Original Communications.

THE DRUIDS AND ANCIENT

BRITONS.

THE Society called the Druids, now existing in England, little as its members may resemble that secret but celebrated fraternity from whom they take their name, from time to time awake attention to facts connected with those once omnipotent rulers of their fellow men. All that can be recounted on this subject is read with eager interest. Nor can we wonder at its charm. How striking is the scene which the remains of the Druids must present to the "mind's eye" of the least imaginative! How imposing is that spectacle in which we see our wild forefathers, their bodies scarified by deep incisions, and painted blue, as we learn from Richard of Cirencester was the mode, with their long, matted hair, bearded lip, and wildly glis tening eyes, bending before the priests or prophets, who were supposed to be intimately acquainted with the eternal will, No. 1181]

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and consequently skilled, par excellence, to direct and guide all human affairs! Though strikingly impressive, this was no uncommon spectacle. Issuing from their dreary forests, our rude ancestors approached the dread sages whose word alone they believed could wither them, whose wrath could assuredly destroy, with awful reverence, to learn so much of their lore as these fathers of mankind condescended to impart. There the victim offered to appease celestial rage sunk beneath the golden knife, and kings were instructed what course it was permitted them to pursue.

"We learn," says Mr D'Israeli, in his 'Amenities of Literature,' that the Druidical sciences were contained in twenty thousand verses, which were to prompt their perpetual memory. Such traditional science could not be very progressive; what was to be got by rote no disciple would care to consider obsolete, and a century might elapse without furnishing an additional couplet. The Druids, like some [VOL. XLIII.

other institutions of antiquity, by not perpetuating their doctrines, or their secrets, in this primeval state of theology and philosophy, by writing, have effectually concealed their own puerile simplicity. But the monuments of a people remain to perpetuate their character. We are told that the Druids were so wholly devoted to nature that they prohibited the use of any tool in the construction of their rude works; all are unhewn masses, or heaps of stones; such are their cairns and cromleches and corneddes, and that wild architecture whose stones hang on one another, still frowning on the plains of Salisbury. A circle of stones marked the consecrated limits of the Druidical Tribunal; and in the midst a hillock heaped up for the occasion was the judgment-seat. Here, in the open air, in eye of light and the face of the sun,' to use the Bardic style, the decrees were pronounced, and the Druids harangued the people."

Stonehenge is the most remarkable relic of Druidism now extant in Great Britain. It is situate on Salisbury Plain, near the Amesbury Road, and consists of two circular and two oval ranges of rough stones, having one common centre. The outer circle is 180 feet in diameter, and originally consisted of 30 upright stones, of which only 17 are still standing upright and perfect. The height of these stones is from 18 to 20 feet, and they are about 3 feet thick, and 6 or 7 feet broad, standing at a distance of about 3 feet apart, jointed by imposts at the top, with tennons fitted to mortices, to keep them in their position. The inner circle is 8 feet from the outer one, and formerly was composed of 40 stones, of which about 19 are still standing. There is a clean walk between the circles of about 300 feet in circumference.

Great differences of opinion prevail respecting this extraordinary ruin, as, indeed, we find existing in reference to every other Druidical remain, in England or elsewhere. According to some authorities, it was erected by Ambrosius Aurellius, the famous British commander, when the Saxons first invaded the island; but that notion could have been entertained only by persons who were wholly ignorant of the religious opinions of that famous hero. Inigo Jones attempted to prove that it was a Danish monument; but the evidences he adduced in support of so strange an assertion are totally unworthy of serious consideration.

Dr Stukely, whose general acquirements entitle his opinions to be received with respect, tells us that it was called by the ancient Britons Choir-gaur, which he imagines must have signified the Great Church. It seems, however, that there is no such word as choir in the ancient British lan

guage, and the inference is that the name was applied to this monument by the Romans, and from them transmitted by the natives towards the close of the empire. During the monkish times, it is asserted by some historians that Stonehenge was called Chorea Gigantum, or the Giant's Dance; a fanciful interpretation, probably, of the marvellous uses to which it was supposed this enormous structure might have been originally dedicated.

