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LIV. A Copy of a Letter from the Reverend Dr. James Garden, Professor of Theology in the King’s College, at Aberdeen, to — Aubrey, Esquire.
Read at the Society of Antiquaries, December 4, 1766.
Honoured Sir,
YOURS, dated at London, April 9th, 1692, came to my hands about ten days after; since that time, I have been using my best endeavours for obtaining a satisfactory answer to your queries: if that which I now send you be not such as I desired, and, it may be, you expected, it is none of my fault: for I not only visited sundry of those antiquities (to the number of six or seven) concerning which you desire to be informed; but also employed the assistance of my friends, whereof some were going from this place to other parts of the country, and others live at a distance. I have been waiting all this time for an account of their diligence; and albeit I have not heard as yet from all those persons to whom I wrote and spoke for information, yet I thought it not fit to delay the giving you a return any longer, lest you should apprehend, either that your letter had miscarried, or that I had neglected the contents of it.
What the Lord Yester and Sir Robert Morray told you long ago is true, viz. that in the North parts of this kingdom many monuments of the nature and fashion described by you are yet extant. They consist of tall big unpolished stones, set up on end, and placed circularly, not contiguous together, but at some distances. The obscurer sort (which are the more numerous) have but one circle of stones standing at equal distances, others towards the South {313} or South East, have a large broad stone standing on edge, which fills up the whole space betwixt two of those stones that stand on end, and is called by the vulgar the Altar stone: a third sort more remarkable than any of the former (besides all that I have already mentioned) have another circle of smaller stones standing within the circle of the great stones. The area of the three sorts is commonly (not always) filled with stones of sundry sizes, confusedly cast together in an heap [a].
[a] J. G. Keysler, in his “Antiquitates selectae Septentr. et Celt.” pag. 11. after some account of Stone-henge (which he takes to be the work of the Anglo-Saxons) and other the like monuments, adds, “Supersunt in ipsa Anglia complura ejusmodi monumenta, inter quae eminent vasta saxa in orbem disposita in Oxoniensi comitatu, quae Rollerick-stones vulgus appellat.” Vide Plot’s Nat. Hist. Oxf. cap. 10. “De iis quae in Devonia haud procul Exonia exstant, Mighty-stones dicta.” Vide Speed. “Quinque millibus passuum a Bristolio meridiem versus, et uno milliari Anglico a Pensfordia, qua spectat ad occidentem solem, rudera restant duorum ejusmodi operum, quarum alterum una lapidum corona, alterum tribus constitisse videtur. Illud si reliquorum dimensionem sequamur, 32 eximiae magnitudinis lapides habuit, quorum non nisi 13 superstites, in terram omnes dejecti aut proni, exceptis tribus. Centum ulnis Brunsvicensibus (60 fere Anglicis Yards) ab iis conspiciuntur majores duo lapides, quos recentiores quidam scriptores perperam nominant The King and Queen stolen, regis reginaeque sedes; incolae appellant The Parson and Clerk, fabulantes choream Die Dominica saltantium una cum sacerdote et fidicinibus in lapides fuisse versam. Nonnulla hujusmodi monumenta visuntur etiam in Orcadibus insulis. De Scoticis conferri debent, quae Hector Boethius habet in Hist. Scot. De ingentibus et rudibus saxis quae haud longe a Naasa Hiberniae in agro Kildariensi et alibi cernuntur,” Leg. Ware, Antiq. Hibern. cap. xxiv. pag. 103. et seq. T. M.
Two of the largest and most remarkable of these monuments that ever I saw are yet to be seen at a place called AuchincorthieNow spelt Auchquhorthies or Aquhorthies, in the shire of MerrisThe Mearns, also called Kincardineshire, and five miles distant from Aberdeen. One of which has two circles of stones, whereof the exterior circle consists of thirteeen great stones (besides two that are fallen, and the broad stone towards the South) about three yards high above ground, and {314} seven or eight paces distant one from another; the diameter being twenty-four large paces. The interior circle is about three paces distant from the other, and the stones thereof three feet high above ground. Towards the East from this monument, at twenty six paces distance, there is a big stone fast in the ground, and level with it, in which there is a cavity, partly natural and partly artificial, that will contain, as I guess, no less than a Scotch gallon of water, and may be supposed to have served for washing the priests, sacrifices, and other things esteemed sacred among the heathen. The other monument (which is full as large, if not larger, than that which I have already described, and distant from it about a bow-shot of ground) consists of three circles having the same common center. The stones of the greatest circle are about three yards, and those of the two lesser circles three feet high above ground, the innermost circle three paces diameter, and the stones standing close together.
