354 A FARMER'S YEAR 



did not repay his examination of it, but, so far as I can gather, 

 neither he nor the Doctor took the slightest interest in the curiosities 

 and the beauties of Nature. Evidently they thought that ' the 

 proper study of mankind is man,'and such things as scenery, or even 

 the remains of past ages, they did not consider worthy of notice. 



Unlike Mr. Boswell, I found that the rock repaid my trouble 

 exceedingly well. It is a very curious object, weighing, I suppose, 

 some twenty or thirty tons, and supported by three small stones 

 of about the size of horses' heads. Its position where it appears 

 to-day may be explained in several different ways. For instance, it 

 might have rolled from the top of the mount, which is a little above 

 it, and poised itself exactly upon these three stones. This, how- 

 ever, is very unlikely, for if once the boulder had started rolling, 

 obstacles of that size would not have stayed its course. Or scores of 

 thousands of years ago it might have been borne hither in the ice, 

 and, when the glacial period passed away, deposited neatly upon its 

 present supports. But neither do I put faith in this solution, for 

 it is not a foreign rock, and I think that in the course of eons 

 these three small stones would have crumbled away beneath the 

 weight of its mass and the wearing .of the weather. They are 

 large enough and stout enough to bear the rock for a period of, say, 

 two or three thousand years, but not for all those infinite ages. 

 The third suggestion, which I believe to be correct, is that it was 

 set where it is by the hand of man ; indeed, is not the legend, 

 quoted of Boswell, as to its having been thrown there by a giant 

 corroborative of this theory ? 



Doubtless this rock, which is of the same character as the 

 surrounding formation, lay from the beginning where it is to-day, 

 and by the aid of levers the primeval population of the island 

 lifted it on to its supports. Could they have done so, probably they 

 would have wished to set it upon the very top of the hill, a hundred 

 yards or so away ; but to roll it thither proved beyond their strength, 

 so, as it was eminently suitable to their purpose, they placed it 

 where it stands. Within about sixty yards of it is another, smaller 

 boulder, also set upon three stones, and at a distance a third 



