By William Long, Esq. 15 



Dehinc tantum munus suscepit Hibernia gaudens, 



Nam virtus lapidum cuilibet ampla subest. 

 Nam respersus aquis magnam transfudit ia illas 



Vim, qua eurari ssepius seger eget. 

 Uter pendragon banc molem transvexit ad Ambri 



Fines, devicto victor ab boste means. 

 quot nobilium, quot corpora sancta virorum, 



Illic Hengistae proditione jacent ! 

 Intercepta fuit gens inclita, gens generosa, 



Intercepta, nimis credula, cauta minus. 

 Sed tunc enituit prseclari consulis Eldol 



Virtus, qui leto septuaginta dedit." 



The history of Geoffrey of Monmouth was versified by Robert of 

 Gloucester, who wrote after 1278. These are the last four lines of 

 his account of the transfer of the stones from Ireland . — 



" Uter the Kynges brother, that Ambrose hette also 

 In another maner name ychose was therto 

 And fifteene tbousant men, this dede for to do. 

 And Merlyn, for his quoyntise, thider went also." 



In vol. ii. of the Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden,^ Monachi 

 Cestrensis, p. 23, ed. 1869, is the following, " The secunde (mer- 

 uaille) is at Stanhenges, nye to Salisbury, where stones of a grete 

 magnitude be exaltede in to the maner of gates, that thei seme as 

 gates putte on gates, where hit can not be 'clerely percey vede how 

 and wherefore the stones were sette there.^^ 



In the Eulogium (Historiarum sive Temporis) , Chronicon ab Orbe 

 Condito usque ad annum Domini MCCCLXVI., a monacho quodam 

 Malmesburiensi exaratum,' ed. 1860, vol. ii., p. 141, we find the 

 following account of Stonehenge, " Sunt in BritanniS. fontes calidi 

 morbis mortalium medicinales. Sunt in ea plura mirabilia ; sunt 

 enim apud le Stonhenge lapides mirse magnitudinis in modum por- 

 tarum elevati, nee liquide perpenditur qualiter aut quomodo sunt 

 ibi constructs" Then we have the old story (p. 280) "how the 



' Higden was born in the latter part of the tbirteenth century, somewhere 

 in the west of England. He took monastic vows about 1299, and died in March, 

 1363, and was buried in the Abbey of Chester. 



'Written ia the year 1372. 



