56 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAP. 



Toward this place the king was marching, in hopes of winning 

 the English crown, when the witch transformed him to stone. 



' Let the valley rise and the hill go down, 

 That T may see Long Compton town; 

 If Long Compton I could see 

 Then king of England I should be.' 



The ' Whispering Ring,' within which a sound uttered at one 

 side is heard on the other,, 'by placing the ear to the ground/ 

 was composed of the soldiers ; and the separate group of five stones 



Diagram XV. Kollrich Stones, from Plot's Oxfordshire. 



(fig. 3) were the King's 'five knights.' This group was really 

 a ' cromlech : ' it seemed as if one broad stone had roofed in a 

 cell, with four uprights. 



The stone was obtained in the immediate vicinity. It is a coarse, 

 shelly oolite, which occurs somewhat irregularly among thinner 

 calcareous beds. 



The name is usually accepted as indicating the kingly title, 

 or kingdom of Rollo, and the monument thus becomes Norwegian, 

 or popularly Danish. But it is probably of much higher antiquity, 



