Modelled along the lines of Freemasonry, it offered mutual support, social gatherings, and a type of ceremonial similar to those of fraternal societies, where a Bible was placed on the lectern at each meeting and discussion of religion was prohibited.

Just over a decade before Iolo’s introduction of the Gorsedd in 1792, a Druid organization had already been created, but it was a distinctly different phenomenon: its purposes were social and fraternal rather than cultural. The Ancient Order of Druids, founded by a man named Hurle in 1781 in a pub in London’s Poland Street, was formed to provide