236 TEMPLES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. the earth its surface is but little marked with fissures or indentations; the square of its sides is from seven to eight yards, and its extreme height about eighteen feet. Several other insulated stones of a similar description occupy the same high range of ground: how they were originally placed there, and for what purposes they were designed, can now only be conjectured. Quintus Cicero, who was with Julius Cæsar when he invaded this country, writing to his brother, Marcus Tullius Cicero, says, "The temples of the Britons are raised in the depths of the woods, and constructed in a circular form, with obelisks of stone, over which are imposts, all of huge dimensions, untouched by the chisel. One of these I saw while it was erecting by the rude unskilful hands of the natives, as a peace-offering to their Grianus, or Apollo, to mediate the good offices of Cæsar. "The huge stones of which it was composed lay scattered by the hand of nature on the plain; these (with myriads of the votaries of the god to afford their labour) the high priest, who directed the operations, caused to be rolled up on inclined planes of solid earth, which had been formed by the excavation of trenches, until they had attained a height equal to their own altitude; then pits being dug, they were launched from the terrace, and sunk so as to stand perpendicularly, at due and equal distances in the circle, and over these were placed others horizontally. After having completed one circle, they form another that is concentric, at some distance, and towards the extremity of the area of the inner circle they place a huge stone for the performance of religious rites. "When the sun enters into Cancer is the great festival of the god; and on all high mountains and eminences of the country they light fires at the approach of that day, and make their wives, their children, and their cattle, to pass through the fire, in honour of the Deity. Deep and profound is the silence of the multitude during this ceremony, until the appearance of the sun above the horizon when, with loud and continued exclamations, and songs of joy, they hail the utmost exaltation of that luminary, as the supreme triumph of the god of their adoration." -- This account has a more particular reference to the formation of those circles of stones which are generally regarded as druidical, than to the insulated monuments that are found on Stanton Moor: yet that the same mode of rolling these vast PLANTATIONS ON STANTON MOOR. 237 masses up inclined planes of solid earth, for the purpose of placing them in a perpendicular position, must have been resorted to, seems highly probable. They are striking indications of what the skill and labour of an ingenious people could accomplish, who were unacquainted with mechanical powers. As we traversed the extensive plantations on Stanton Moor, we passed the upright stone which Major Rooke has men tioned by the name of Andle Stone; and, a little further on, we came to a barrow, that had been recently opened, when an unbaked urn, containing human bones, was found within it. The whole of this eminence is covered with plantations of fir, larch, oak, and Spanish chesnut. A few years ago it was only a heathy moor; and it now strongly exemplifies to what useful purposes even a barren waste may be applied. From the year 1808 to the present time, a considerable number of labourers have been employed by the worthy proprietor of Stanton, from early in autumn to late in the spring of the year, in progressively covering the wild wastes around his mansion with extensive plantations, which will one day richly remunerate him for the expense he has incurred in his truly patriotic speculation. Upwards of six hundred acres of wood, planted by his own exertions, will wave its branches round his mansion, and give a sylvan character to the park and grounds of Stanton. We followed the direction of a narrow path tangled with heath, until we came to the extreme verge of Stanton Moor, where another massive Druidical monument stands, called Cat Stone. The station we now occupied commands a wide horizon, within whose ample sweep high moorland wastes, woody eminences, beautiful vallies studded with cottages and hamlets, and the devious windings of the river Derwent, are included. Though the whole view here presented is of a magnificent description, yet there is a character of loveliness in the detail and parts of which it is composed, that is more powerfully interesting, and excites more pleasing associations than mere magnificence, when unaccompanied with the more fascinating graces of landscape, can possibly produce. Stanton Lees, a little village, composed of neat but humble cottages, thrown as it were promiscuously amongst orchards and flower-gardens, is a delightful feature in the scene. Tranquilly reposing in a sweet vale, at the foot of an almost per. pendicular eminence, that rises several hundred feet above it, 238 CARVING BY GIBBONS. it looks like a village in Switzerland, smiling in beauty amidst the deep recess of sequestering mountains, that stand like centinels to guard the paradise within. A walk round Stanton Moor exhibits a greater variety of fine scenery than can be found in the same space in any other part of Derbyshire. In Stanton House there are several good pictures; particularly a Virgin and Child, by Carlo Cignani; a Tenniers; and an interior of the Church at Munich: in the latter, the architectural perspective, and the disposition of the light, are managed with great felicity; but the principal merit of the picture is the minute accuracy