William Bell

“ And, concurrently (Exodus xx. 25) , "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." And, certainly, the earliest practice of that nation was with deference to the precept (Joshua viii. 30—32) : "Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron." ”

“ As, however, it is a stone more immediately at home that I purpose to illustrate, I shall at present restrict myself, in its elucidation, to conformities and examples drawn from existing or described monuments in our western hemisphere, which may tend to give a better idea of the Kingstone, the reasons for its use, and the solemnities of which it was the frequent witness. ”

“ If I did not feel that this part of my subject was running into exuberance, I might here, after Grimm and Lappenberg, show how this duodecimal numeration, in its divisions and multiples, had a remarkable influence in governing the Saxon annalists in fixing the dates of the Saxon events. That these uniformly occur in the reiteration of the multiples of four, must tend to cast serious doubt upon their general authenticity; for nature, and the natural course of events, are too various and free to be confined by such artificial rules; but fiction is continually reproducing itself. ”

“ The inferior stones surrounding your own Mora-stone seem to have all vanished before the requirements of an increasing population, and the improvements in the construction of our dwellings. But a reverence deeply seated in the minds of the people must have kept the principal and kingly stone from profanation or destruction; and the sacred purposes to which it was appropriated seem attested by tradition and history, [8] as it is thus amply confirmed by the reasons we can adduce from past ages, and by farther comparison with similar existing monuments near at hand. ”

“ The end, however, of this long migration, is universally fixed in Sweden, as, indeed, also the end of the then known world; and it is there we find the best examples of these stone circles, and their use and customs preserved to comparatively modern dates, as well as chronicled with a minuteness which makes us cognizant, when aided with the auxiliary traditions above, and the correspondence of existing monuments elsewhere, of their primary destination. ”

“ These assemblies usually took place at a certain spot a few miles from Upsala. There the king, or administrator, standing on a stone, swore to observe the law of his kingdom towards his people. In the course of time these stones, inscribed with their respective histories, accumulated to a considerable number; and at length, in 1770, Gustavus the Third built a small pavilion over them for their protection. To this pavilion, which bears the name of 'The Morastenar,' I was driven in less than an hour. It stands on the wayside, under a hill, in a country otherwise undistinguished. ”

“ The common resource of ignorance and fear, to deem everything uncommon, supernatural, is found equally active in undiscovered America as in the East. The Aztec tradition fabled that a demon appeared to two brothers who were leading a horde of ancient Mexicans in search of a new country: she told them to separate, and threw down the block of iron which she carried on her head, to be a boundary betwixt them. ”

“ It is certainly known to have been the stone on which the Scottish kings were inaugurated at Scone, near Perth, like the Palladium of Rome, of which Ovid (Fasti, lib. vi. 382) writes,—
"Imperium secum transferret ilia loci;"
and it was therefore but a measure of policy which induced Edward I. to transfer "it to his own capital, when he fancied he had reduced Scotland to a province of his English kingdom. Richard III. used it at his coronation, as it is no doubt meant in the extract which Mr. J. G. Nichols gives in his Life of Edward V. (Gent. Mag., March, 1855, p. 256) . ”

“ The principal circle of stones in the land of Erin was the Crum-Cruach, on a hill in Breferi, a district of the county of Cavan. Here was an obelisk, wholly covered with gold and silver, in the midst of a circle of twelve stones, which were only covered with brass, on which were carved figures. The old Irish, we are told, on the election of their Tanaists, used to deliver a wand to him whom they intended to raise to that dignity, he having previously ascended a high stone ”

“ The very name of Staines reverts to us the ancient stone-circled space of primeval assemblies; and that Runnimede would serve to interpret a stone of assembly, we may learn from the meeting-stone for the imperial electors of Germany at Rhense, [9] or Runnimede, of which we shall have occasion to speak shortly. The locality of the London stone, at the boundaries of two or more counties, is what frequently occurs in similar monuments. The Rollrich stones are pitched where the counties of Oxford, Warwick, and Gloucester meet, as was the curious septagonal edifice of John O' Groat's house ”

“ All Europe is full of them; and on the authority of the American journals, examples of rude stone circles, which in Europe would be called decidedly Druidical, are not wanting to increase the enigmatical conformities between the eastern and western hemispheres. The obelisks set up by the Incas in Peru (vide Aglio's plates) , like the Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge (vide Drake's "Eboracum") , or the French Chaise à Diable ("Bulletin Monumental," vol. x. p. 462) , can but resemble Jacob's pillar of stone in material and purpose ”

