Viewed at a distance, Stonehenge seems an unimportant object; for Its real magnitude is hardly conceived in the extensive plain or open country on which it stands, and even when seen close at hand it often fails to satisfy expectation. At first sight it appears to be little more than a confused heap of upright and fallen stones ; but a steady exa mination soon renders the nature of the original srrancement of the principal stones pretty clear, and the greatness of the work irresistibly Impresses itself on the mind. The stones are mostly much weather worn, and covered with moss and lichens. Some of the upright stones have large portions entirely eaten away, and some of the fallen oues are much broken ; but many are still square and sharp at the angles, and the tonous and mortices remain in perfect preservation. Six of the impost stones of the enter circle remain in their original position, and two of those of the trilithous of the inner circle. The remainder are fallen.
The surrounding plain is covered with a profusion of tumuli or barrows and earthworks, unparalleled in any spot of similar extent in England. Many of the barrows were opened by Sir Richard C. Hoare and his indefatigable coadjutor Mr. Cunnington, and were found to contain, in some Instances, cists or chests, filled with burnt bones, and in others entire skeletons, with various relies of British and in a few cases of Roman art. The avenue by which the work is approached from the north-cast, is a narrow strip of raised ground, hounded on each side by a slight bank of earth, and extending in a straight line from the entrance, through the vellum to the distance of 594 yards, nt which spot it divides into two branches, one of which continues south ward, and is seen between two rows of barrows, while the other pro ceeds northward, and approaches within a few yards of the cursus. The cursus is a curious and interesting appendage to Stonehenge, if it can be properly so considered. It is a fiat tract of land, hounded by two parallel banks and ditches, and is situated about half a mile N.E. from Stonehenge : it measures 1 mile, 5 furlongs, 176 yards in length, and 110 yards in breadth. Its direction is from east to west, and at the eastern extremity is a mound of earth resembling a long barrow, which stretches entirely across it. Hoare, who supposes the cursus to be a British circus, thinks this bank was where the principal spectators of the race were seated. The western extremity is destitute of any such mound, but there are two barrows irregularly placed near this end within the area of the cursus, a part of which appears also to be cut off by a slight bank. From the near resemblance of the cursus to the genuine circus of the Romans, it is reasonable to suppose that, if not formed by the Romans, it was made in imitation of their chariot course, and by a people familiar with their manners and customs. In Hoare's 'Ancient Wiltshire' is a map showing the surface of the plain around Stonehenge to the extent of about five miles from cast to west by three miles from north to south. In this area there are at least 300 barrows or tumuli of various sizes and shapes.
The object for which Stonehenge was constructed, and the date of its erection, have engaged both the research and the imagination of antiquaries, but no definite conclusion has been arrived at. Iu 1846, the Rev. E. Duke, in his 'Druidical Temples of the County of Wilts,' extending the suggestions of some previous writers, made an elaborate attempt to show that Stonehenge was a temple of Saturn, and a mem ber of a vast planetarium, representing, in conjunction with Avebury and the barrows and other primeval remains on Salisbury Plain, the solar system, and extending over a wide extent of country, "on a meridian 32 miles in length." The stones of the inner circle of Stone
henge, he thinks, were brought from Egypt for the purpose of being erected here I Rickman, the celebrated writer on gothic architecture, published a paper in the Archmologia ' (vol. xxviii.), in which he argues that Stonehenge was formed in the 4th century of the Christian era, or before the final departure of the Romans from Britain. Mr. A. Herbert has, in a work entitled Cyclops Christiauus,' developed at great length and supported with much curious learning, a novel theory—that Stonehenge was erected early in the 5th century of the Christian era by a neo-Drnidie sect, who sought to preserve or restore the old Druidic faith under Christian forms, and raised Stonehenge as in some measure a substitute for the ancient Druidic groves.
It is perhaps scarcely to be expected that anything better than n very vague conjecture can now be formed as to the time when this work was constructed, or the purpose for which it was raised. That it was erected by a Celtic tribe, and not by Romans or Saxons, is sup ported by all analogy, and appears to be admitted by most antiquaries. It is evident from the vast number of tumuli which cover the plain, and the traces of primitive villages which Hoare found within a few miles of Stonehenge, that hero was the residence and the cemetery of an extensive tribe. The tumuli which have been opened in the neigh bourhood are all of an ante-Roman date ; but it is remarkable that in the only recorded excavations made within the area of Stonehenge Roman pottery was each time found. Sir R. C. Hoare found, on excavating within the inner circle, "several fragments of Roman as well itSi of coarse British pottery, parts of the heads and horns of deer and other animals, and a large barbed arrow-head of iron. Dr. Stuke ley says that ho dug close to the altar, and that at the depth of one foot he came to the solid chalk. Mr. Cuunington also dug about the same place to the depth of nearly six feet, and found the chalk had been moved to that depth; and at about the depth of three feet ho found some Roman pottery, and at the depth of six feet some pieces of sareen stones, throe fragments of half-baked pottery, and some charred wood. Some small pieces of bone, a little charred wood, and some coarse pottery were intermixed with the soil." These exca vations seem to prove that this was not a place of sepulture, but rather of sacrifice. The curates shows that the immediate vicinity of Stonehenge was a place of assemblage for public sports, and public sports were generally in early times associated with religious cere monies. The great labour, skill, and cost necessary to the erection of such a structure as Stonehenge, lead us to the conclusion that it must have been intended for some great public purpose. On the whole we incline to the opinion, as in the instance of Avasuar, that this extra ordinary structure was a British temple, or a place of for important deliberations, and probably was appropriated to both purposes, as well as to solemn judicial investigations. But the mechanical skill and art displayed in its construction, lead us to infer that Stonehenge was raised at a time when the tribe had made a considerable advance beyond the state of cultivation existing when Avebury was erected. In a word, we believe that it was erected probably not very long before the Roman conquest of Britain ; while the discovery of Roman pottery within its area shows that it continued to be used for some time after that event.