One of the stones of the largest circle on the East side of the monument hath upon the top of it (which is but narrow, and longer one way than the other) a hollowness about three inches deep, in the bottom whereof is cut out a trough one inch deep, and two inches broad (with another short one crossing it) that runs along the whole length of the cavity, and down by the side of the stone a good way, so that whatsoever liquor is poured into the cavity upon the top of the stone doth presently run down the side of it by this trough: and it would seem, that upon this stone they poured forth their libamina or liquid sacrifices.
There is also another stone in the same circle, and upon the same side of the monument (standing nearest to the broad stone that stands on edge, and looks toward the South), which hath a cavity in the upper end of it; it is considerably lower on one side, and will contain about one English pint: at the first sight it seemed to me to have been made for burning a lamp; but when I considered that it was sub dio, I found it could not be for that use: afterwards {315} observing it more narrowly, I perceived that it was cut after the fashion of the cavity in the other stone already described, albeit not so clearly and distinctly; and that there is a natural fissure in the stone, by which all the liquor poured into the cavity runs out of it down by the side of the stone to the ground.
The general tradition throughout this kingdom concerning this kind of monuments is, that they were places of worship and sacrifice in heathen times: few of them have particular names. In this part of the country they are commonly called standing stones; and in the Highlands of Scotland, where the Irish tongue is spoken, they call them caer, which signifies a throne, an oracle, or a place of address, as I am informed by a judicious person here who understands that language, and was lately in those parts, where, he says, they have such a superstitious veneration for those monuments that they will not meddle with any of their stones, or apply them to another use; and being lately at Auchincorthie, I was told, that a poor man who lives there, having taken away a stone from one of the neighbouring monuments above described, and put it into his hearth, was, by his own relation, troubled with a deal of noise and din about his house in the night time until he carried back the stone unto the place where he found it.
Some of them are called chapels: for instance, there is a place in the shire of Aberdeen, and parish of EltonEllon (?), called Tochell (i. e. below the Chapel) from one of these monuments that stands near by on a higher ground. Another place in the shire of Bamff, and parish of AberlowrAberlour, Banffshire, is called Leachell Beandich, which, as my informer told me, is as much as the blessed (chapel), from another of these monuments, which lately stood there in a corn field, and is now demolished. I myself, with others in company, occasionally passing by one of these monuments about five miles distant from Aberdeen, in the parish of Peter Culter, we sent one of our number to the nearest houses to inquire the name of it, and the people there {316} told him it was called the Old Chapel. I was likewise told by an ingenious gentleman, who lives at a place called Troup, in the shire of Bamff, and parish of Gamrie, that not far from his house there is a den called the Chapel Den, from one of those monuments which is near by.
Others are called Temples [b]. In the parish of Strathaven, within fourteen miles of Aberdeen, there is a place called Templetown from two or three of this kind of monuments that stand upon the bounds of it. And these two, whereof I have given you a particular description, are called by the people, that live near by, Law Stones (for what reason, I know not [c]) and Temple Stones. They have a tradition, that the pagan priests of old dwelt in that place (Auchincorthie); and there are yet to be seen, at a little distance from one of the monuments standing there, the foundatations of an old house which is said to have been their Teind BarnTithe Barn. They report, likewise, that the priests caused earth to be brought from other adjacent places upon peoples backs to Auchincorthie, for making the soil thereof deeper, which is given for the reason why this parcel of land, though surrounded with heath and moss on all sides, is better and more fertile than other places thereabouts.
[b] In Wiltshire, in the parish of Winterbourne, in the tithing of
Ricardson, is a fair Down called Temple Down, which is in the country of those
Temples, I write off. Quere, if not in Dorset? C. L.