The final result of all the speculations and conjectures that have been hazarded from time to time respecting Stonehenge, is that it must have been a temple of worship; but the mysterious rites performed within its magic bounds are to this day a matter of vague wonder and hopeless investigation. The temple, if such we may call it, is enclosed by a deep trench, nearly 30 feet in breadth, and situated about 100 feet from the outer circle. There are three distinct entrances over the trench, the principal one facing the north-east. There are altogether about 140 stones in this temple, and they are of such gigantic proportions that a variety of wild suppositions have been ventured upon as to the manner in which they were brought here, and placed in their present position. There are no quarries in the neighbourhood of Salisbury Plain, and the ancient inhabitants of Britain are said to have been ignorant of the use of geometrical machines. How then were these enormous blocks conveyed? especially if, as some writers think, they were carried all the way from Anbury, near Marlborough. It must be reremembered, however, that stones of as great a magnitude were raised for the building of Solomon's Temple, on Mount Moriah, and if the Easterns were acquainted with geometry, there is no reason to doubt that the inhabitants of the western parts were also acquainted with it, the more particularly as we are justified in concluding that they both derived their knowledge from the same source

There are great numbers of sepulchres, or barrows, as they are called, in the immediate neighbourhood of the temple, which could not be introduced into the above engraving, extending, as they do, to a considerable distance. These are large heaps of earth shaped in the form of a hill, and from the skeletons that have been discovered in them, together with the warlike nstruments and other articles belonging to the slumberers, there is no doubt that these mounds are the graves of an ancient race. In many of them a strange variety of things have been found, such as javelins, trinkets, urns, glass and amber beads, and swords. A most remarkable circumstance, however, connected with them is, that in addition to human bones, the remains of horses, deer, dogs, and other animals have been dis

covered buried with the ashes of heroes and amazons.

It has been conjectured, from the close vicinity of the barrows to the Temple, that the Druids, like the Christians, thought it was most proper to bury their dead within sight of the spot where they worshipped the Supreme Being.

As we are upon the subject of Druidical remains, it may not be uninteresting to the English reader to subjoin an account of the celebrated stones of Carnac, in Brittany, which form the most conspicuous relics of Druidism now remaining in any part of the world. This wonderful place is an object of universal curiosity to all antiquarians, and ingenious as many of the theories are by which its origin has been endeavoured to be accounted for, no rational motive has yet been assigned for the erection of such strange memorials. Stonehenge sinks into utter insignificance in comparison with Carnac, which is the most vast, as it is beyond all doubt the most inexplicable, of all the Druidical monuments. These stones may be distinctly traced in their windings for upwards of seven miles, and they must have originally extended even much further. They are composed of 11 parallel lines of upright stones, varying in height from 5 to 17 feet, and numbering formerly, at an extravagant computation, at least 10,000. The whole width of the avenues varies from 200 to 350 feet. Of the original quantity, some notion may be formed from the fact that many blocks have been taken away to build the chateaux of Kergouat, Plouharmel, and Du Lac, and that cottages, and even the village of Carnac itself, are still constantly replenished from its stores. The following minute description of the stones of Carnac is translated from the work of M. de la Sauvagère, which is quoted and confirmed by M. Mahé, in his 'Essai sur les Antiquités du Département du Morbihan:'

"The stones of Carnac are planted by line, like rows of trees, on 11 parallel lines, which form spaces like streets, built by rule, of which the first, counting from the nearest to the town of Carnac, is 36 feet wide, the second 33 feet, the third 36 feet, the fourth 38 feet, the fifth 30 feet, the sixth 30 feet, the seventh 21 feet, the eighth 22 feet, the ninth 24 feet, and the tenth 12 feet. These stones are set at 18, 20, and 25 feet distance from one another; there are many of them which are not larger than ordinary posts, but to make up for these, we may see others which are of an enormous size, and of 16, 18, and 20 feet high. We cannot look at them but with the greatest astonishment. I have measured some of them, which must weigh more than 24,000 pounds. It is inconceivable what machines they made use of to place them upright, and what is still more

singular, they are almost all arranged in such a manner that the larger sized are above, and the smaller sized below, so that there are many of them supported, as it were, upon a pivot. They are rough, such as they were drawn from the quarry, and it has been managed that those which are flat, or which have some flattened sides, should be turned in line, and made pavements to the streets. There may be seen in the environs many other large stones, planted singly here and there in the fields; sometimes there are many of them near together. They are to be found even in the peninsular of Quiberon, and in the island of Belle-Isle and Groais."

...

