THE DRUIDS AND STONEHENGE (THE 18th CENTURY)

In the latter half of the 1700s a new period in art emerged. Unlike the concurrent movement of Neoclassicism that embraced order, harmony and rationality; Romanticism emphasised the individual, had a focus on emotion and greatly appreciated nature. Strong themes that ran through were a distrust in industrialisation and a “glorification of the past with a strong preference for the medieval rather than the classical.”72 Under this Romantic veil then a new theory for Stonehenge began to emerge. The link between Druidism and Stonehenge can be traced back to the early work of the King’s Antiquarian John Aubrey, in Monumenta Britannica, an unpublished manuscript until 1982. Written between the dates of 1663 and 1693, this was his principal collection of archaeological material; and in the chapter Templa Druidum he theorised a link between them and stone circles such as Stonehenge.73 This cautious approach wasn’t favoured by the Antiquarian field worker William Stukeley though. After reading Aubrey’s notes, he decided to carry on his work of documenting and analysing Stonehenge, releasing Stonehenge: A Temple Restor’d to the British Druids in 1740.74

Stuart Piggott in William Stukeley: An Eighteenth-century Antiquary, remarks that Stukeley’s assertions of Druid temples helped to shape “the literary mood of the romantic revival.”75 David Boyd Haycock in his biography on Stukeley similarly remarks that, along with Macpherson and Thomas Gray, he “helped create the principal historical and literary foundations for the ‘Druidical revival’ that flourished in the last decades of the eighteenth century.”76 Rykwert in The First Moderns, states that “Stonehenge and Avebury were part of his major enterprise to interpret megalithic monuments of Britain as Druidic remains.”77 Like Inigo Jones before him, it seems Stukeley attempted to co-opt Stonehenge with operative criticism; only this time it was with Druidry and was immediately successful. By the time he died in 1765, the idea that Stonehenge and other stone circles were Druid temples had been “enthusiastically adopted not only by antiquarians but by the intelligent public at large.”78

The Druidic tale advanced by Stukeley was first met with an impressed and considerate approach by artists and poets, until inevitably taking a more Romantic turn towards the end of the century. Some of the most prominent writers, Samuel Pepys, Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe, all seemed generally to be open and accept the hypothesis, albeit with a reserved approach. The latter in his 1724 book From London to Land’s End, mentions that whilst understanding the hypothesis humours us, “no history has handed down to us the original, as we find it then uncertain, we must leave it so.”79 Furthermore, Stukeley’s work was given additional respectability when archaeologist Sir Richard Hoare praised his fieldwork, however like the others he didn’t fully endorse the theory it was built by Druids, because “such information was unknowable” and instead stated it was likely “Celtic”.80 The beginning of the Romantic interpretations then is clear to see in the seminal poet William Wordsworth’s Salisbury Plain(1793-4), a poem about a lone wonderer who hears Druid sacrifice happening at Stonehenge. Other foundations for the movement were James Macpherson’s Ossian concoctions in the 1760’s, Thomas Gray’s bardic poems (eg. The Bard. A Pindaric Ode, 1757), and those of William Collins and William Mason. Also the origin of the modern quasi-Masonic secret society, The Ancient Order of Druids, helped to solidify the Druid myth after it’s founding in 1781 by Henry Hurle.82

Fig 27. Drawings by Stukeley of embellished scenes at Stonehenge from Stonehenge: A Temple Restor’d to the British Druids (1740)

Predictably then, the writings of Stukeley and the subsequent Romanticist art soon began to influence some architectural projects. The first was quite amateurish; a reconstruction in the late 1700’s by the aristocrat William Danby. His “Druid’s Temple” was designed to impress visitors on the estate in North Yorkshire and he encouraged locals to come see the “ruins.”83 The second came from the notable architect John Wood the Elder and his designs for Queen Square (1728), The Circus (1754-1769) and The Royal Crescent (1767–1774) in Bath.84

Born in 1704, Wood was particularly interested in Druidism, writing about it extensively and, like Stukeley who became a master-mason in 1721, was a Grand-Master for his local Freemason lodge.85 It was around this time that Freemasonry went through a curious transformation from being involved in the building trades to becoming a separate association that one might call “speculative, accepted or geometrical.” The watershed in this process is generally regarded to be the formation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717 London.86 Rykwert in The First Moderns claims that when the Renaissance lost popularity, English architects formulated a new identity through Freemasonry.87 This strain of thought in the speculative can be seen through Stukeley and Wood’s assertions that British Druids were decedents from the ancient Phoenicians. Stukeley believed that the Phoenicians had inherited their wisdom from the Jews and as a result, Stonehenge was built as a place of worship to the same God Christians know today.88 Wood expounded upon this and argued that the Greeks and Romans had just plagiarised the rules of architecture from the Jews, explaining ‘why’ Stonehenge had been designed in a classical style long before them.89 Of course, this was mainly just conjecture but it acted as a method for them to ‘dignify’ the monument. Both Stukeley and Wood (and indeed Jones before them), believed that Stonehenge could only have been the work of people who understood the mathematical principles of classical architectural design.90

