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THE HISTORY OF A NATION IS THE HISTORY OF ITS RELIGION, its attempts to seek after and serve its God,” says an old writer. Of no nation or country is this more true than of Great Britain, where from the standing stones of Stennis in Orkney, to the Maen Ambres in Cornwall—the prehistoric remains of open-air sanctuaries,—artificial mounds and scientifically constructed astronomical circles, bear witness to the vigour and vitality of a national religion, which has already passed from the primitive into the metaphysical stage, and embodies abstract ideas, astronomical observations and a high and pure, code of morals.

From the comparative study of antiquity in Chaldea, Arabia, Persia, and Palestine, we now know this religion to have been Druidism, one of the oldest religions in the world, and in its Asiatic and Semitic form of Buddhism, the religion still of one-half of mankind.

HE HISTORY OF A NATION IS THE HISTORY OF ITS RELIGION, its attempts to seek after and serve its God,” says an old writer. Of no nation or country is this more true than of Great Britain, where from the standing stones of Stennis in Orkney, to the Maen Ambres in Cornwall—the prehistoric remains of open-air sanctuaries,—artificial mounds and scientifically constructed astronomical circles, bear witness to the vigour and vitality of a national religion, which has already passed from the primitive into the metaphysical stage, and embodies abstract ideas, astronomical observations and a high and pure, code of morals.

From the comparative study of antiquity in Chaldea, Arabia, Persia, and Palestine, we now know this religion to have been Druidism, one of the oldest religions in the world, and in its Asiatic and Semitic form of Buddhism, the religion still of one-half of mankind.

I judge that you pick up this booklet with much the same ideas on the subject that I had a few months ago. The antiquarians had not helped you or me very much, but had left us with vague ideas and many notes of interrogation.

On early trackways they alternated between a misty appreciation of hill-tracks and ridgeways, and an implied depreciation of all track-makers before the Romans came. To learn the meaning of mounds they did not go beyond the child’s investigation of a drum, cut it open to see; and, if nothing was there, quite failed to profit by such valuable negative evidence. In perhaps one moat in five they found a dwelling, and argued finely on the defensive importance of a ring of water; but as to the other four, with no dwelling, and in unexplained positions, they closed their eyes.

It must often have been remarked by those who are in the habit of reading treatises (great or small) on antiquities, that their authors, while sufficiently able to describe the objects they have seen, are, from the narrow field of their observation (it may have been a parish or a county), but ill furnished with a basis on which to found rational theories, and yet that the men who are in possession of the fewest facts are those who indulge in the greatest amount of theory.

In introducing these Notes of a visit to the Island of Sardinia, it is necessary to premise that my object in visiting that beautiful country was simply to do what the class of antiquaries above mentioned has not done — that is, over a wide range of observation, to examine carefully, and to measure and delineate some of those antiquarian puzzles, the Nuraghi. This I had previously done to many of the vast antiquities in Brittany; and being already familiar with the pre-historic structures of Scotland, I hoped to be in a position to better understand that class, both there and elsewhere, and to institute comparison where similarities exist

AS I know the pleasure, which every branch of ancient literature gives you I should not excuse myself, if I did not com­municate to you a late discovery of Roman antiqui­ties in these westernmost parts of Britain.

In the year 1756 a farmer at Bossens, in the parish of. St. Erth, driving his oxen from the field, per­ceived the foot of one of them to sink a little deeper than ordinary into the earth at A, fig. 8. (See Tab. 1.) Curiosity, and the hopes of treasure, led him soon, after to search the place; where was soon discovered a perpendicular pit, circular, of two feet and half di­ameter. Digging to the depth of 18 feet, there was found a Roman patera (fig. 1. & 2.) : about 6 feet deeper, the jug, fig. 3: nearby, among the rubbish, the stone, fig.. 4; a small .millstone, about 18 inches diameter: then another patera, with two handles, in other particulars of the shape and size as fig. 2, but unfortunately mislaid, and not now to be found. Intermixed with these were found fragments of horns, bones of several sizes, half-burnt sticks, and many pieces of leather, seemingly shreds of worn-out shoes. Having sunk to the depth of 16 feet, they found the bottom of the pit concave, like that of a dish or bowl. There was a sensible moisture, and mostly wet clay, in all parts of the pit. On each side there were holes at due distances, capable of admitting a human foot, by which persons might descend and ascend. There is no doubt but this work must have been intended for a well: but a pit so deep, and of such narrow dimensions, must have been sunk thro’ a stony ground with much difficulty, and with tools very different from those now in use.

The author’s theory is that ancient engineers laid out straight lines of signal stations across the width of Britain. The stations were connected by trackways, though these (unlike Alfred Watkins’s leys) were not straight. Whatever the merits of this theory, it is interesting as an early example of “landscape geometry”on a large scale.

The Sculptured Stones of Scotland are the most remarkable in the world, and of these the most singular is that known as the Newton Stone. This is unique, being inscribed with characters unlike any found in Europe, and which, though recognised as Oriental, have hitherto defied interpretation. To this stone and its inscriptions, therefore, the especial attention of the reader is invited, since the interest of the whole inquiry, as conducted in this volume, turns upon the significance ascribed to this puzzling monument.

The aim of the writer of this monograph is to draw attention to a by-path of archaeology where the traveller with some acquaintance with the prehistory, history and folklore of the countryside through which it leads may easily become an adventurer on almost untrodden ground. No pretence is made to say anything new about the well-known megalithic monuments of other parts of the British Isles, but in referring to the race responsible for the introduction of the megalithic culture into these islands more than local significance is given to the ancient folk customs and folklore associated with these archaic monuments. What the writer tries to show is that in a part of England usually supposed to be entirely without prehistoric megaliths there are certainly some large boulders, recognised as mark-stones, that seem to have originally served like purposes to those of many of the more widely known menhirs or standing stones and probably had contemporary origin.

Still one of the largest pieces of architecture ever constructed, the Great Pyramid has long been the subject of wonder as to when it was built, by whom, and most importantly, why. The conventional explanation is that it was built during the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu by skilled Egyptian labourers as a funerary monument. In the 19th century, in the absence of hard information other than detailed studies of its dimensions, a whole class of speculation grew up which has been called ‘pyramidology.’ The pyramidologists came to believe that the Great Pyramid encoded advanced knowledge of the physical universe, and the course of human history. This book is one of the primary texts of pyramidology.

In addition to pyramidology, Joseph Seiss was a Christian dispensationalist, a 19th century millennialist school of thought. The dispensationalists viewed human history as a series of covenants with God. They were certain that the end of days could be pinpointed using Biblical prophecy. This was the origin of a set of beliefs widely accepted by contemporary evangelical Christians.