“ It seems, in the first place, most reasonable to admit that the great palladium of our laws and constitution—the trial by twelve jurors [7] —was the most enduring and important continuance in this ancient reverence of the duodecimal number of rulers and usages. The most perfect Druidical circle at present in Britain, and perhaps at the same time (possibly from this very circumstance) , also unique, is in Cumberland, near Keswick ”

“ His words are: "Some, again, have imagined the same to be set up by one John or Thomas Londonstone;" but the honest and acute chronicler very justly adds, "but more likely it is that *such men have mistaken the name of the stone, than the stone of them;" so that though very near the truth, he has not exactly ascertained it. He brings the facts of no person actually so named. ”

“ This may at present suffice for determining the oldest rites and purpose of the Kingstone in Surrey; and as the architect is often forced to collect from scattered relics of a building the form and outline of its various parts when perfect, so here, in ascertaining the ancient rites and ceremonies with which our fragment was connected, it was necessary to compare it, and the legends or memorials concerning it, with those of other countries and distant ages ”

“ Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music, whilst the gravest personages of the state and army, clothed in long Phœnician tunics, officiated in the meanest functions with affected zeal, and secret indignation.
"To the temple, as to the common centre of religious worship, the imperial fanatic attempted to remove the Ancilia, the Palladium, and all the sacred pledges of the faith of Numa. A crowd of inferior deities attended in various stations the majesty of the god of Emesa ”

“ Here the being seated on this stone seems a necessary, possibly the most important, portion of the ceremony, as in Jack Cade's proceeding, noted in the text, and equivalent to what was generally considered in mediæval ages to attach to the possession of the regalia of each kingdom, or to the crown and mantle of St. Stephen in Hungary. Less fortuitous contingencies than this, on the accession of a Scottish prince to the English throne, have frequently had considerable effect on the temper of a people ”

“ In the Saxon Charters, edited by Mr. J. M. Kemble, it is mentioned, that in 838 a great council was held in the famous town of Kingston, in Surrey (No. 240) . On a charter of King Edred (946) Kingstown is mentioned as the royal town where consecration is accustomed to be performed (No. 44) ; whilst a third charter, dated from "the royal town of Kingston," conveys numerous lands in Surrey (No. 363) . ”

“ And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap." Now, the placing the stones in a circle does not appear clear from this description; yet the next instance cited almost necessarily involves the stones being placed, if not round a common centre, at least in a symmetrical order: "And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take ye twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man ”

“ What is most to be admired is, that the stones were so big that eight men can hardly move one; and yet there is no place from whence they can be imagined to have been fetched, but from the nearest mountain, six leagues off. ”

“ It was at first whiter than milk, but grew black long since by the touches of so many wicked mortals; as the superficies only is black."
It is doubtful, however, whether this latter assertion rests upon any critical examination; and the conformity of legend betwixt the Caaba as a building, and the stone, leaves little doubt as to their identity, or an early veneration of the stone by the Sabean votaries of Arabia prior to Mahommed. This it was prudent to conceal under the authority and sanctity of Abraham ”

“ The usages at the coronation of the emperors of Germany as kings of Hungary bring the matter nearer to some of the observances at the same solemnity in Westminster Abbey. There, near the town of Presburg, and adjoining the Danube, is a field called the King's Field, and in it an artificial hill, with four entrances, and roads up to the summit, answering to the four cardinal points. Immediately after the coronation, the chosen king rides unattended up one of the ascents, and brandishes the sword, traditionally called that of St. ”

“ Humboldt, whilst treating on meteoric stones, does not mention the Caaba.
↑ Heliogabalus.—See Gibbon, cap. vi.—"The Sun was worshipped at Emesa under the name of Elagabulus, and under the form of a black conical stone, which it was universally believed had fallen from heaven on that sacred place. In a solemn procession through the streets of Rome, the way was strewed with gold dust; the black stone, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six milk-white horses richly caparisoned. ”

“ Within are seven stone seats, for the then seven electors; the situation being chosen for its contiguity to the territories and residences of the three spiritual and the Palatine elector. The municipality of Rhense had some privileges, renewed in 1521, for keeping the building in repair. Three emperors—Henry VII., 1308; Charles VI., 1340; Ruprecht von der Pfalz, 1400—owe their elevation, and the throne of Charlemagne, to an election on this spot ”

“ Rhense was built in the twelfth century, and after that the older locality fell into decay and was demolished, and the stones used to build a watchhouse.
↑ Besides Kingston Bagpuze, the following English "Kingstons" deserve the study of the antiquary. ”