Mona.

therefore to be given to the Roman traductions of the druids, when they charge them with the grossest polytheism, art magic, and necromancy; cremation and other human sacrifices; anthropophagy, and other most revolting horrors. On these grounds Pliny, after having given a most savage detail of their atrocities, concludes, that sufficient value cannot be set upon the Roman's merit in ridding society of such monsters *. The intelligent eye of Tacitus, although it did not Druids in quite penetrate into Ireland, has brought us to its confines, where he reports a scene, which to the questions under discussion is of the highest importance. Suetonius Paulinus, the governor of Britain under Nero, having made himself master of the isle of Mona (now Anglesey), not only cut down the sacred groves of the druids in that place, and overturned their altars, but also burnt many of the druids themselves on those fires, which they had kindled for sacrificing the Roman captives, if the Britons should have gained the victory. The power of the druids in Gaul had been so much reduced during the reign of Claudius, that about the year 45 A.D. it was considered by Suetonius to have been altogether extinguished t. And this attack upon the prime seat and stock of druidism in the isle of Britain, was about twelve years after followed up

* Non satis æstimari potest, quantum Romanis debeatur qui sustulere monstra. L. 3. c. 1.

+ Tac. An. 14, 30. Presidium posthac impositum vicis, excisique luci, savis superstitionibus sacri. Nam cruore captivo adolere aras, et hominum fibris consulere deos fas habebant.

Suet. Cl. p. 25.

Their retreat into

mined.

by a much more extensive slaughter of them during the revolt of Boadicea, more particularly after the tide of fortune had turned against that heroine, so that they never after made any figure in Britain, though their superstition continued till the introduction of christianity into the island. They remained, however, untouched by the Roman power in Ireland, For of the Irish might be said, what Justin did of their progenitors, they had heard of, but not felt the Roman arms.

y

The learned Celtic researcher observes, that into Mona exa- that sequestered scene (Mona) the druids, who detested warfare, had "gradually retired after the irruption of the Belgæ, and the further encroachment of the Romans. They had retired from their ancient magnificent seat at Abury, and from their circular uncovered temple on Salisbury Plain, in which the hyperborean sages had once chaunted the hymns to Apollo or Plenyz." This reverend antiquarian has admitted, "that the name of druid was local, but the religion had a very deep root. Indeed under this name, the influence and authority of the order once extended over the whole of Gaul. It covered this extent of territory as one nation." Now it is too evident to argue, that the Belga made a part of Gaul; why therefore the irrruption of the Belgæ, who believed in druidism, should expell the druids from their situations, is not easily accounted for. Nor does any historian mention

*Having disclaimed all disquisition from etymology, I have studiously avoided the plurality of names under which Ireland, the Irish, and their progenitors, have been recognized and described.

this retreat of the druids before the Roman arms; for although the defeat and captivity of Caractacus took place during the reign of Claudius, who died A. D. 54, and the destruction of the druidical groves and altars in Mona happened in the second year of his successor Nero's reign, there is not a vestige to be traced of this druidical retreat into Mona, in consequence of the Roman arms, and the Roman dread and persecution of the druidical influence and order.

island of

Mr. Hume has faithfully and judiciously analyzed Mona the the substance of what the best of our own and foreign druidism. historians have said upon this subject *. "Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britains were not subdued; and this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field, in which military honour might still be acquired under the reign of Nero. Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command, and prepared to signalize his name by victories over these barbarians. Finding that the isle of Mona, now Anglesey, was the chief seat of the druids, he resolved to attack it, and to subject a place, which was the center of their superstition, and which afforded protection to all their baffled forces. The Britains endeavoured to obstruct his landing on this sacred island, both by the force of their arms, and the terrors of their religion."

called the

It is inconsistent with the ordinary turn of events, Why Mana (extraordinary we know none), that in the short space sacred of twelve years, the success of the Roman arms, such

* Hist. of Eng. Vol. 1. c. 1

island.

as it was, should have occasioned this spot to become the chief seat and center of druidical superstition, or given that island the appellation of sacred. The general nature of the political circumstances of those early times, the authority of the Irish annals, and the corroborative congruity of Cæsar's account of the Gallic druids, appear to lead to a very different conclusion, from that which has been drawn from them by the respectable Celtic researcher. Seeing that the Irish annalists relate, that the Milesian expedition was undertaken upon the prediction of Caicer, an arch druid, that Milesius and his posterity should possess the western island; that upon their landing there 1300 years before the birth of Christ, they found druids † in the island, who attended the native princesses to meet them; that in the time of Heremon the son of Milesius, a famous druid, named Trosdane, had then recently arrived from Scythia †, and that Cæsar

* Echard says, Hist. of Eng. vol. 1. c. 1. Thus for about 95 years, under the reigns of four emperors, the Britains continued free from the Roman yoke.

Keat. 52.

Ib. 61. This mention of the druid, like many other occurrences referred to by the phillids, may be tinctured with something of the fabulous, or at least marvellous. Allowing however, for the workings of imagination, and the superstition of an idolatrous people in these early days, it may not be so incredi ble as some other of their fabulous coverings of historical facts. They inform us, that a set of British adventurers landed in the south-eastern parts of the island, and in their assaults upon the Milesians, violated all the laws of war and nations, by poisoning their arrows, and all their weapons: and that by the advice of this

reports, according to druidical tradition, that the origin and perfection of their institutions had been imported into Gaul from the west, and the chief seat of the Gallic druids was as nearly, as could be in the center of Gaul, (over the whole of which, according to Mr. Davies, druidism extended); it will not be deemed a very ill-founded or extravagant hypothesis, that the Hybernian druids first passed into Britain from

famous druid Trosdane, they milked 150 white faced cows into a reservoir, and all those, who were wounded with the British poison, were, upon bathing in this milk, infallibly cured. We refer not to this piece of history to shew the medical or miraculous effect of bathing in bald cows' milk; but to prove, that the Irish then admitted the influx and subsequent intercourse of adventurers from Britain, whom they distinguished from the several anterior settlers in the island; that the name, quality, and honourable functions of the druids, were then familiar to the natives; and that not only there were native druids then settled in the island, but that others came over from Scythia, where consequently at that time druidism had existence. Many other instances occur in Keating, in which the druids were consulted by the kings as to wars, battles, marriages, building palaces, and future events. The Irish Analists report, that some of the Druids, (like the Sibils) predicted the birth and death of Our Lord, (p. 93). With reference to the bathing of poisonous wounds in milk, Pliny observes, that the Gaulish druids were not only bards, but the physicians of that nation. Dr. Warner in alluding to some of the fabulous tales in the ancient History of Ireland, has most judiciously observed (p. 19) " that fables of this nature are so far from being a mark of forged or false history, as we in this country have always been apt to consider it with regard to Ireland, that they are on the other hand, an irrefragable proof of its high antiquity, and of the very early use of letters in that na

tion."

VOL. I.