VICTOR HUGO.-This gentleman, who is well known to Europe generally, and we might almost say intimately to the readers of the Mirror,' has been doomed to prove in his own family some of those sorrows which, as an imaginative writer, he knows so well how to picture as incidental to human life. On Monday week M. Pierre Vacquerie, an old captain, and a merchant of Havre, who resided at Villequier, at his property, on the banks of the Seine, having business at Caudebec, resolved to make the little trip by water, and being famliar with the navigation of the river, and the mode of handling boats, took with him in his boat, which had two lug sails, his young son, aged ten yearshis nephew, M. C. Vacquerie- and the young wife of the latter, the daughter of M. Victor Hugo, to whom he was not long since married. Hardly half an hour had elapsed when intelligence arrived that a boat had been upset on the opposite bank, called the Dos d'Ane. Assistance was instantly despatched, but it arrived only in time to witness the irreparable misfortune that had taken place. The boat was taken aback, and the sheets were imprudently made fast. On her being righted, there were found inside a cannon ball and a large stone, which had been used as ballast, and the dead body of M. Pierre Vacquerie, with the head hanging over the side. The three other persons had disappeared. It was supposed at first that M. C. Vacquerie, being an excellent swimmer, had, whilst endeavouring to save his wife and relations, been carried further; but, as nothing appeared on the surface of the water, a net was thrown in, and the ground dragged. The first time it was pulled up, it contained the lifeless body of the unfortunate lady. Madame Victor Hugo received on the next morning at Havre, where she had been residing some time with her two other children, the news of the calamity. She set out immediately for Paris. M. Victor Hugo, it is believed, is at La Rochelle.

NOTES OF A TOUR IN FINLAND AND RUSSIA.-PART III.

(For the Mirror.)

Ir became in due course the business of a day to visit the various government manufactories near St Petersburg. Those of glass and porcelain appear to be in a flourishing condition, and are stated to yield a considerable annual return, whilst in tastefulness of design the latter is not materially inferior to the royal manufactories of Dresden or Vienna. The Imperial manufactories of cotton, linen, and playing cards at Alexandrowski, employ 3,000 persons, and are admirably managed by an English gentleman (General Wilson). All the latest English improvements in machinery are here immediately adopted, and there is perhaps nowhere else to be seen, unless indeed in America, an equally neat and respectable looking body of operatives, as those of this cotton-mill. Every part of the manufactory was exhibited to us with the utmost politeness, and one of the Scotch assistant managers informed me that the manufactory of cards yields a considerable revenue to government for the benefit of the foundling hospital of St Petersburg, but that the cotton manufacture has scarcely yet been rendered lucrative. Last year, it appears that threefourths of the cotton twist manufactured in Russia was imported from Great Britain; but such exertions are now making to establish spinning mills that this state of things cannot continue much longer; and, as nearly every finished article of British manufacture is already excluded by enormous duties, how England is hereafter to pay for the tallow, flax, and hemp of Russia, is a problem for time and political economy to solve. Nine out of every ten vessels which come to Russia from England arrive in ballast, while every vessel from that country to Great Britain is fully laden; and the Russian nobles will perhaps discover in due time, that by creating manufactories among themselves they are sacrificing that great outlet for their produce, the English market. Nations can only permanently continue to trade with each other on the principle of an exchange of productions either direct or indirect, and Russia has already contrived to throw the balance of trade greatly against England, and under her present laws that unfavourable balance can hardly fail yearly to increase. To hope for voluntary liberality from the Russian government in matters of commerce would be a vain expectation, and the commercial diplomacy of England has of late years been much neglected, and the landowners' monopolies of corn and timber are thus retorted on our manufacturers. It is therefore now necessary for England

to endeavour either to negotiate, or to procure those articles she at present receives from Russia from such countries as are willing to act on the principle of an exchange of commodities. New Zealand and Canada, as well as the Austrian districts of the Danube, might probably be made to supply her with flax and hemp, while South America might yield an increased supply of tallow, and it could not be objected to on the strictest principles of national justice to grant such advantages to those countries in respect to duties as might make England more independent of the productions of Russia.

The commercial marine of Russia ap-. pears to have increased since Mr Huskisson's treaty of reciprocity (if it may be so called) in a smaller proportion than that of any of the other countries bordering on the Baltic-which, considering that she possesses all the material for ship building equally cheap, and at half their English value, is rather to be wondered at. Still the shipping of Russia is increasing in consequence of that treaty, while the high-priced vessels of England have been nearly driven out of the Baltic by the unequal competition, and Great Britain has much to fear from any increase of the hipping of Russia which may render her navy, in the event of war, a rival to our own. It is not among the rustic slaves which the nobility of Russia contribute to the imperial navy, exercised as they are only in summer excursions in the Baltic and the Black Sea, that rivals to our British sailors will be found; but a commercial marine, permanently employed in more distant,navigation, might nevertheless furnish her with the elements of a really formidable navy.

