Choir gaur; the grand orrery of the ancient Druids commonly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, astronomically explained, and mathematically proved to be a temple erected in the earliest ages, for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. Illustrated with three copper plates / by Dr. John Smith.

  • Smith, John, M.D., active 1710-1770.
Date:
1771
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Choir gaur; the grand orrery of the ancient Druids commonly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, astronomically explained, and mathematically proved to be a temple erected in the earliest ages, for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. Illustrated with three copper plates / by Dr. John Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/94 (page 7)
    7 undtious matter, knit and incorporate together, like as thofe anci¬ ent trophies ar.d monuments of vidory, which I have feen ill Yorkfhire. And what marvel? Read we not, I pray you, in Pliny, that the fand, or duft of Puteoli, being covered over with water, becometh forthwith a very ttone; that the citterns in Rome of Sand, digged oat of the ground, and the ttrongeft kind of lime, wrought together, grow fo hard, that they feem ttones indeed? And that ftatues and images of marble Scalings, and fmall grit, grow together, fo compact and firm, that they were deemed intire and folid marble? The common faying is, that Ambrofius Aurelianus,. or his brother Uther, did rear them up by the art of Merlin, &c. He Account of Stonehenge, from Inigo Jones, Archi- teEl to King James the Firfl. THIS antiquity (called by Henry Huntingdon,, the fecond ; by Polyolbion,—-firft wonder of the land, becaufe the archi¬ traves are fet upon the heads of the upright ttones, and (hang as it were) in the air, is generally known by the name of Stone- Heng. It is fited upon the plain in the county of Wiltshire; in England, not far from Ambrefbury (the foundation of whofe build- ings, frequently digged up, render it to have been in times patt a town of no fmall fame) fix miles at leaft from new Salilbury, northwards. The whole work in general, being„of a circular Form, is no- feet diameter, double winged about without a roof, anciently envi¬ roned with a deep trench, ttill appearing about thirty feet broad. So that betwixt it, and the work itfelf, a large and void Ipace of ground being left, it had from the plain three open entrances y the1 mail;