But to conclude our peregrination--the glory of Hode, Rievaulx, and Byland abbeys has departed--their founders, ecclesiastics and patrons, have become dust--the crumbling arch and tottering pillar alone record "the whereabouts" of the rendezvous of heroes and kings--and rooks construct their dwellings where the silver crucifix once reared its massy form, before crowds of adoring monks--the hoarse croak of the raven is now heard through that valley where pealed the vesper bell; and the melancholy music of the lonely river succeeds the solemn chant of mass;--laugh and jest resound where monkish praise quivered through the Gothic space--the helmet and coronet of blood and birth are fallen from their wearers--and the genius and eccentricity of Sterne, and the wit of Wharton, are for ever extinct:
"And fortress, fane and wealthy peer Along the tide of time are borne. And feudal strife, with noble tears Forgotten in the lapse of years."
[7] Of Skelton Castle, author of "Crazy Tales," and of the "Continuation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey."
Cromlehs are among the most interesting of all monumental relics of our ancestors; but the question of their original purposes has excited much controversy among the lovers of antiquarian lore. They are immense stones, by some believed to have been the altars, by others, the tombs, of the Druids; but Mr. Toland explains the word _cromleac_, or _cromleh_, from the Irish _crom_, to adore, and _leac_, a stone--stone of adoration. Crom was also one of the Irish names of God; hence cromleac may mean the stone of Crom, or of the Supreme God. The cromleac is also called _Bothal_, from the Irish word _Both_, a house, and _al_, or _Allah_, God; this is evidently the same with _Bethel_, or house of God, of the Hebrews.
The above vignette represents a Cromleh at Plas Newydd, the seat of the Marquess of Anglesea, in the Isle of Anglesea. This part of the island is finely wooded, and forcibly recalls to the mind its ancient state, when it was the celebrated seat of the Druids, the terrific rites of whose religion were performed in the gloom of the thickest groves.
The Cromleh at Plas Newydd is 12 feet 9 inches long, and 13 feet 2 inches broad, in the broadest part. Its greatest depth or thickness is 5 feet. Its contents cannot be less in cubic feet and decimal parts than 392,878,125. It follows, therefore, from calculating according to the specific gravity of stone of its kind, that it cannot weigh less than 30 tons 7 hundreds. The engraving is copied from "The Celtic Druids," by Godfrey Higgins, Esq. F.S.A. 4to, 1827, one of the most valuable antiquarian volumes it has ever been our good fortune to secure; and by the aid of an esteemed correspondent, we hope shortly to introduce a few of its curiosities more in detail than we are enabled to do at present.