Not far from Marlborough, is a village called Presholt, perhaps it might be
Priests Holt (i. e.) Priests Wood. Mr. Aubrey.
[c] From their (viz. barrows, heaps of stones, &c.) being intended for sepulchres, they are called Lows in Staffordshir, and Lawes in Ireland. Antiq. Corn. first edit. pag. 200.
All these names (except the first) confirm the general tradition concerning these monuments, that they were places of worship; and some of them, as that of temple and temple stones, declare, that they have not been erected by Christians, or for their use, which their structure also doth sufficiently demonstrate beside.
{317} Albeit from the general tradition, that these monuments were places of pagan worship, and the historical knowledge we have that the superstition of the Druids did take place in Britain, we rationally collect, that these monuments have been temples of the Druids; yet I have found nothing hitherto, either in the names of these monuments, or the tradition that goes about them, which doth particularly relate to the Druids, or point them out; unless these two following instances will amount to any thing.
The first is of a monument of this kind in the shire of Bamff, and parish of Aberdeen, which, as a gentleman that lives near by it doth inform me, is called Cairneduin, or Cairnedewin. Now cairne in our language doth signify an heap of stones; and whether it is put here for caer, or that this kind of monuments are called cairnes from the heaps of stones which are usually to be found within them, I cannot say; but that which I take notice of is, that it may be, the name of this monument formerly has been Caer, or Cairndrewin, and that the letter r has been left out in the pronunciation afterwards. Yet nothing can be affirmed in this matter, because the name of this monument is not to be found in any old writing; and we have no other rules to direct us about it betides the pronunciation of the vulgar.
Another instance which I shall mention is, of a parcel of land six miles distant from Aberdeen, and belonging to the emoluments of my office, which is commonly called Cairnetradban, a name whereof I never could understand the meaning, until that, since I received your letter, perusing the conveyances of this land, I find, that in the first of them, which is not above three score and ten years old, it is called Cairndraidlane, and Cairnedraidland: now by the preceding instance it appears, that these monuments are sometimes called Cairnes; and I am prone to believe, that the true name of this land is Cairnedruidland, and that it has been so denominated, not {318} from any of those monuments standing within the bounds (for I find only one of them, and that not very remarkable, standing upon the borders of it); but rather because it may have been a part of the revenue which appertained of old to the Druids and their temples; if we had the old evidences (which are wanting), it may be, the matter would be yet clearer [d].
[d] The very ingenious author of Topographical Anecdotes, under the article Inverness-shire, p. 647. informs us, that Mr. Gordon in his Itin. Septentr. p. 166. Pl. lxv. has given a particular description and view of two of the four circular buildings mentioned by Buchanan, lib. i. and iv. as in Ross, now in this shire, in the vale of Glenbeg. Martin mentions several such in Lewis Isle. Dr. Stukely had an unpublished plate of that which Gordon calls Castle Tellve, and he, the Giant’s Castle. He makes them Druidical temples, and his sketch of the vale exhibits a circle of stones with an avenue at the head of a little river. He says, Captain Douglas told him there were vast numbers of stones like Stonehenge, with avenues of stones all over Scotland. T. M.
I have only one thing more to add, which was written to me a few days since from the country; viz. that some persons who are yet alive, declare, that many years since, they did see ashes of some burnt matter digged out of the bottom of a little circle, set about with stones standing close together, in the center of one of those monuments which is yet standing near the church of Keig in the shire of Aberdeen.
In case any of these monuments shall upon inquiry be found in France (where you know the Druids were in no less credit and reputation than in Britain), it would greatly contribute to the confirming your opinion about them.
Thus, Sir, I have given you a tedious account of such things relating to these antiquities as have come to my knowledge, which I fear will contribute little to your purpose. In case any thing that is considerable shall be communicated to me hereafter by any of those persons to whom I have either spoken or written for {319} information, I will not fail to acquaint you; and if my pains can be any further useful to you, you may freely employ
Your friend,
and humble servant,
Ja. Garden.
Old Aberdeen, June 15, 1692.