[From the New-York Observer.]

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL—STONEHENGE—THE SHEPHERD OF SALISBURY PLAIN

Salisbury, July 2, 1833.

The shepherd of Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Salisbury Cathedral are things of some note. The latter is distinguished for its lofty spire, four hundred feet; for the purity and uniformity of its architecture, external and internal; and for the warped condition of the columns of masonry, which support the tower and spire, under the amazing weight that rests upon them, and then look us and observe [indecipherable] ready to be crushed. And the only reason why it is presumed they will remain, is because they have already endured for ages under the same appearances. An extra fixture has been thrown in for protection, interposing a monstrous blemish in the perspective of the transept. Aside from this the pure Gothic of the entire edifice, constitutes the rarest beauty of the kind in the British Isles. It was built in the thirteenth century—the spire having been since added, the top of which inclines 22 inches from a perpendicular line, in consequence of the warping of its supports. An old man now between seventy and eighty, has been accustomed to ascend once in a twelve month for many years to oil the weather vane. He gets out at a window a few feet below the top, scrambles like a squirrel by some iron net work at the giddy elevation of four hundred feet, performs his office, and descends with all the self-possession of a sailor. This year, however, he has been unable to do his duty on account of the infirmities of age.

I rode this morning in a fly, a sort of hackney-coach, drawn by a couple of mules, to Stonehenge, about eight miles from the town, situated in the heart of Salisbury plain, and standing insolated in all the grandeur of its mysterious and hitherto unexplained history. It is a truly sublime object—sublime in itself, as filling the mind with wonder, where the stones came from, how they could have been brought there, and placed in their relative positions! The heaviest columns are rated at seventy tons—the whole number being ninety-four, as near as can be ascertained, although the present confusion of the assemblage renders it difficult to count them. It is supposed to have been a Druidical temple, where human sacrifices were offered—a superstition as sublime as it was diabolical, as mysterious as cruel! The rude grandeur of the work demonstrates the barbarity of the age. There are no indications, that this place of sacrifice was ever enclosed by walls, or covered by a roof. It is encircled indeed by the traces of a ditch and a corresponding embankment, and the columnar ranges of stones were set up in circular lines, at greater distance from each other than the space occupied. About half an acre is enclosed by the circumvallation, and a quarter of an acre occupied by the temple itself. The only junction of the structure if structure it can be called, appears to have been the resting of the amazing cross and horizontal slabs on the largest columns, about 20 ft. high & 15 asunder, most of which have fallen, some are inclined, and a few only standing erect. Tenons were left on the top of the perpendicular columns, entering grooves of the horizontal pieces laid upon them. It is barely possible, that the mechanical powers of the present age could set up an edifice like this; but the rudeness of the work does not naturally suggest the knowledge and application of such powers at the time of its creation. Hence the wonder.

It is said by some, that the same material is not to be found in this island. It is incredible, however, that these immense rocks should have been shipped; and almost equally incredible, that they should have been transported any considerable distance on trundles; and yet they were never found in this vicinity. Many of them are reduced to nearly right angles, but more exhibit a smooth, or properly plane surface. There is nothing like the skill of masonry bestowed upon them. They are perhaps purposely left in this rude state, as emblematic of the stern and inexorable rites which they were set up to witness. The supposed altar piece lies in the centre, embedded in the earth, and directly behind it two of the largest columns supported the heaviest cross-beam—but the columns have inclined and dropped their burden.

There are other relics of the kind in the island, but none so stupendous. All the parts of a similar temple have been transferred at great expense from the island of Jersey, and set up on the estate of a private gentleman at Henley-on-Thames, now the property of a Mr. Maitland. I stumbled upon it the other day in rambling over the grounds with a friend, and found it perched on a hill some four or five hundred feet above the bed of the Thames. It was brought over by a former governor of the island, Gen. Conway, who then owned Park-place, on which it now stands. It is of course a small chapel, compared with Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain—but many of the stones are of several tons weight. They are rude and shapeless.

There are numerous marks of ancient military fortifications, scattered over Salisbury Plain; and tumuli of the ancient dead, such as are to be found in the Western regions of our own country, lift up their heads in various quarters, and sometimes in groups.

Old Sarum, of recent fame, as a rotten borough of England, sending two members to Parliament under the late regime , is a naked fortification in ruins, two miles from Salisbury. It is as desolate as the crown of Ben Nevis in Scotland.

My sensations in visiting Stonehenge were the result of a singular combination of the grateful recollections of Mrs. More’s Shepherd and his family, and of the actual scenes before me. “The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain” was continually ringing in my ear, and all his history passing before me, as I rode over these undulating, naked, and apparently boundless fields, among the tumuli and traces of ancient fortifications, and came at last to gaze upon and admire this wonder-exciting and unaccountable relic of a barbarous age and bloody superstition. What a demonstration of man’s susceptibilities of religious affections, of a sense of guilt, of his need of atonement, and of the dreadful errors, into which he may be plunged without the guidance of a divine revelation!