and now to stonehenge and salisbury plain, up the steep road from amesbury taken by the coaches. unless you can see stonehenge in such an awful thunderstorm as turner shows in his picture of it, or can come upon the place at dead of night either by moonlight, or in the blackness of a moonless midnight, you will fail to be impressed; unless you are a literary pilgrim and can be moved to sentiment, not by thoughts of the mythical human sacrifices offered up here by imaginary druids, but by the last scenes in the tragedy of poor tess. then the place has an immediate human interest which otherwise it lacks in the immeasurably vast space of time dividing us from the period of its building and of the heaping up of the sepulchral barrows that make a wide circle round it on the plain. solitary, with nothing to give it scale, even the brakes that convey irreverent excursionists help to confer a dignity on the spot, when seen afar upon the ridge where this mystery, sphinx-like, offers an insoluble riddle to arch?ologists of all the ages.
no one, despite the affected archaisms and the{197}
stonehenge
image unavailable: the great snowstorm of 1836; the exeter ‘telegraph,’ assisted by post-horses, driving through the snow-drifts at amesbury (after james pollard).
the great snowstorm of 1836; the exeter ‘telegraph,’ assisted by post-horses, driving through the snow-drifts at amesbury (after james pollard).
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sham arch?ology, has described stonehenge so impressively as that ‘wondrous boy’ chatterton:—
a wondrous pyle of rugged mountaynes standes,
placed on eche other in a dreare arraie,
it ne could be the worke of human handes,
it ne was reared up by menne of claie.
here did the britons adoration paye
to the false god whom they did tauran name,
lightynge hys altarre with greate fyres in maie,
roasteyng theire victims round aboute the flame;
twas here that hengyst dyd the brytons slee,
as they were met in council for to bee.
stonehenge was probably standing when the romans came to britain, and doubtless astonished them when they first saw it as much as any one else. its surroundings were not very different then from now. a farmstead, with ugly blue-slated roof, which has appeared on the ridge of the down of late years, and possibly a road which did not exist in days of old: these alone have changed the aspect of the vast solitude in which the hoary monument stands. no hedges, no gates, never a sheep upon the meagre grass. as ingoldsby says of salisbury plain, in general:—
not a shrub, nor a tree, nor a bush can you see;
no hedges, no ditches, no gates, no stiles,
much less a house or a cottage for miles.
this, saving that intrusive farmstead, still holds good here; and although every one is inevitably disappointed with stonehenge, as first seen at a distance, looking so small and insignificant in the vastness of the bare downs in which it is set, the{200} place, and not the great stones merely, impresses by its sadness and utter detachment from the living world, its loves and hates and interests. the birds forget to sing in this loneliness, which is awful in winter and not less awful in the emptiness visible under the blue sky and blazing sun of summer. just the situation in which stonehenge is placed, you understand, not stonehenge itself, gives these feelings. ‘do not we gaze with awe upon these massive stones?’ asks the high-falutin guide-book compiler. no, indeed we don’t. it is a pity, but it can’t be done, and the average description of stonehenge which sets forth the grandeur and stupendous size of these stones, is pumped-up fudge and flapdoodle of the damnablest kind, which takes in no one. it is not merely the philistine who thinks thus, but even the would-be marvellers, and those of light and leading are disquieted by secret thoughts that, had we a mind to it, and if there was money in it, we could build a better and a bigger stonehenge by a long way.
the earliest account of this mystic monument is found in the writings of nennius, who lived in the ninth century. the first-comer is entitled to respect, and when nennius tells us that stonehenge was erected by the surviving britons, in memory of four hundred and sixty british nobles, murdered here at a conference to which the saxon chieftain, hengist, had invited king vortigern and his court, we are bound to pay some attention to the statement, although to place implicit reliance upon it would be rash, considering the fact that nennius wrote four hundred years after the event.{201}
image unavailable: stonehenge (after turner, r.a.).
stonehenge (after turner, r.a.).
