A few miles' farther journey to the northward over the hills and
valleys, and among the sheep that also wander on Salisbury Plain, brings
us to that remarkable relic of earlier ages which is probably the
greatest curiosity in England--Stonehenge. When the gigantic stones were
put there, and what for, no man knows. Many are the unanswered questions
asked about them, for the poet says:
"Thou noblest monument of Albion's isle!
Whether by Merlin's aid from Scythia's shore
To Amber's fatal plain Pendragon bore,
Huge frame of giant hands, the mighty pile,
To entomb his Britons slain by Hengist's guile:
Or Druid priests, sprinkled with human gore,
Taught 'mid thy massy maze their mystic lore;
Or Danish chiefs, enriched by savage spoil,
To Victory's idol vast, an unhewn shrine,
Reared the huge heap; or, in thy hallowed round,
Repose the kings of Brutus' genuine line;
Or here those kings in solemn state were crowned;
Studious to trace thy wondrous origin,
We muse on many an ancient tale renowned."
[Illustration: STONEHENGE, FROM THE NORTH.]
Stonehenge is about nine miles north of Salisbury, near the town of
Amesbury, where another ancient camp, known as "The Ramparts," crowns a
wooded hill, around which the Avon flows, the camp enclosing nearly
forty acres. Stonehenge stands in a bleak, bare situation on Salisbury
Plain, and in its original perfection, as nearly as can now be judged,
consisted of two concentric circles and two ellipses of upright stones,
surrounded by a bank and ditch, outside of which is a single upright
stone and traces of a hippodrome. The entrance to the cluster of circles
was from the north-east, and the avenue to it is still traceable by the
banks of earth. The outer circle at Stonehenge originally consisted of
thirty upright stones fixed in the ground at intervals of about three
and a half feet. On the top of them thirty other stones formed a
continuous ring about sixteen feet above the ground. Within this circle,
and leaving a space about nine feet wide between, was another circle of
thirty or forty unhewn stones about four to seven feet high. Within
this, again, was the grandest part of the structure--a great ellipse
formed of five triplets of stones or trilithons, each composed of two
uprights and one placed crosswise. Within these was the inner ellipse of
nineteen obelisks surrounding the altar-stone. Such was Stonehenge
originally, but its ruins now appear very differently, and are only a
confused pile of huge stones, for the most part such as are found on the
neighboring plain and known as sarsens (a siliceous sandstone), though
some of the smaller ones may be boulders brought from a distance. The
diameter of the enclosure is three hundred and thirty-six feet. On the
outer circle sixteen of the uprights and six of the surmounting stones
forming the ring remain in their original positions. Two of the inner
trilithons, the highest rising twenty-five feet, remain perfect, and
there are two single uprights, which lean considerably. The flat slab or
altar-stone is lying on the ground. The avenue of approach opens in
front of the inner ellipse and in a line with the altar-stone. In the
avenue, outside the enclosure, is a block sixteen feet high in a leaning
position, and known as the Friar's Heel. The legend tells us that when
the great Enemy of the human race was raising Stonehenge he muttered to
himself that no one would ever know how it was done. A passing friar,
hearing him, exclaimed, "That's more than thee can tell," and then fled.
The Enemy flung this great stone after him, but hit only the friar's
heel. The investigators of Stonehenge say that when standing on the
altar-stone the midsummer sun is seen to rise to the north-east directly
over the "Friar's Heel." The traces of the avenue in which it stands
are, however, soon found to divide into two smaller avenues, one running
south-east and the other north, and the latter is connected beyond with
a long enclosure called the Cursus, and marked by banks of earth
stretching east and west for about a mile and a half: there is nothing
known of its use. The whole country about Stonehenge is dotted with
groups of sepulchral barrows, and at the western end of the Cursus is a
cluster of them more prominent than the others, and known as the "Seven
Burrows." Stonehenge itself inspires with mystery and awe, the blocks
being gray with lichens and worn by centuries of storms. Reference to
them is found in the earliest chronicles of Britain, and countless
legends are told of their origin and history, they usually being traced
to mythical hands. In James I.'s reign Stonehenge was said to be a Roman
temple, dedicated to Coelus; subsequently, it was attributed to the
Danes, the Phoenicians, the Britons, and the Druids by various
writers. Sir Richard Hoare, who has studied the mystery most closely,
declines all these theories, and says the monument is grand but
"voiceless." Horace Walpole shrewdly observes that whoever examines
Stonehenge attributes it to that class of antiquity of which he is
himself most fond; and thus it remains an insoluble problem to puzzle
the investigator and impress the tourist. Michael Drayton plaintively
and quaintly confesses that no one has yet solved the mystery:
"Dull heape, that thus thy head above the rest doest reare,
Precisely yet not know'st who first did place thee there.
Ill did those mightie men to trust thee with their storie;
Thou hast forgot their names who rear'd thee for their glorie;
For all their wondrous cost, thou that hast serv'd them so,
What 'tis to trust to tombes by thee we easily know."