In his book, The Origin of Building: or, the Plagiarism of the Heathens Detected (1741), Wood elucidated and gave examples where the Romans and Greeks corrupted Jewish architecture. He also wrote much about King Bladud, the legendary founder of Bath and the architect he believed was responsible for many of the ancient stone circles around Britain.91 Then in his next book, Choir Gaure, Vulgarly Called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain (1747), he published the most accurate surveying of Stonehenge of his day, believing it to be part of “the Great School of Learning for Druids”. He concluded by envisioning a unique British architectural style that combined the classical Palladian style, pioneered by Jones and Wren and now called Georgian, with features of Druidry and Stonehenge.92

This can be seen particularly in his projects in Bath, due to his conviction that it had been the principal centre of Druid activity in Britain.93 First came the Queen’s Square in 1728, where Wood took inspiration from Jones’ Covent Garden piazza94 and designed the frontages in a classical Palladian style, subletting the rest of the building to individual developers. The final square design represents, what some suggest, the Earth to the Sun and Moon, which are The Circus (a circle) and The Royal Crescent (a crescent) respectively.95

Wood believed that the chief ensign of the Druids was a ring and related it back to Jewish symbolism, which was plagiarised by the Greek and Romans.96 This creative balderdash ‘allowed’ him to design something along classical lines that had little touches of Druidism. After surveying Stonehenge he used his rough measurements of it’s outer bank to make the diameter of The Circus the same (318 feet) and planted a timber circle of trees around the centre.97 Furthermore, there is an early drawing by J.R. Cozens that suggests there use to be hitching stones arranged symmetrically around the centre that gave the allusion of stones. Built to commemorate the purported Druid capital, Masonic symbols are littered on the metopes of the frieze and the acorns that sit atop the rooftop reference the Oakmen (aka Druids), who were thought to meet in Oak forests and saw acorns as a symbol of growth and learning.98 Finally, when looked from above, The Circus and Queen’s Square with the adjoining Gay Street, join to form one giant final Masonic symbol: a key.99

Fig 28. A photograph of the Druidic and Masonic symbols at The Circus.

Fig 29. A still taken from a BBC show outling the key symbol.

Fig 30. An early drawing by J. R. Cozens showing the hitching stones at The Circus.

Fig 31. A photograph of The Circus in the 1980s.

Fig 32. A painting of Stonehenge by John Constable in 1835.

Fig 33. A painting of Stonehenge by J. M. W. Turner in 1827-28.

72 Damrosch, Leopold. 1980. Adventures in English Literature (Harcourt College Pub)

73 Aubrey

74 Piggott, Stuart William. 1950. “William Stukeley: An Eighteenth-Century Antiquary,” An Eighteenth-Century Antiquary. United Kingdom

75 Ibid

76 Haycock, D. B. 2002. William Stukeley: Science, Religion and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century England (Woodbridge; Boydell)

77 Rykwert,

78 Piggott, “The Druids and Stonehenge”

79 Defoe, Daniel, and Henry Morley. 2012. From London to land’s end (Dogma)

80 Haycock

82 Piggott, “The Druids and Stonehenge”

83 “Druid’s Temple.” [n.d.]. Swinton Bivouac <https://www.swintonestate.com/bivouac/the-experience/druids-temple/> [accessed 18 January 2023]

84 Mowl, Tim, and Brian Earnshaw. 1988. John Wood: Architect of Obsession (Bath, England: Millstream Books)

85 Rykwert,

86 Ibid

87 Ibid

88 Stukeley, William. [n.d.]. Stonehenge, a Temple Restor’d to the British Druids (London, 1740)

89 Wood, John. [n.d.]. “The Origin of Building: Or, the Plagiarism of the Heathens Detected,” in Five Books. By John Wood (Bath, 1741)

90 “British Library.” [n.d.]. Www.bl.uk <https://www.bl.uk/picturing-places/articles/inigo-jones-and-the-ruins-of-stonehenge> [accessed 18 January 2023]

91 John Wood, The Origin of Building

92 Wood, John. 2010. Choir Gaure, Vulgarly Called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, Described, Restored, and Explained; In a Letter ... By John Wood, Architect (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale ECCO)

93 Mowl

94 Forsyth, Michael. 2003. Bath: Pevsner City Guide (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press)

95 Cox, Stephen B. The Path of the Sun in the Masons Lodge

96 John Wood, The Origin of Building

97 Elliott, Kirsten T. 2004. The Myth-Maker: John Wood 1704-1754 (Bath, England: AKEMAN PRESS)

98 Neale, R. S. 2021. Bath, 1680-1850: A Social History or A Valley of Pleasure, yet a Sink of Iniquity (London, England: Routledge)

99 “The Circus.” [n.d.]. Visit Bath <https://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/the-circus-p56201> [accessed 18 January 2023]