in antiquarian topography, are large single stones set up perpendicularly. Those of them which are found in this country have been the work of the Druids; but as they are the most simple of all monuments, they are unquestionably more ancient than druidism itself. They were placed as memorials recording different events; such as remarkable instances of God's mercies, contracts, singular victories, boundaries, and sometimes sepulchres. Various instances of these monuments erected by the patriarchs occur in the Old Testament: such was that raised by Jacob at Lug, afterwards by him named Bethel; such also was the pillar placed by him over the grave of Rachel. They were likewise marks of executions and magical talismans.

The stones, from having long been considered as objects of veneration, at length were by the ignorant and superstitious idolatrously worshipped; wherefore, after the introduction of Christianity, some had crosses cut on them, which was considered as snatching them from the service of the devil. Vulgar superstition of a later date has led the common people to consider them as persons transformed into stone for the punishment of some crime, generally that of Sabbath-breaking; but this tale is not confined to single stones, but is told also of whole circles: witness the monuments called the hurlers in Cornwall, and Rollorick stones in Warwickshire. The first are by the vulgar supposed to have been once men, and thus transformed as a punishment for playing on the Lord's day at a game called hurling; the latter, a pagan king and his army.

At Wilton, where the earl of Pembroke has a very magnificent house, there is a pillar of one piece of white Egyptian granite, which was brought from the temple of Venus Genetrix at Rome, near 14 feet high and 22 inches diameter, with an inscription to Astarte or Venus.