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230
Remains of a Druidic Work in the North of Scotland.
Da, Dea, quas feiter, doctas, Cybeleia, neptes:
Audit; et has curæ juffit adeffe mese. Pandite mandati memores, Heliconis Alumus,
Gaudeat affiduo cur Dea Magna fono? Faf. IV. v. 191. At cur turritá caput eft ornata coronâ? V. 279. Ipfe quoque Aufoniss Cæfar matres- que nurufque Carmina turrigere dicere jullit Opi. Tril. 11. 23- And still more clearly from a compa- sifon of a paffage in Tibullus with one of Catullus:
At qui non audit Mufas, qui vendit
amorem,
Idee currus ille fequatur Opis; Etter centenas erroribus expleat urbes, Et fecet ad Phrygios vilia membra modos. Tibull.lib.1.el.iv v.61. -fequimini Phrygiam ad domum Cybelles, Phry- gia ad nemora Dez,
Ubi cymbalum fonat vox, ubi tym- pana reboant,
Tibicen sibi canit Phryx, curvo grave
calamo, Catull. de Ati, F. 19. It must now be observed, that, con- trary to the doctrine advanced by Ovid, from which Vefa, i. e. Tellus, appears to be the daughter of Ops, i. e. by- bele, Lucretius expressly afferis Tellus and the Magna Dei Mater, i. e. Cy bele, to be one and the fame, in that noble defeription which he has given, us of this Goddefs: lib. 11. v. 580. et fegg
Principio Tellas habet in fe corpora prima- [ferarum, Quare Magna Deúm Mater, Materque Et noftri Genetrix hac diéta eft cor- poris una.
Hanc veteres Graium dofti cecinere Poetae
Sublimem in curru bijuges agitare Le
ones: &c.
And Macrobius informs us, that Opi was by fome perfons understood to be no other than Terra: " Hanc autem Deam Open Saturni conjugem credi- derunt:quos etiam nonullis Colum Re Terram effe perfuafum eft." Satur- ual. lib. I. cap. 10.
It hence appears, that we are sufficiently authorized in sappoling ene Di winity only to be indicated by the several appellations Magua Mater, Ops, and Tellus; but I do not recollect any authority for fetting afide the exprefs testimonies of Ovid and Juvenal, and adding Flera sife to the number; un
left under this denomination we are to imagine Tellus to be poetically, inti- mated in that beautiful description of the Spring in the fifth book of Lu- cretius:
It Ver; et Venus; et Veneris præ- nuncius ante [propter s Pinnatus graditur Zephyrus veitigia Flora quibus Mater præfpergens, ante Lopplet. Cuneta coloribus egregiis, et adoribus
viai
V. 736 an idea, which another passage or two in this author may serve to render not wholly improbable:
suaves dedala Tellas
Summittit flores- 17: Præterea cur vere rofam, frumenta calore, [demus: Viteis autumno fundi fudante vi- Si non quia vivida Tellus Tuto res teneras effert in luminis oras? Ibid. 175
rérum.
36
omnibus omnia largo Tellus ipfa parit, naturaque dadala V. 234- I shall only add, that this idea mays perhaps, be thought to receive fill far- their support and illustration from a re-mark of the Old Scbolia on a paffago of Perfius: Ludis Floralibus, (lays
he) omnia femina fpargebantur in po- pulum, ut Tellus velut muneribus fuis placaretur."
Wigan, April 30.
