Whatsoever, worthy admiration concerning _Stoneheng_, either in relation to the greatnesse of the work in generall, the extraordinary proportion of the stones in particular, the wonder the people make, from whence brought, by what Arts or Engines raised, and in such order placed, _Camden_ delivers; certainly, in his judgement he was wholly opposite to the opinions of the aforesaid _British_ Historians. He would never else, with so much regret have complained, _The Authors of so notable a Monument lay buried in oblivion_, had he given any the least credit, this _Antiquity_ had been built, either by _A. Ambrosius_, or the _British_ Nobility, or to eternize either of their names, or actions to succeeding generations. Let _Geffrey Monmouth_ and his followers, say what they please, _Henry Huntingdon_ (his Contemporary, if not more Ancient) is mine Author, _Nec potest aliquis excogitare, qua arte tanti lapides adeo in altum elevati sunt, vel quare ibi constructi sunt. No man knows_ (saith _Huntingdon_) _for what cause_ Stoneheng _erected, or_ (which is fully answered already) _by what Art such huge stones were raised to so great a height_. Take with you also _Draytons_ judgement in his _Poly-olbion_ couched under the fiction of old _Wansdikes_ depraving _Stoneheng_. (_Wansdike_ being a huge Ditch in _Wiltshire_ so called, anciently, as _Camden_ opines, dividing the two Kingdomes of the _Mertians_ and _West Saxons_ asunder)
_Whom for a paltry ditch, when_ Stonendge _pleas’d t’upbraid, The old man taking heart, thus to that Trophy said; Dull heap, that thus thy head above the rest doth reare, Precisely yet not know’st who first did place thee there; But Traytor basely turn’d to_ Merlins _skill dost flie, And with his Magicks dost thy Makers truth belie_.
For, as for that ridiculous Fable, of _Merlins_ transporting the stones out of _Ireland_ by Magick, it’s an idle conceit. As also, that old wives tale, that for the greatnesse it was in elder times called the _Giants dance_. The name of the _dance of Giants_ by which it is styled in _Monmouth_, hath nothing allusive, no not so much as to the _tale he tels us_, saith a modern Writer in the life of _Nero Cæsar_.
[Sidenote: _Speed lib. 7. Stow fo. 58. in 4ᵒ._]