Under the southern slopes of bold Dundry Hill in North Somersetshire
you will find the queerly named little river Chew, on the banks of
which is the village of Stanton Drew. Nowadays it is an out-of-the-way
little spot, but far back in history it must have been a place of
considerable importance, for close to its church are the remains of
what was once a gigantic building--some call it a Druid temple--of a
very early race of men.
There are the relics of at least three stone circles, and about the
smallest of these a strange story is told. It is the story of the Evil
Wedding, and it explains why the stones came there.
Long, long ago, as the tale goes, there had been a marriage at Stanton
Drew, and the wedding party met on the place where now the stone circle
stands to indulge in feasting and dancing. It was on a Saturday, and
the festivities were at their height when midnight struck. Then the
harpist, a pious old man, who was playing for the dancing merry-makers,
refused to continue any longer, saying that he would not profane the
Sabbath.
Each member of the party tried to persuade the aged musician to
continue, and chief among the suppliants was the bride, who grew very
angry at the harpist’s continual refusals. She would go on with the
dance for all his obstinate ways, she said, and she would find another
musician even if she had to go to the nether world in search of him.
At that moment a venerable old man with a long grey beard wandered out
of the night and asked what all the altercations was about.
When they told him, he gave a merry laugh and said that he would play
for them; so the pious old harpist departed, and the dance began again.
The new musician, playing on a pipe, started off with rather a doleful
air, but he soon livened up, and very quickly the dancers were whirling
round and round in the maddest abandon. But to their consternation as
they grew tired, and wished to stop, they found they were unable to do
so. The more weary they became, the harder the piper played, and when
they begged him to cease he merely laughed at them and changed his tune
to one yet more lively.
At last dawn began to show in the sky, and the now frenzied and
terrified dancers saw their musician remove the pipe from his mouth.
But they saw, too, when he got up, that he had a club foot, and that
beneath his long gown a tail showed.
The moment he ceased to play, the dancers remained fixed in strange
attitudes, quite unable to move. “I will return later and play for you
again,” said the Fiend as he walked away, uttering horrible laughter.
But he has not yet returned, and later that morning the villagers found
the fields, where the wedding party had been held, strewn with huge
upright stones, many of which remain to this day. And they say that
there they will stand until the devil returns to play his evil tune;
then the stones will become men and women again and will take up once
more their mad dance.
If you doubt this moral story, go to Stanton Drew and see the strange
stones for yourself--and suggest in what other way they could have come
there. You may reach Stanton Drew from Pensford station on the line
between Bristol and Frome. You will find it in a pleasant little valley
in a hilly upland country, and not far away Maensknoll Tump, nearly 700
feet high, the loftiest point of Dundry Hill, surrounded by the grim
earthworks of some of our earliest ancestors.
Bristol, that great city of the west, with its centuries of history and
romance, its memories of the daring Merchant Adventurers and its fine
churches, is a good centre from which to reach this district. Or you
may go from Frome, that queer busy little town with its narrow medieval
streets straggling up and down hill.
All the country round here is full of interest to the lover of nature
or antiquity. It is a country of mild airs, where in the sheltered
valleys the flowers bloom amazingly early. Yet the average tourist
seldom wanders off the beaten track to enjoy this pleasing stretch of
rural England.
[Illustration: _The Druid Stones at Stanton Drew._]
[Illustration: Masked man leading blindfolded nurse up a staircase.]