seems to be originally derived from the common employment of young girls in former ages) the inhabitants represent, as having been not only spinsters in the former sense, but also spinners by occupation. For, according to their account, they did it after finishing their usual work, and going home with their pad, as the phrase here is, that is carrying home their pad of yarn to the yarn-jobber, to be paid for spinning it. And on their return, observing such heavy materials unapplied to any use, and being strong wenches, (giantesses we may presume, such as Gulliver's Glumdalclitch, or the Blouzes of Patagonia,) as an evidence of their strength and industry, and to shame the men who, either from weakness or laziness, had desisted from the attempt, they jointly undertook this task, and raised the unwieldy stones to the height and position in which they still remain. This is the tale, which they say has been handed down to them from generation to generation." Nor is the memory of this legendary fable extinct at the present day. Whilst however Mr. Chapple records the tradition, he by no means acquiesces in the derivation of the term, but appends a conjecture of his own, " taking it for granted that the original name of this cromlech was expressive of the use for which it was designed. *** Why then might not the astronomical Druids give it some Celtic appellation significant of that use; such as Lle Yspiennwr rhongca, (in the British dialect of the Celtic,) the place of the open or hollow observatory? or, possibly, Yspienddyn Ser rongca-the open star-gazing place." Without venturing to pronounce between the rival claims of these "astronomical Druids" and the stalwart spinsters of traditionary fame, it may be worth while to look a little further into the bearings of the legend. Shrouded under the wild extravagance of the popular fable, there may lie, some mythic notion of antient and wide-spreading prevalence, or even some historical truth of revelation, however perverted. May we not therefore, possibly, detect in the legend of these three fabulous spinners, the terrible Valkyriur, of the dark mythology of our northern ancestors?† Or if the statement of a CHAPPLE'S Description and Exegesis of the Drewsteignton Cromlech, p. 99. The Fatal Sisters, the choosers of the slain, whose dread office in the wild and gloomy mythology of the Norsemen, to "weave the warp and weave the woof" of Destiny, is thus celebrated in the lyric strains of the English Pindar: writer, quoted by Polwhele, be correct, the tradition with regard to the builders of the cromlech varies, and that, in some cases, he found its erection attributed to three young men, instead of young women. "But," continues this writer, commenting upon Mr. Chapple's observations, "the tradition goes farther, and says that not only the three pillars were erected in memory of the three young ones, but that the flat stone which covers them, was placed there in memory of their father, or mother, according as you supposed the young ones to be male or female, and that each of these, both young and old, fetched these stones down from the highest parts of the mountain of Dartmoor, where, for some reason or other, they had thought fit to take up their residence. Perhaps the expression Lle Y'spinnwr, which the author seems to think a spying, or surveying place, might give rise to the idea of spinners, and thus turn them into three ladies. But you will, perhaps, guess why I incline to suppose these stones might be erected, among other reasons, in memory of an old man and his three sons, who descended from an exceeding high mountain, on a certain occasion."* What was the occasion alluded to by this writer, it is not difficult to divine; and if Druidism is indeed no more than a corruption of a religion, diffused throughout the world in the earliest ages, by the descendants of the three diluvian patriarchs, after the division of the world in the time of Peleg, (GEN. x. 25,) then will this conjecture, as to the legend of the cromlech, be found of more Glittering lances are the loom, Where the dusky warp we strain, See the grisly texture grow, Shafts, for shuttles, dipt in gore, Mista, black terrific maid, Join the wayward work to aid, 'Tis the woof of victory.-GRAY. *POLWHELE'S Historical View of Devonshire, p. 79. importance than might at first appear. This opinion will also derive strength from the fact, that an examination of the situation and circumstances in which the cromlech is placed, has led to the conclusion that there are other relics immediately adjacent to the cromlech, which are strongly indicative of Arkite worship. The satellites which Polwhele mentions as attending the Drewsteignton cromlech,-" two rows of pillars marking out the processional road of the Druids, and several columnar circles," and "rock idols at the end of the down, that frown with more than usual majesty," will now be sought for in vain, even if they ever existed, to the extent described by the author. But on the north side of the road, by which the cromlech field is bounded, there are objects highly worthy of examination, which are generally overlooked, and are probably unknown to many, whose interest is absorbed in the celebrated spinsters' rock. 2004 ar Bradford, or Bradmere Pool, is popularly reported to occupy the site of an antient tin mine, a few hundred yards north of the crom-J lech. With less regularity of outline in its banks, it would approach more closely to the appearance of a mountain tarn, than any piece of water in our western moorlands. It covers an area of about three acres; of a rectangular form, about forty yards wide, and not less than one hundred and eighty long, is said to be seventy-five feet deep, and is surrounded on all sides by trees. On the south side, the