STONEHENGE, a celebrated monu ment of antiquity, stands in the middle of a flat area, near the summit of a hill six miles distant from Salisbury. It is in closed by a circular double bank and ditch, near thirty feet broad, after cross ing which we ascend 30 yards before we reach the work. The whole fabric con sisted of two eircles and two ovals. The outer circle is about 180 feet diameter ; consisting, when entire, of 60 stones, 30 uprights and 30 imposts, of which remain only 24 uprights, 17 standing, and 7 down, 31j feet asunder, and 8 imposts. Eleven uprights have their 5 imposts on them by the grand entrance. These stones are from 13 to 20 feet high. The lesser cir cle is somewhat more than 8 feet from the inside of the outer one, and consisted of 40 lesser stones, (the highest 6 feet,) of which only 19 remain, and only 11 standing : the walk between these two circles is 300 feet in circumference. The adytum, or cell, is an oval formed of 10 stones (from 16 to 22 feet high) in pairs, with imposts, which Dr. Stokely calls trilithons, and above 30 feet high, rising in height as as they go round, and each pair separate, and not connected as the outer pair ; the highest 8 feet. Within these are 19 more smaller single stones, of which only six are standing. At the upper end of the adytum is the altar, a lirge slab of blue coarse marble, 20 inch es thick, 16 feet long, and 4 broad; press ed down by the weight of the vast stones that have fallen upon it. The whole number of stones, uprights, imposts, and altar, is exactly 140. The stones are far from being artificial, but were most probably brought from those called the Grey Weathers, on Marlborough Downs, 15 or 16 miles off ; and if tried with a tool, they appear of the same hardness, grain, and colour, generally reddish. The heads of oxen, deer, and other beasts, have been found on digging in and about Stonehenge ; and human bones in the circumjacent barrows. There are three entrances from the plain to this structure, the most considerable of which is from the north-east, and at each of them were raised, on the outside of the trench, two huge stones, with two small er within, parallel to them.
It has been long a dispute among the learned, by what nation, and for what purpose, these enormous stones were collected and arranged. The first ac count of this structure we meet with is in Geoffrey of Monmouth, who, in the reign of King Stephen, wrote the history 9f the Britons in Latin. He tells us, that it was erected by the counsel of Merlin, the British enchanter, at the command of Aurelius Ambrosius, the last British King, in memory of 460 Britons, who were murdered by Hengist the Saxon. The next account is that of Polydore Virgil, who says that the Britons erected this as a sepulchral monument of Aure lius Ambrosius. Others suppose it to have been a sepulchral monument of Boadicea, the famous British Queen. Inigo Jones is of opinion that it was a Roman temple, from a none 16 feet long, and 4 broad, placed in an exact position to the eastward, altar fashion. Mr. Charlton at tributed it to the Danes, who were two years masters of Wiltshire ; a tin tablet, on which were some unknown characters, supposed to be Punic, was dug up near it in the reign of Henry VIII. but is lost : probably that might have given some in formation respecting its founders. Its common name, Stonehenge, is Saxon, and signifies a "stone gallows," to which those stones having transverse imposts bear some resemblance. It is also called in Welsh choir ,pour, or "the giant's dance." Mr Grose thinks that Dr. Stukely has completely proved this struc. ture to have been a British temple, in which the Druids officiated. He supposes it to have been the metropolitan temple of Great Britain, and translates the words choir, gour, "the great choir, or temple." STonz wore, a species of pottery, so call ed from its hardness. See DELrr ware, PORCELAIN, and Porrany. Clay is a prin cipal ingredient in pottery of all kinds, which has the property of hardening in the fire, and of receiving and preserving any form into which it is moulded. One kind of clay resists the most violent ac tion of the fire, after being hardened to a certain degree ; but is incapable of receiv ing a sufficient degree of hardness and solidity. A second kind assumes a hard ness resembling that of flint, and such a compactness, that vessels made of it have a glossy appearance in their fracture, re porcelain. These two species owe their peculiar properties, of resisting heat without melting, to sand, chalk, gypsum, or ferruginous earth, which they contain. A third species of clay begins to harden with a moderate fire, and melts entirely with a strong fire. It is of the se cond species that stone ware is made. The most famous manufactory of stone ware, as well as of other kinds of pottery, is at Burslem, in Staffordshire. This can be traced, with certainty, at least two centuries back; but of its first introduc tion no tradition remains. In 1686, as we learn from Dr. Plot's " Natural History of Staffordshire," published in that year, only the coarse yellow, red, black, and mottled wares were made in this country ; and the only materials employed for them appear to have been the different colour ed clays which are found in the neigh bourhood, and which form some of the measures or strata of the coal mines. These coarse clays made the body of the ware, and the glaze was produced by powdered lead ore, sprinkled on the pieces before firing, with the addition of a little manganese for some particular co lours. The quantity of goods manufac
