The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

130 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
It is well known that what was pure mythology in one
54 and hence the fables
age became romance in another ;
current in this country about King Arthur and his knights
55
connected with Merlin the enchanter their j imaginary
combats, and discomfiture of giants and powerful magicians,
were all derived from occurrences that took place
during the initiation of candidates into the highest mysteries
of Druidism, which were of a complicated nature,
abounding with transformations, battles, and fearful adventures.
Hence every remarkable structure in this
island to which the name of Arthur is attached was doubtless
connected with the initiations, 56 and the same may
54
Vid. Fab. Pag. Idol., b. v., c. 8.
55 u Merlin was the same as the Irish Tailgin St. Patrick; in other
words, he was Noah, or the principal Telchin, whence he was denominated
by the ancient Celts, Mer-Lin, or the marine god of the Lake."
(Fab. Mys. Cab., vol. "
ii., p. 429.) I am much inclined to conjec-
ture," adds the author, ' that the hardy knights of the Round Table
were in fact, no other than the infernal, or Cabiric deities." (Ib., p.
437.)
56 In the county of Westmoreland are two extraordinary monuments
connected with each other, the one called Maryborough, or
more properly Mayburgh ; the other, Arthur's Round Table. The
former is a very striking specimen of the mixed architecture of the
Druids, composed of stones and an embankment of earth, and lies
about four hundred yards to the west of Arthur's Table. It consists
of an eminence which rises gradually from the plain for about one
hundred and forty paces, forming the lower section or base of a regular
cone ; the ascent is everywhere covered with wood, and. the remains
of timber trees of great size appear on every side. The summit
of the hill is fenced round, save only an opening or entrance,
twelve paces in width to the east ; the fence is singular, being com-
posed of an immense quantity of loose* pebbles and flints which perhaps
were gathered from the adjoining rivers. No kind of mortar
appears to have been used in this work ; the stones lie uncemented,
piled up to the ridge, near twenty paces wide at the base, and in
height about twelve feet from the interior plain. Here and there time
has scattered a few shrubs and trees over the pebbles, but in other
places they are loose and naked on both sides. The space within
consists of a fine plain of meadow ground exactly circular, one hundred
paces in diameter and ; inclining a little to the westward from
the centre is a large column of unhewn stone standing erect, with its
smaller end in the earth, eleven feet and upwards in height, and more
than twenty -two feet in circumference at the middle. (Hutch. Comb.,
vol. i., p. 310.) The sacred character of this place has been handed
down by tradition, even to the present time. In a correspondence
which I had some time ago with the late Mr. Briggs of Kendal, he
related the following anecdote respecting this Druidical
"
circle : Not
many years since, an old man in neighborhood told me, there were