The Foundling Hospital is one of the most interesting establishments of St Petersburg, and the excellence of its arrangements are apparently such that it would seem to be exempt from many of those evils which similar establishments elsewhere have been proved to possess. The only evidence required for the reception of the children is, that they should neither be of slave parents nor of the military class. The nurses seemed to be healthy countrywomen, and lest any of them should prove so deficient in the milk of human kindness as to neglect their young charges, their preservation is made matter of pecuniary interest to them, and a good proof of their real kindness may be found in the fact of our having passed through several apartments full of children only a few weeks old, in many of which not a cry was heard, and in the only one where infant music met our ear it did not equal what is frequently heard in a family nursery.

In the various class rooms we found

about a thousand girls, from seven years of age up to seventeen; and we afterwards saw them all dine together, having previously chanted a grace in a very pretty manner. These girls are variously instructed according to the degree of talent they display, the less gifted being trained with a view to becoming servants and milliners; while those who evince greater aptitude are educated as governesses. We saw about thirty of these at a separate table, several of whom had already received appointments at salaries varying from 800 to 1,200 rubles a year, and one of the directresses informed us that many of them go as far as three or four thousand versts from St Petersburg, at which distances, their music, drawing, languages, &c., render them quite the accomplished ladies of these remote districts.

The infants on reaching the age of a few months are sent into the country until the period for education arrives, and in this way the mortality is much less than it might otherwise be. The boys are taught at a separate institution, care being in their case likewise taken to instruct each according to the measure of talent displayed.

The Empress takes an especial interest in the education of the females, frequently visiting the institution, and bestowing on it many marks of her favour.

The German lady who became our principal conductress through the establishment, fortunately spoke excellent English, and her presence was hailed in every ward with those silent looks of pleasure, which conveyed a stronger assurance of her benevolence than any words could have done.

The church of St Alexander Nievskoi is the fashionable place of interment in St Petersburg. Many of the principal families have a space allotted them for this purpose within its walls, and these spots are universally ornamented by pictures representing either Christ or the Virgin, and before these, a lamp is kept continually burning

St Alexander Nievskoi is almost the idol saint of Russia, and the circumstance of his having been as great a warrior as a saint adds much to the honour which his sanctity obtains for him. The Emperor, as the head of the Greek church, possesses the power to canonize, and some years since was induced to exercise this sacred right in favour of a St Metopan, at whose tomb a number of miracles were reputed to have been performed. The monks of a neighbouring monastery, however, finding that their shrine was deserted, and their emoluments diminished in consequence of the more fashionable newly made saint, are stated to have brought an action for the loss they had sustained, offering at the

same time to prove St Metopan to have been an impostor, and his miracles a fraud. The Emperor is believed to have been so disgusted with the development of this affair, that he is not again likely to add to the already overloaded Russian-deified calendar.

If unfounded personal abuse of the Emperor of Russia could have sufficed to throw two great countries into war, the press of England would long since have accomplished that most undesirable result. The Czar has, however, no doubt wisely considered that the only refutation which it is worthy of him to give to such calumnies, is to disprove them by the tenor of his life. No person has, perhaps, ever enjoyed better opportunities of appreciating the Emperor's private character than the late Lord Durham, who was honoured with more than an usual measure of his society, and he, ultra-liberal as he was, always expressed the most flattering sentiments in regard to him.

The late Lord Melville used, it is said, in days gone by, to boast it as one of his qualifications for office, that no member of parliament could bear abuse better than he could, and if that be indeed a legitimate claim to high station, the Emperor Nicholas is certainly entitled to plume himself on its possession.

Lord Heytesbury, who as British Ambassador at St Petersburg also enjoyed favourable opportunities of appreciating the Emperor, is reputed to have described him as La plus belle et le plus honnete homme de l'Empire; and this opinion is fully confirmed by that of the English residents of Petersburg.

Il n'est pas tout à fait la plus belle, said a lady whom we had by accident the pleasure to meet with, looking tenderly across the table to her young and handsome husband, who had related this anecdote to us ; and it may, no doubt, be possible that there are greater Adonises in Russia, but the Emperor is, to say the least, sufficiently handsome to give point and propriety to Lord Heytesbury's remark. Marshal Marmont is also reported to have some years since observed, after an audience of his Majesty, that he had been conversing with a civilized Peter the Great. These might, perhaps, have been considered as the flatteries of diplomacy were it not that several persons, far removed from the atmosphere of the Court, sufficiently confirmed the impressions they convey of the Emperor's amiability in all the relations of domestic and social life, while, even in matters of government, when his Majesty does interfere personally, it is generally to redress wrongs, or hasten the tardy awards of justice.

The Emperor and his family love, it appears, occasionally to retire from the