Mr. URBAN, IN the most northern part of Scotland,
called Lord Reay's, country, not far from Tongue, and near the head of the river which runs into the North fea, at Loch Eribel, is the remains of a stone tower, which I apprehend to be a Dru idic work, and to be the greatest piece peiling that it is to little known even. of antiquity in this island. It is fur- to the natives of that country; I don't remember to have ever seen it mentioned in any book whatever, nor do I recall left whether Pennant has received any information concerning it. This tower is called, by the neighboring inhabi tants, the Dane of Darmadilla, It is of a circular form, and now nearly re- sembling the sruitum of a cone: whe- ther, when perfect, it terminated in a
vigila, et cicer ingere large Risanti populo, noftra ut Floralia poflint- Aprici meminiffe fenes
Perf, Satyr. V. v. 377
Conjunction of Saturn point, I cannot pretend to guess; but it seems to have been formerly higher, by the rubbish which lies round it. It is built of stone without cement, and I take it to be between 20 and 30 feet high still. The entrance is by a very low and narrow door, to pass through which one is obliged to stoop much; but, perhaps, the ground may have been raised since the first erection..
When one is got in and placed in the centre, it is open over head. All round the sides of the walls are ranged flone shelves, one above another, like the shelves in a circular beaufait, reach- ing from near the bottom to the top: the stones which compose these shelves. are supported chiefly by the stones which form the walls, and which project all round just in that place where the shelves are, and in no others: each of the shelves is separated into several divisions, as in a book cafe. There is fome remains of an awkward ftair- cafe. What use the shelves could be applied to I cannot conceive. It could not be of any military use from its situation at the bottom of a sloping hill, which wholly commands it. The most learned among the inhabitants, such as the gentry and the clergy, who all speak the Irish language, could give no in- formation or tradition concerning its use, or the origin and meaning of its name. But some years since I happened, at an auction of books in Lon- don, to look into a French book, containing Gaulith antiquities; and there I saw a print of the remains of a Dru- idic temple in France, which greatly resembles the tower I am speaking of, having like shelves in it: and, reading a late pamphlet on the Antiquity of the Irib Language, I think I can partly trace the origin of the name Dornadilla. At page 24 the author fays, that Dorn means a round flone, fo that adorn would mean the round stone of the priefs; ma is of and Di is Gods at page 45 he says, in the last line, ulla means a place of devotion: fo that Dor- na-Di-vlla will signify the round-flone place of the orbip of God; or, per- haps, it might allude to some round Aone preserved within as a sacred em- blem of divinity. As I am not acquainted with the Irish language, if of your correspondents can give any better account, either of the nature of such Druidic temples, or of this name in particular, it will, perhaps, be acceptable to others as well as to Your humble servant.
any
and Mars notified. Mr. URBAN,
WITH a view of entertaining some of your readers, I have troubled you with the following notice. Your humble servant,
May 10, 1773.
T. HARRINGTON.
THE present month of June af-
fords a curious phenomenon in the heavenly bodies, viz. a conjunc- sion of two superior planets, Saturn and Mars, which has not happened these many years, and it will be a number of years before they will be in the same position again. The plans- nets will be in one figa on the 14th day of June. Mars will then be nearer the horizon than Saturn; but the motion of Mart being much quicker than Satara, he will therefore every even- ing be feen to advance nearer to this lauter planet till Sunday the syth, when Mars will be in conjunction till "the 30th, and will then pats from the wef- tern, and get on the southern file of Saturn. By a good reflecting telescope a part of Saturn's luminous ring hay now be seen. Whoever is desired of observing these planets, may fee them rather low in the weft about an hour after fun fet: but the fun's vicinity will occasion them to be visible but a short time, nor will their continuance above our horizon be 'long, as they will speedily draw near to obscuration by the beams of the fun. Those who may find it difficult to distinguish them from the fixed fars, may obferve the moon a little after nine o'clock on the last, at which time that luminary will be accompanied by the above pla- nets, and fo very near to them, that had the moon North, instead of South latitude, it would have been an oc- cultation.
ERRATA
In Queen Elizabeth's reception at Cambridge
P. 24. 1. 49. for Earl of Harwich, read Earl of Warwick."
P.
In Voltaire's Philosophical Reflections. 26. col. 1. 1. 38. for which it obtained which obtains," col. 1. 1. 41. for notions- nations."
In the Elogium on Heluetiuse go. col. 2. 1. s. for sincerity feasibility.

Transcription Notes:
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