Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

CIRCLE OF CLASSliRNISH. 231
occupies oil a gentle eminence, in an open tract of moor
land, where there is nothing' to divert the attention. It
appears to have been surrounded at a small distance by
a trench or ditch, which is now, in many parts, obscure;
and the same circumstance occurs in the great circle of
Stenhouse in Orkney, as well as at Stonehenge. These
three specimens are indeed the most remarkable of those
structures in Britain ;
that of Stenhouse being a hundred
yards in diameter : and the present, from its singularity
of form as well as its extent, may be allowed to claim the
second place in rank. Though this circle was known to
Martin, his description is of no value, nor does he offer
any speculations about it that are worth notice. Not so,
however, is Toland's account; which is an admirable
specimen of that exaggeration and disregard of truth,
which are too often the ingredients of every dealer in
hypotheses, but which figure very well amid the heap
of idle declamation, loose conjectures, and wild hints
of unperformed projects, which he chooses to call an
Essay on the Druids. It is not easy to discover, from
his description, whether he had seen it, or whether he
had drawn up his account from information : it is of little
consequence. He says that every stone was placed in
the circle in such a manner, that there were twelve equi-
distant obelisks, six feet asunder, and each seven feet
high, representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The
central stone, he adds, is thirteen feet high, resembling
the rudder of a ship ; while there are four obelisks
directly south, in a straight line, and the same number
east and west; whence it was round and winged. But
I need not repeat the remainder of his description, which
is all equally false or fanciful, except to remark that he
chooses to find nineteen stones in each line of the avenue,
" betokening," as he says, " the cycle of nineteen years."
He concludes, with the same accuracy as he has discovered