1831.

tant stone, the bearings of its northwest side and the side of the prostrate stone just strike the north-western side or edge of the stone at the eastern side of the entrance. That some mark or notice of the proper entrance was requisite, is evident. When we reflect on the nature of the structure, that it was circular, composed of a course of upright stones similar to one another, with nearly the same intervals between each, it would be difficult to distinguish the small difference of the interval assigned for the entrance; and it is rational to suppose these stones were planted to direct the passenger. One stone would not serve to point direct with sufficient certainty, therefore two were assigned, to serve as pointers to the proper entrance. The fallen stone has doubtless been once upright; this being the position of all the stones of the structure; those now prostrate in the temple being evidently disturbed from their sites. The soil raised about this stone, which gives the appearance of a kind of vallum or ditch, I consider has arisen from the removal, at some period or other, of the soil accumulated on the stone in its fallen state.

Conjectures on the temple may be various, indeed endless. History appears to assign it to the worship of Apollo, and this agrees with the idea of its being assignable to the Sun; and open circular temples would certainly best accord with ideas relative to that luminary. They would agree with the idea of its supposed orbit, and the real orbit in effect by the earth's diurnal motion.

The open

spaces would time its progress, both as to the seasons and the days, and be a sort of horologe kept by those tutored in the arcana of the Druids, the learned of the rude aborigines of the soil. Mr. Chardin in his Journey into Persia, when he descends from the mountainous country of Taurus, or Tabreez, at three days' journey mentions that he saw circles of stones on his left. The country where they were, I should suppose, from its being described as offering pasturage for horses, consisted of large open plains, and the ancient Persians were worshippers of the Sun, and fire as the symbol of the Sun. The country of Baku lies north of the part where Chardin speaks of these circles, and where to this day the worshippers of fire, it is

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said, still exist. This coincidence of structure confirms the idea of Stonehenge and circular druidical temples being devoted to the worship of the Sun.

Stonehenge, though possibly, nay certainly, not the largest temple of the rude aborigines, for Avebury must have been much larger, yet probably was the most complete in form and design of all the Druids' temples (for such alone in reason can it be considered).* The rude beauty of the design had probably gained it more fame and pre-eminence than others, and was therefore that to which reference is made in writers as, "The Temple." Its antiquity may be of the remotest period, which its rude structure denotes. The rude temple, no doubt, had its priests or appointed attendants and inmates, if such can be called inmates, who dwell in a place open on all sides to the wind's blast. Their abode might be in the circle. The interior or theatre might be kept for holy offices of ceremony alone. The circle of the outer vallum or ditch, may denote the sacred boundary which none but the priests were to enter without permission; within which, and the outer circle of the temple, the ministers belonging to it might range and exercise themselves. That the country round was populous the tumuli evidently prove; and the numerous remains of the entrenched camps, whether Roman or Saxon, in the neighbourhood, and throughout Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, are evidence of the population.

What can be more probable, and what can be better supported by facts, than that unlettered man in his first worship and reverence, would direct his attention to that glorious luminary the Sun-the generator of his daily blessings,-the vivifying power of the earth, and plants and fruits,-the source of his own subsistence, and of raising into animated being the insect tribe, symbolical of eternity, in regeneration and change. Such would be the obvious considerations of rude but reflecting man, and the consequence such-namely, that the object of universal adoration of self-taught man would be the Sun; and such has been found to be the actual existing fact of all mankind, emerging from the sa

Vide Davies's Rites of the British Druids, p. 306, &c.

1831.]

SOUTH YORKSHIRE. The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster, in the diocese and county of York. By the Rev. Joseph Hunter, Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of London an Newcastle, and an Honorary Member of the Yorkshire Philosophical Association. The Second Volume. fol. pp. 508.

cu

IN no department of literature has there been more variety of execution than in topography. It has ranged from the humble (though now rious) compilations of a Gent to the celebrated labours of a Dugdale. In modern times (and particularly since the introduction of engraving on steel) books bearing the name of topography, and of county history, have multiplied apace; but they have been little more than vehicles for pretty prints. An original work on the subject finds other welcomes than those of its subscribers. It is a reservoir from which a tribe of compilers are ready to draw off, and dilute, and rebottle to all eternity. It may be generally remarked that those places which have been already best described, are most liable to find new historians. So true is it that facile est addere inventis; but, alas! the additions of these retailers are too often a poor balance against their omissions and perversions.

To break up a new field of topographical research, is a far different process; requiring the skill of the critic in combination with the assiduity of the lawyer. It is to such a task that Mr. Hunter has applied himself in this work; for of the Deanery of Doncaster scarcely any description had previously been published; and he has, we may venture to assert, by the originality of his materials, as well as the judicious use he has made of them, produced a work as completely the fruit of the author's mind, as are the plays of Shakspeare, or the romances of Scott. It is a dissertation on the topography

of South Yorkshire; but a dissertation comprehending every important fact that has been found bearing on the subject. Where information is so seldom complete, but so many links may be supplied by collateral circumstances and analogy, this seems to be the form which such a work has natuGENT. MAG. December, 1831.

rally assumed under the hands of an author, who is not inclined to lose the least tangible particular that bears on the main subjects of his pages, and yet is so fearful of prolixity as to avoid almost all quotation, and sometimes to give his original narrative the air of an abridgment. We have here nothing superfluous; and, altogether, the work is the most readable throughout of all the topographical works we ever perused.