bank rises steeply from the brink of the pool, and forms, apparently, the slope of an earthwork, where the vestiges of a ditch or moat can be traced, surrounding a mound of an elliptical form, measuring, on the top, one hundred feet by one hundred and thirty. There seems to have been a provision for draining this piece of water, should occasion require. There are too many indications of regularity and design, to admit of the supposition, that this mound is nothing more than the upcast of an abandoned mine; but if it should be thought that the traces of entrenchment are not sufficiently decisive to warrant its being regarded as having been constructed for the purposes of defence, there is yet another hypothesis, which would assign its erection to the earliest periods of history, and connect it with the artificial formation of the adjoining sheet of water, and the legendary erection of the cromlech as noticed above. I have before me the MSS. notes of Col. Hamilton Smith,* on these relics, after a visit to the spot, in which he remarks the appearances which presented themselves to our notice, and records the conclusion to which he had arrived, from a personal inspection. "The sheet of water, or dub, embracing a part of the sacred hill, and probably a sacred grove, having on one side an oblique communication with the water by a gradual ascent, occurs in other places, particularly in two similar monuments of Celtic origin, among the Savern hills and the Vogesian mountains, where altars, sacred inclosures, and consecrated pools of great depth occur as here. Forests surround them, as was no doubt the case also at Shilston. As for the sloping ditch, forming a road, it may have served for the covered coracle, containing the novice in his mystic regeneration, and second birth, to be drawn up from the waters to the mimic Ararat of Gwidd-nau." "Worship on high places," says Mr. Harcourt, " imitations, or at least memorials of Ararat-was a characteristic feature of the diluvian rites;" and the same author has adduced a number of instances to show, that where natural hills or mountains contiguous to, or peninsulated by, water, did not occur, that the memory of the diluvian mountain would be preserved in artificial mounts and pools, such as Col. Smith supposes those at Shilston to have been; where, as it has been shown, the artificial piece of water, (Dub,†) is in immediate connexion with an artificial mound. The reasons for this, he traces to a traditionary recollection of the altar built upon Mount Ararat, by Noah, and to a supposed injunction of that patriarch to his descendants to construct their altars in such situations as would preserve the memory of that awful catastrophe, and that the cause of the deluge was the impiety of mankind. "Thus every high place devoted to religion, would become a sign or emblem of Ararat. All indeed, who retained any reverence for the patriarchal precept, would avoid a long residence upon extensive plains, because it would deprive them of their hill altars. When, therefore, the rebels of The high reputation of a gentleman, so profoundly versed in antiquities, ethnology and the physical history of man, as Col. Smith, will not fail to ensure the greatest respect, for any opinion he may advance. +"Dub, in Chaldee, is To flow." Doct. Del., vol. ii., p. 417. Shinar, in opposition to the Divine will, determined not to be dispersed, their leaders could not devise a more politic plan for keeping them contentedly in the plain, than by building an artificial mountain, to be their place of worship, that the name of the Lord might dwell there."* Our author further shows, from a variety of evidence, that “the mountain was honoured first as the throne of the avenging deity, and secondly, as the sanctuary of peace, which was first disclosed by the retiring flood. At the same time," he continues, "there is distinctly visible an idolatrous disposition to transfer the glory of the Creator to the creature, either to the mountain or the man, which extended itself even to the remotest islands, scattered in the Pacific Ocean, and must therefore be admitted to exhibit, in the strongest light, the indelible permanence of its character, and the antiquity of its origin. Those," says the missionary Ellis, "who were initiated into the company of Areois, invoked the Mouna Tabu, or sacred mountain; which, it further appears, is exactly like one of the mountains or mounds which were held sacred by the Celts, for it is conical, and situated near a lake, and what is most material to this enquiry, the natives have a tradition which shows, at once, the reason of its being Tabu, or sacred. The Sandwichers," says the missionary, "believe that the Creator destroyed the earth by an inundation that covered the whole earth except Mouna Roa, in Owhyhee or Hawaii, on the top of which one single pair had the good fortune to save themselves." + If, therefore, it should be questioned, whether the evidence of the existence of such a sacred mound and lake, ‡ at Bradford Pool, as are above described, is sufficiently conclusive, it must be admitted that the widely-spread tradition of the deluge, in connexion with consecrated mountains, may justly be alleged as an argument in its favour. If the memory of that "overwhelming flood" is preserved at the antipodes, in our own times, it can scarcely be imagined that it had not reached our Celtic ancestors, two or three thousand years ago, by means of their intercourse with the Phoenicians, even if it had not been * Doct. Del., vol. i., p. 149. + Ib., vol. i., p. 378. Among the legends of the neighbourhood, may be mentioned one, which relates, that there is a passage lined with large stones (high enough for a man to walk upright) from this lake to the Teign, near the Logan-stone. |