HERMES BRITANNICUS. A DISSERTATION ON THE CELTIC DEITY TEUTATES, THE MERCURIUS OF CÆSAR, IN FURTHER PROOF AND CORROBORATION OF THE ORIGIN AND DESIGNATION OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT ABURY, IN WILTSHIRE. BY THE REV. W. L. BOWLES, M.A. M. R.S.L. CANON RESIDENTIARY OF SARUM. Deum maximè Mercurium colunt: hujus sunt plurima simulacra: hunc omnium inven- LONDON: PRINTED BY AND FOR J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT STREET. TO THE RIGHT REV. THOMAS BURGESS, LORD BISHOP OF SALISBURY, AND PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE. MY LORD, To You, not as my venerated Diocesan, but to you as the President of the Royal Society of Literature, established under the especial patronage of our GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN and most generous BENEFACTOR, (the official seal of which Society is that fabled God of Learning and Eloquence, the subject of these notices,) I dedicate these remarks, on matters obscure indeed and recondite, but connected in no slight degree, however hitherto unnoticed, with our national antiquities, and not entirely foreign from some greater and more important views. I am, my Lord, with prayers for health and length of honoured days, Your most faithful Friend and Servant, W. L. Bowles. INTRODUCTION. IF I shall have succeeded in throwing some additional light on the remains of the Druidical monuments in our island, particularly in that part where I have so long resided, Wiltshire, it has been entirely accidental. Having promised Sir Richard Hoare to furnish the history of one parish, that with which I am connected, as a contribution towards the great work of Topographical History, in the illustration of which he has set so noble an example, I could not pass over the vast WANSDYKE, whose track over the highest point of the Downs, at ten miles distance, I see from my parlour window. This circumstance led me to consider more particularly the adjoining remains of our most stupendous Celtic monument at Abury. In the Parochial History of Bremhill I pointed out what appeared to me, upon reflection and com |