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NOTES. 309ao notice of the groves or altars, but particularly mentions thetemples. Multis in civitatlbm harum rerum extructos tumuloslocis consecratis conspicari licet—i. e. " In many cities, yon maysee heaps of these (warlike spoils)piled up in consecrated places."It was not likely that the temples inpendage of a grove annexed to thera.cities would have the ap.Tacitus, however, in theabove cited passage, puts the existence of the altars of the Druidsbeyond a doubt, and has thus subverted one matedal part of thePiukartcnian system.He gravely tells us (vol. 1. p. 414.) thatthese cross stones (altars) were conveniences to the chiefs to getup and s[,eak to the people.Tacitus assigns them a very differentuse; and hisopinion is not only founded on fact, but coin*cides with that of every impartial enquirer who has writtenthese monuments of antiquity.oaIf, however, Mr. Pinkarton willlake the trouble to look into Chambers' Cyclopedia^ or any topographicaldescription of Anglesey, he will find that their altars,temples, and rocking stones still remain. Tacitus gives us auaccount of what was demolished; and Mr. Pinkarton hence infersthat nothing more existed. But here, on the evidence ofTacitus, Mr. Pinkarton is evidently wrong, for the altars, thoughmentioned, are not said to have been demolished ;and if the altarswere spared, why might not the temples also ?A similar, instance occurs in the parish of Holytcood^ whichderives its name from a Druidical grove, Holywood^ or as it ispronounced by the Tulgar Haly IVld, ismerely the Gaelic AliaFeadh^ Saxonically pronounced, and signifies the holy grove.John de Hohjivood, by the Monks commonly calledSccro Bosco, also derived his name from this grove.Joannes dcIn the memoryof some persons still alive, the vestiges of the grove couldbe clearly traced.The roots of the trees are said still to remain,and the circle of stones forming the temple in the interior of thagrove is still intire. Now though this grove has been transmittedto posterity in the name of the parish, as well as in that of ifoan.nes de Sacro Bosco^ there is no tradition whatever concernixigthe temple which it contains. The grove here, like that at Anjjlesey,has fallen before the axe, or yielded to time.K rBat such