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who built stonehenge?
but there are, and have been, many theories which profess to give the only true origin of these stone circles. an antiquary formerly living at amesbury went to the beginnings of creation and held that they were erected by adam. if so, it is to be hoped for adam’s sake that he finished the job in the summer, or that if it occupied him in winter time, he had clothed himself with something warmer than the traditional fig-leaf, in view of the rigours of these wiltshire downs. it would be interesting also to have adam’s opinion as to the comparative merits of salisbury plain and the garden of eden.
then a tradition existed that merlin, the sorcerer, arranged the circles. those who do not think much of this view may take more kindly to the legend of our old friends the druids, who, according to dr. stukeley and others, made this their chief temple; while, according to other views, the britons before and after the roman occupation, and the romans themselves, were the builders. then there are others who conceive this to have been the crowning-place of the danish kings. the saxons, indeed, appear to be the only people who have not been credited with the work; although, curiously enough, its very name is of saxon derivation, and the earliest writers refer to it as ‘stanenges,’ from anglo-saxon words meaning ‘the hanging-stones.’ that the saxons discovered stonehenge, and were puzzled by it as greatly as it must have excited the wonder of the romans, hundreds of years before, seems obvious from this name they gave the lonely place. ignorant as to its{204} use, they either saw in the upright stones and the imposts they carried a resemblance to a gallows, or else, not being themselves expert builders, marvelled that the great imposts should remain suspended in the air.
much of the legitimate wonderment in respect of stonehenge lies in the mystery of how the forgotten builders could have quarried and shaped these stones, and could have cut the tenons and mortice-holes that held the tall columns, and the flat stones above them, together. camden, the old chronicler, has a ready way out of this puzzling question. beginning with a description of this ‘huge and monstrous piece of work,’ he goes on to say that ‘some there are that think them to be no natural stones, hewn out of the rock, but artificially made out of pure sand, and, by some glue or unctuous matter, knit and incorporate together.’
the ‘friar’s heel’
stonehenge is considered to have consisted, when perfect, of an outer circle of thirty tall stones, three and a half feet apart, and connected together by a line of imposts, in whose extremities mortice-holes were cut, fitting into corresponding tenons projecting from the upright stones. the height of this circular screen was sixteen feet. a second and inner circle consisted of smaller and rougher stones, some forty in number, and six feet in height. within this circle, again, rose five tall groups of stone placed in an ellipse, each group consisting of two uprights, with an impost above. these stones were the largest of all, the tallest reaching to a height of twenty-five feet. they were named by dr. stukeley, impressively{205} enough, the great trilithons. each of these five groups would appear to have been accompanied on the inner side by a cluster of three small standing stones, while a black flat monolith, called the ‘altar stone,’ occupied the innermost position. a smaller trilithon seems to have once stood near its big brethren, but it and three of the great five are in ruins. only six imposts of the outer circle are left in their place overhead, and but sixteen of its thirty upright stones are now standing. the smaller circles and groups are equally imperfect. some of this ruin has befallen within the historical period; one of the great trilithons having been wrecked in 1620, in the absurd treasure-seeking expedition of the duke of buckingham, while another fell on the 3rd of january 1797, during a thaw.
these circles seem to have been surrounded by an earthen bank, with an avenue leading off towards the east. very few traces of these enclosures now remain. in midst of the avenue lies the flat so-called ‘stone of sacrifice,’ with the rough obelisk of the ‘friar’s heel,’ as the most easterly outpost of all, beyond. to the friar’s heel belongs a legend which gives, by the way, an even more distinguished person than adam as the builder of stonehenge. the devil, according to this story, was the architect, and when he had nearly finished his work, he chuckled to himself that no one would be able to tell how it was done. a wandering friar, however, who had been a witness of it all, remarked, ‘that’s more than thee can tell,’ and thereupon ran away, the devil flinging one of the stones left over after him.{206} it only just struck the friar on the heel, and stuck there in the turf, where it stands to this day.
the various stones of which stonehenge is constructed derive from widely-sundered districts. the outer circle and the five great trilithons are said to have been fashioned from stones that came from marlborough downs, and the second circle and innermost ellipse belong to a rock formation not known to exist nearer than south wales. the ‘altar stone’ is different from any of the others, and the circumstance lends some colour to the theory that it, coming from some unknown region, was the original stone fetish brought from a distance by the prehistoric tribe that settled here, around which grew by degrees the subsequent great temple. there are those who will have it that this was a temple of serpent-worshippers; and an argument not altogether unsupported by facts would have us believe that stonehenge is really a temple of the sun. it is a singular accident (if it is an accident) that the ‘friar’s heel,’ as seen from the centre of the circle, is in exact orientation with the rising sun on the morning of the longest day of the year, 21st june. every year, on this occasion, great crowds of people set out from salisbury to see sunrise at stonehenge. there have frequently been as many as three thousand persons present on this occasion. as the spot is nine miles from that cathedral city, and as the sun rises on this date at the early hour of 3.44 a.m., it requires some enthusiasm to rise one’s self for the occasion, if indeed the more excellent way is not to sit up all night. great, therefore, is the disappointment when{207}
sunrise at stonehenge
image unavailable: sunrise at stonehenge.
sunrise at stonehenge.