The excellent essay on English To-, pography, which was prefixed to the first volume, we transferred to our own pages at the time of its publication. It is an essay which has rendered difficult any additional exposition of the merits and uses of topography in general; but which, in the plans of topographical composition

which it unfolds, and the sources of information which it describes, is calculated greatly to facilitate the attempts of those who are inclined to exemplify those uses and merits with regard to districts not yet adequately described, and to join in the honourable task of perpetuating the local history of their country.

We subjoin a few additional remarks from Mr. Hunter's present preface:

"I have prefixed to this volume a second impression of the Map. That in the first volume is coloured, so as to present at once to the eye the parochial distribution. The map here presented to the reader is coloured, so as to exhibit at one view the feudal disposition of the lands which compose the Deanery, or, in other words, the tenancies held immediately of the crown.

"The history of these tenancies has long appeared to me the most convenient manner in which the topography of a county, or of any other division of the kingdom, can be prepared. It gives unity to the work. It saves from wearisome repetition. The civil and the ecclesiastical history best combine. The monastic history rises easily and naturally. Every thing pertaining to parochial history finds its proper place. It presents clearly before the reader the important dis

tinction of the over-lord and the mesnelord. It has the advantage of proceeding

See our vol. xcvin. ii. 10, 122. The first volume was reviewed ibid. pp. 140, 235, 324.

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upon the soundest basis of evidence, the information contained in that noblest of all records-honour be given to him who devised, to him who executed, and to those who have so carefully preserved it!DOMESDAY-Book. It is, moreover, the best preparation which can be made for that great national work, which will be undertaken when the labours of topographical enquirers shall have been extended to all the members of this great kingdom-a BRITANNIA, which, whosoever undertakes, must proceed, not by counties, not by dioceses, not by hundreds, but by the great feudal distributions.

"This is, I believe, the first book of English topography which has been prepared upon this plan.'

It may be necessary to add, to prevent misapprehension with those who do not see Mr. Hunter's work, that he has not followed this arrangement so closely as to disturb the integrity of the parishes, each of which he has described in a distinct and unbroken shape, only taking them in the order which appeared most consonant to their feudal disposition and connection. It perhaps remains to be proved how far this desirable mode of topographical arrangement may be found practicable in those parts of the kingdom where the parishes were generally more divided among different fees; but we find that Mr. Hunter has not been deterred from his plan by occasional instances of that kind; nor

has he hesitated to make a few partial deviations from his rule, on account of some connection of places tantamount to that for which the rule is established. With respect to the colouring of the map, he adds:

"In general it will be found that the boundaries are pretty correctly defined; but in places which lie in several distinct fees, it has been found impossible to mark with precision the parts which belonged to each fee, and it has been presumed that the portions pertaining to each fee, were those which lay adjacent to what are known to be lands belonging to that fee."

To a topographer proceeding on Mr. Hunter's plan, the place described in the following paragraph must wear the aspect of a paradise :

"In the whole economy of Thribergh there has been no departure from what appears to have been contemplated by our ancestors as the perfection of one of the minutest subdivisions of our country. It is one manor, one township, one parish. There is one resident lord, with his mansion and

[Dec.

adjacent park; and a tenantry living under his patronage; a beautiful little church; a commodious parsonage near adjoining; a resident incumbent; and an unspoiled rectory. There is also a rich and fertile soil; and by the modern convenience of a turnpike road, an easy communication with the two markets of Rotherham and Doncaster. Correspondent to these advantages there is at Thribergh the appearance of cleanliness, cheerfulness, and comfort.

"It may be added, that, having been from time immemorial the residence of families of the first rank among the gentry of the county, there is something to give an interest to the place, which belongs not to lards which have merely been the seat of agricultural operations, the same from year to year; something to stimulate those who have succeeded to the men who lived before them, to connect the present with the past, and to grow wiser and better by doing so." -p. 37.

In his biographical sketches (he does not trust himself beyond a sketch) Mr. Hunter is peculiarly happy, as we may show by quotation hereafter. In his genealogical researches his skill He has confined his pedigrees to the and industry are very conspicuous. period in which families have enjoyed the estates he describes, briefly relating their origin or extinction in his narrative. The statements of the old heralds have received a most scrutinizing investigation; and some of their forgeries have found, among others, Bosvile, living temp. Hen. III. it is the following reproofs. Of Sir John

remarked:

"The heralds of Elizabeth's reign indeed attempted to show his descent; and the respectable name of Glover is subscribed to a pedigree prepared in 1586, in which Sir John is shown to be the son of a Sir Thomas, son of John (by Maud, daughter of Thomas Mountenay, governor of London,) son of Sir Anthony, son of Martin de Bosvile, who, not to be behind the rival family of Fitz-William, is described as treasurer of the army of which Sir William Fitz-William was the marshal. There is not the least attempt in Glover's pedigree at supporting the descents by evidence, and it is but too plain that they are fictions."-p. 109.

Again of the family of Savile :

"The English heralds have mixed the proved with the probable in an extraordinary manner in the history of the early generations of this family; they have a marriage for every generation, when if the generations themselves were any thing more than conjectures, some of the marriages at least may be shown to be quite fictitious. The He