tured was at that time so inconsiderable, that the chief sale of them, the Doctor says, was" to poor crate-men, who carried them on their backs all over the country." About the year 1690," two ingenious arti zans from Germany, of the name of Eller, settled near Burslem, and carried on a small work for a little time. They brought into this country the method of glazing stone ware, by casting salt into the kiln while it is hot, and some other improvements of less importance ; but finding they could not keep their secrets to themselves, they left the place rather in disgust. From this time, various kinds of stone ware, glazed by the fumes of salt, in the manner above mentioned, were added to the wares before made. The white kind, which afterwards be came, and for many succeeding years con tinued the staple branch of pottery, is said to have owed its origin to the follow ing accident. A potter, Mr. Astbury, travelling to London, perceived some thing amiss with one of his horses' eyes; an hostler at Dunstable said he could soon cure him, and for that purpose put a com mon black flint stone into the fire. The potter observing it, when taken out, to be of a fine white, immediately conceived the idea of improving his ware by the addi tion of this material to the whitest clay he could procure : accordingly he sent home a quantity of the flint stones of that country, where they are plentiful among the chalk, and by mixing them with tobac co pipe clay, produced a white stone ware, much superior to any that had been seen before. Some of the other potters soon discovered the source of this superiority, and did not fail to follow his example. For a long time they pounded the flint stones in private rooms, by manual la bour, in mortars ; but many of the poor workmen suffered severely from the dust of the flint getting into their lungs, and producing dreadful coughs, consump tions, and other pulmonary disorders. These disasters, and the increased de mand for the flint powder, induced them to try to grind it by mills of various con structions; and this method being found both effectual and safe, has continued in practice ever since. With these im provements, in the beginning of the pre sent century, various articles were pro duced for tea and coffee equipages. Soon after attempts were made to fur nish the dinner table also ; and, before the middle of the century, utensils for the table were manufactured in quantity, as well for exportation as home consump tion. But the salt glaze, the only one then in use for this purpose, is in its own nature so imperfect, and the potters, from an injudicious competition among themselves for cheapness, rather than ex cellence, had been so inattentive to ele gance of form, and neatness of workman ship, that this ware was rejected from the tables of persons of rank ; and about the year 1760, a white ware, much more beautiful, and better glazed than ours, began to be imported in considerable quantities from France. This inunda tion of a foreign manufacture, so much superior to any of our own, must have bad very bad effects upon the potteries of this kingdom, if a new one, still more to the public taste, had not appeared soon after. In the year 1763, Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, who had already introduced several improvements into this art, in. vented a species of earthen ware for the table, quite new in its appearance, cover. ed with a rich and brilliant glaze; bear ing sudden alternations of heat and cold, manufactured with ease and expedition, and consequently cheap, and having eve ry requisite for the purpose intended. To this new manufacture the Queen was pleased to give her name and patronage, commanding it to be called Queen's Ware, and honouring the inventor by ap pointing him her Majesty's potter. The common clay of the country is used for the ordinary sorts ; the finer kinds are made of clay from Devonshire and Dor setshire, chiefly from Biddeford ; but the flints from the Thames are all brought rough, by sea, either to Liverpool, or Hull, and so by Burton. There is no conjecture formed of the original reason of fixing the manufacture in this spot, except for the convenience of plenty of coals, which abound under all the country. The flints are first ground in mills, and the clay pre proportions. The flints are bought first by the people about the country, and by them burnt and ground, and sold to the manufacturers by the peck. The mixture is then laid in large quantities on kilns, to evaporate the moisture ; but this is a nice work, as it must not be too dry ; next it is beat with large wooden hammers, and then is in order for throwing, and is moulded into the forms in which it is to remain ; this is the most difficult work in the whole manufacture. A boy turns a perpendicular wheel, which, by means of thongs, turns a small horizontal one, just before the thrower, with such velocity, that it twirls round the lump of clay he lays on into any form he directs it with his fingers.
There were many years ago 500 houses, which were calculated to employ, upon an average, 2u hands each, or 6000 in the whole ; but of all the variety of people that work in what may be called the pre paration for the employment of the im mediate manufacturers, the total number is said to be not much short of 15,000, and it is increasing every day. Large quantities are exported to Germany, Ire land, Holland, Russia, Spain, the Exult In dies, and much to America ; some of the finest sorts to France.