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the morning is misty. if this sunrise phenomenon is not an accident, then stonehenge, as the temple of the sun, is the earliest cathedral in britain. but, as we have already seen, in these multitudes of guesses at the truth, no one can arrive at the facts, and all we can do is to say frankly, with old pepys, who was here in 1668, ‘god knows what its use was.’
the present historian has waited for the sun to rise here. arriving at amesbury village at half-past two in the morning, the street looked and sounded lively with the clustered lights of bicycles and conveyances gathered there; with the ringing of bicycle bells, the sounding of coach-horns, and the talk of those who had come to pay their devoirs to the rising luminary. the village inn was open all night for the needs of travellers journeying to this shrine, and ten minutes was allowed for each person, a policeman standing outside to see that they were duly turned out at the end of that time.
to one who arrived early on the scene, while the plain remained shrouded in the grayness of the midsummer night, and the rugged stones of stonehenge yet loomed vague and formless, the scene looking down towards amesbury was an impressive one. dimly the ascending white road up to the stones could be discerned by much straining of tired eyes, and along it twinkled brightly the lights of approaching vehicles, now dipping down into a hollow of this miscalled ‘plain,’ now toiling slowly and painfully up a corresponding ascent. it is not to be supposed that it was a reverent crowd assembled here. reverence is not a characteristic of the age,{210} nor are cyclists as a rule, or agricultural folks, or provincials generally, inclined greatly to worship the immeasurably old. and of such this crowd was chiefly composed. it may very pertinently be asked, ‘why, if they don’t reverence the place, do they come here at all?’ it is a question rather difficult to answer; but probably most people visit it on this occasion as an excuse for being up all night. there would seem to be an idea that there is something dashing and eccentric about such a proceeding which must have its charm for those to whom arch?ology, or those eternal and unsolvable questions, ‘why was stonehenge built, and by whom?’ have no interest. there were, for instance, two boys on the spot who had come over on their bicycles from marlborough school, over twenty miles away. without leave, of course! they hoped to get back as quietly as they had slipped away out of their bedroom windows. had they any arch?ological enthusiasm? not a bit of it, the more especially since it was evident they would have to hurry back before the sun was due to rise.
trippers at stonehenge
there were no fewer than fifteen police at stonehenge, sent on account of the disorderly scenes said to have taken place in previous years. but this crowd was sufficiently quiet. patiently the throng waited the rising of the sun upon the horizon, and the coming of the shadow of the gnomon-stone across the stone of sacrifice. the sky lightened, showing up the tired faces, and transferring the great trilithons from the realms of romance to those of commonplace reality. the larks began to trill;{211} puce-and purple-coloured clouds floated overhead; the brutal staccato notes of a banjo strummed to the air of a music-hall song stale by some three or four seasons; a cyclist struck a match on a sarsen stone; watches were consulted—and the sun refused to rise to the occasion. that is to say, for the twelfth time or so consecutively, according to local accounts, the morning was too cloudy for the sunrise to be seen. so, tired and disappointed, all trooped back to amesbury, the snapshotters disgusted beyond measure, and breakfasted, or refreshed in various ways, according to individual tastes, at the unholy hour of half-past four o’clock in the morning.
those who say that stonehenge will remain a monument to all time speak without a knowledge of the facts. in reality the larger stones are disintegrating; slowly, perhaps, but none the less surely. they are weather-worn, and some of them very decrepit. frosts have chipped and cracked them, and other extremes of climate have found out the soft places in the sandstone. also, modern facilities for reaching such out-of-the-way spots as this used to be have brought so many visitors of all kinds here that, in one way and another stonehenge is bound to suffer. it is now the proper thing for every one who visits stonehenge to be photographed by the photographer who sits there for that purpose all day long and every day; and although there is no occasion for such insane fury, the picnic parties generally contrive to smash beer and lemonade bottles against the stones until the turf is thickly strewn with broken glass. modernity also likes to range itself{212} beside the unfathomably ancient, and so when the automobile club visited stonehenge, on easter saturday 1899, all the cars and their occupants were photographed beside the stones, to mark so historic an occasion.
