but they muft have been raifed be-
fore that people occupied the northern ifles, by the Cimbrians, or Goths of old; and if not by them, by
whom is not aan from ftory.
terial
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