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poetical ||ottce0 of <StoneIjenge» 



^HE few following- poetical notices of Stonehenge may not 

 be unacceptable to the readers of this paper. 

 In the " Birth of Merlin," a play ascribed to Shakespeare (first 

 known edition 1662), Merlin addresses his mother thus : — 



" And when you die I will erect a monument 

 Upon the verdant plains of Salisbury, — 

 No king shall have so high a sepulchre, — 

 With pendulous stones, that I will hang by art, 

 Where neither lime nor mortar shall be used — 

 A dark enigma to the memory. 

 For none shall have the power to number them; 

 A place that I will hallow for your rest ; 

 Where no night-hag shall walk, nor were-wolf tread. 

 Where Merlin's mother shall be sepulchred." 



Drayton ("Polyolbion, 1613), calls Stonehenge "first wonder o£ 

 the land." In the following lines Wansdyke resents being called 

 by Stonehenge a " paltry ditch," and shows a strong aptitude for 

 the employment of abusive language : — 



" Where she, of all the plains (Salisbury) of Britain that doth 

 bear 

 The name to be the first (renowned everywhere) 

 Hath worthily obtained that Stonendge there should stand : 

 She, first of plains ; and that, first wonder of the land. 

 She Wansdike also wins, by whom she is embrac'd. 

 That in his aged arms doth gird her ampler waist; 

 Who, (for a mighty mound sith long he did remain 



