28 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



tiently about the legendary tales which had till then prevailed : — 



" And whereto serves that wondrous trophy now, 

 That on the goodly plain, near Wilton stands ? 

 That huge dumb heap, that cannot tell us how, 

 Nor what, nor whence it is, nor with whose hands, 

 Nor for whose glory it was set to show. 

 How much our pride mocks that of other lands. 



Whereon when as the gazing passenger 



Hath greedy look'd with admiration. 



And fain would know its birth, and what it were, 



How there erected, and how long agone ; 



Inquires and asks his fellow-traveller, 



What he hath heard, and his opinion ! 



Then ignorance, with fabulous discourse, 

 Robbing fair art and cunning of their right. 

 Tells how those stones were by the devil's force, 

 From Africk brought, to Ireland in a night : 

 And thence to Britannia, by magick course, 

 From giant's hands redeem'd by Merlin's sleight : 



And then near Ambry plac'd in memory 

 Of all those noble Britons murder'd there, 

 By Hengist and his Saxon treachery. 

 Coming to parle in peace at unaware. 

 With this old legend then, credulity 

 Holds her content, and closes up her care." 



Before further merition of Inigo Jones' work, which was published 

 from his '^few indigested notes/' by his friend John Webb, in 1655, 

 it may be as well to give the slight notices of Stonehenge given by 

 John Evelyn, and Samuel Pepys, in their diaries. 



The former gives the following account of his visit on the 22nd 

 July, 1654 : "We departed [from Salisbury] and dined at a fiarm 

 of my uncle Hungerford's, called Darneford Magna, situate in a 

 valley under the plain, most sweetly watered, abounding in trouts 

 catched by spear in the night, when they come attracted by a light 

 set in the stern of a boat. After dinner, continuing our return, we 

 passed over the goodly plain, or rather sea of carpet, which I think 

 for evenness, extent, verdure, and innumerable flocks, to be one of 

 the most delightful prospects in nature, and reminded me of the 

 pleasant lives of shepherds we read of in romances. Now we were 

 arrived at Stonehenge, indeed a stupendous monument, appearing 

 at a distance like a castle ; how so many and huge pillars of stone 



