Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his workStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his work
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Mr. Patten and I went to view that famous monument of antiquity called
Long Meg and her Daughters, in the parish of Addingham, between Little
Salkeld and Glasenby. It stands upon a barren elevated plain of high
ground, under the vast hill called Cross-fell, to the east. This plain
declines to the east gently, or rather north-east, for that I find to
be the principal line observed by the founders. It is a great Celtic
temple, being a circle of 300 foot diameter, consisting of 100 stones:
they are of unequal bulk; some are of very large dimensions: many are
standing, but more fallen, and several carried away; but lately they
have destroyed some by blasting, as they call it, i. e. blowing them in
pieces with gunpowder; others they have sawed for mill-stones: but the
major part remaining, gives one a just idea of the whole; and it is a
most noble work. The stones are not all of the same kind; some made of
square crystallisations, of the same sort as those at Shap; and I saw
many of that sort of stone scattered about the country; others of the
blue, hard, flaky sort, like those of the temple at Mayborough. The
intervals are not exactly equal, but judiciously adapted to the bulks
of the stones, to preserve as much as possible a regular appearance.
This large ring, thus declining north-east, is now parted through by
a ditch; so that the larger half lies in an inclosure, the other in
a common; and the road lies by the side of it, that goes from Little
Salkeld to Glasenby. South-west from it, seventy foot, stands a very
great and high stone, called Long Meg, of a reddish girt, seeming to
have been taken from the side of some quarry of the country: I think
it leans a little north-east: it is about fifteen foot high. In the
middle of the circle are two roundish plots of ground, of a different
colour from the rest apparently, and more stony and barren; which
probably were the immediate places of burning the sacrifices, or the
like. Not far hence toward Glasenby is a very fine spring; whence,
no doubt, they had the element of water, used at their religious
solemnities: and higher up the field is a large spring, intrenched
about with a _vallum_ and foss, of a pretty great circumference, but
no depth. Full south-west from this work, in the next inclosure and
higher ground, is another circle of lesser stones, in number twenty:
the circle is fifty foot diameter; and at some distance above it is
another stone placed, regarding it, as Meg does the larger circle. In
that part of the greater circle next the single stone called Meg, are
two stones standing beyond the circle a little, and another fallen;
which I believe were a sort of _sacellum_, perhaps for the _pontifex_
to officiate in: and westward is another stone or two, perhaps of a
like work; but the ruinous condition of the work would not admit of any
certainty about it.
KESWICK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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