2 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



and raised upon it this remarkable structure ; the other the (probably) 

 long period during- which it must have served as a "locus consecratus" 

 to the surrounding people. What may have led to the choice of 

 this particular site is not apparent ; but we need no modern Merlin 

 to tell us that the work which was here can-ied out was one which 

 must have required much labour^ and must have been the result of 

 a very deep religious feeling. It could have been no light fancy 

 nor 'passing impulse "which operated as the motive power for the 

 transport and setting up of these huge stones, and the conveyance 

 hither of others from a great distance; but an earnest and deep-seated 

 conviction on the part of the builders that it was their duty in this 

 way, and at any cost of time and effort, to construct a fitting temple 

 for the worship of their God. The same sanctity appears to have 

 extended to the plain and hills around. Every elevation within a 

 circuit of a mile-and-a-half is crowned with the grave- mounds of 

 the distinguished dead, who would naturally wish to be buried near 

 to the sacred precincts of this, their holy shrine. The building and 

 its surroundings are in perfect harmony. They are as closely con- 

 nected as a churchyard is with its church ; and no traces exist, as far 



Saxons meant byit " stone hangiijg-places," or " stone-gallows," from the resem- 

 blance of the trilithons to such an instrument of punishment or torture. Mr. Her- 

 bert, who says that " hanging-stones " would have been expressed by the word 

 •* Hengestanas," believes that the word is properly " 8tanhengest" as it is called 

 by Simon of Abingdon, in his chronicle of the Abbots of that place, (Ussher's 

 Brit. Eccles., p. 228, ed. ii. ; Dugdale cit. Gibson's Camden, i., 207, Gough's i. , 

 150,) and that it was so designated, not because Duke Hengest " there performed 

 a desperate act, and was engaged in the bloody scuffles consequent upon it ; but 

 because he there ended his days, and was solemnly immolated to the vengeance 

 of the successors of the Druids." Cyclop. Chris., p. 175. In this view, 

 however, he would stand very much alone. Dr. Guest, (Philological Society's 

 Transactions, vi., 1853,) combats Herbert's " stone of Hengest,"and considers 

 Simon of Abingdon's " Stone-Hengest" to be a clerical blunder for Stonehenges, 

 He says " We find in many of the Gothic languages a word closely resembling 

 h»nge, and signifying something suspended." " In the compound Stonehenge, 

 the henge signifies the impost which is suspended on the two uprights." Sir 

 John Lubbook, (Prehis. Res., p. 114,) would "derive the last syllable from the 

 Anglo-Saxon word " ing," a field ; as we have Keston, originally Eyst-staning 

 the field of stone coffins." 



The writer, in his younger days, used to play cricket with a father and son 

 named Stonage, of Bishops Waltham, Hants ; but this is the only occasion on 

 which he has met with any form of the word as a man's name. 