and high finish by which the figures, and all the smaller objects, are distinguished. It is a striking instance of great labour employed to but little advantage. It was painted by Morganstern, a Flemish artist, and it is said to have cost him his eyesight. In the hall there is an excellent specimen of the talent of De Bruyn, the artist who painted the staircase at Worksop Manor: the figures represent sculpture in bas relief, and they are admirably executed. The painter himself is said to have regarded this picture as his finest production, and he left it as a legacy to his son, a respectable apothecary, who resided in North-Audley-Street, London; from whose widow it was lately purchased, and brought to Stanton. But the finest work of art in this place is a frame to a looking-glass, by the celebrated GIBBONS, which was executed for Louis the Fourteenth of France, whose medallion, supported by two boys, is placed at the top of the frame, and whose arms adorn the central compartment at the bottom: the remainder of the carving consists of birds, and a profusion of fruit and flowers in the greatest luxuriance, tastefully composed and finished in Gibbons' best style. This is one of the few bijoux saved in the Revolution; and, when we consider the exquisite delicacy of the workmanship, it seems extraordinary that it should have been preserved uninjured even in its finest parts. SECTION X. - Druidical Circle on Hartle Moor. Snake Stones. Mock Cratcliff Tor.- Winster. — Birchover. View from the Road near Birchover. Beggar Hall. ON Hartle Moor, and within a few hundred paces of Mock Beggar Hall, we stopped at the remains of a Druidical Circle, which Major Rooke and Mr. Bray have previously noticed; the latter of whom mentions it as an object he had not seen. This Circle is about forty yards in circumference, and it is composed of seven large stones, that appear to have been originally from ten to twelve feet high; three of them only are now standing, and one has been separated from its associates by the intervention of a rude stone wall. This Druidical temple is about a mile and a half from Stanton Moor, where a similar circle, consisting of nine upright stones, denominated the Nine Ladies, may still be seen: near this remain several barrows have been opened, when a number of "glass beads, with orifices not larger than the tip of a tobacco-pipe," were found within them. Many of these beads have been occasionally met with in different parts of Derbyshire: their colours are various; some of them are transparent, others are an opaque purple; and they are understood to have been used by the Druids as amulets, or worn by them as a badge of distinction. In some parts of the kingdom these beads are called Snake Stones, and Camden tells us, that there is a curious superstition relative to their formation still existing, both in Wales and Cornwall: he says, "It is there the common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer Eve (though in the time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies, and that, by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed like a ring about the head of one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on until it comes off at the tail, and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus generated are called Gleinen Nadroedh; in English, SNAKE STONES." Camden, vol. ii. p. 64. An unfrequented path of another quarter of a mile led us to the base of Mock Beggar Hall, a curious assemblage of sand-stone rocks thrown confusedly together, yet so arranged as to form at a distance a strong resemblance to a regular building, with a huge chimney at each extremity; hence the name which this mass of rocks has obtained: the stony towers at each end are called Robin Hood's Stride. On the same range of hill, a little on our left, lay Cratcliff Tor, a gloomy perpendicular rock of considerable altitude; and, when seen from some situations in the valley below, as picturesque an object as ever adorned the foreground of a landscape. Major Rooke mentions having seen four rock basons on the top of this tor, but, owing either to a neglect of our memorandums, or a misconception of our instructions, we did not observe them; from the same cause we omitted visiting the Hermit's Cave at the foot of Cratcliff. At the east end of a cavern in this rock, the devotee, by whom it is said to have been inhabited, has rudely sculptured in bas relief the figure of our Saviour on the Cross, a great part of which is now remaining. A humble seat and a niche, that might contain some domestic utensils, are hewn out of the rock; and it seems highly probable, that some melancholy man once made this solitary and cheerless cave his dwelling; but at what period, and by whom it was inhabited, even the beldame tradition is silent. At a From Cratcliff we crossed the Ashbourn Road to Rowtor Rocks, an assemblage of huge blocks of gritstone, tumbled confusedly together by the hand of nature in one mighty pile. These singular rocks are situated on the southern side of Stanton Moor, and close by the village of Birchover. short distance, they appear only a heap of stones; when at their base, they are terrific masses, that seem not to be permanently fixed in their positions, but so slightly connected with each other, and so apparently in the act of falling, as to create an apprehension that they may yet descend with one tremendous crash into the vale below. Some of these blocks lie horizontally, some are perpendicular, and others are placed in every possible degree of obliquity. The intricacies amongst them may be threaded with a little toil and difficulty, but |