Sept. 2. - Stonehenge. - This ruin of what may be considered a primeval temple of philosophy, of religion, of devotion, or of instruction (for all these we consider to be essentially the same), affords some good hints for garden buildings on a large scale. A circle of pillars, whether square or round, on a large scale, joined by massive architraves, either with or without cornices, is a noble and imposing object, and would be so even if the pillars were built of brick, and covered with Roman cement. Such an ornament might form a fine termination to a wooded hill; and we do not believe there are any which would produce so grand an effect for so small a sum. The ruins of Stonehenge, though exceedingly interesting in an antiquarian point of view, are very deficient in architectural interest. The cause is their utter want of masonic forms and manipulations: if ever the chisel and the rule were employed on these stones, all evidence of it is now gone. To be convinced of the grand effect of masonic forms in giving architectural interest to ruins, we have only to recall to mind the smallest portion of any of the buildings of antiquity, which we have seen in Greece or Italy, and compare them with these gigantic fragments. On every square inch of the surface of the former, there is the impress of human labour, and the evidence of the employment of mind. Here we are obliged to search for this evidence, by convincing ourselves, that so many stones could not be placed on end by chance; and that, though not equidistant, yet still they are so placed as to form something like regular figures. On examining the stones we find they are of three different kinds; viz. the larger stones of sandstone, the smaller of granite, and two or three stones, in particular situations, of two varieties of limestone. This shows that they have been brought from different places, but still there is wanting that mathematical regularity and uniformity which are the characteristics of masonry; and we conclude by wondering how savages, that did not know how to hew, could contrive to set such stones on end, and put other stones over them. We state this as first general impressions: after considering them farther, observing the tenons, and the corresponding mortises, and reflecting on the subject, and on the countless number of years that they must have stood there, we yield to the probability of their having been originally more or less architectural. We met here with an artist, Mr. Browne of Amesbury, author of An Illustration of Stonehenge and Abury. He was sitting in a kind of covered wheelbarrow, the bottom of which formed his seat; a box, which served as the feet of the wheelbarrow, protected his legs, and kept his feet from the ground, while from the sides and back were continued up glazed canvas, so as to form a complete box. In the sides are two very small circular panes of glass, serving as spy holes. The machine is worthy the attention of other rural artists. In Mr. Browne's work, he considers Stonehenge to be erected before the flood, and Abury, a similar monument, to have been constructed under the direction of Adam, after he was driven out of Paradise, as a remembrance of his great and sore experience in the existence of evil.
