STONEHENGE 199 



sham archaeology, has described Stonehenge so im- 

 pressively as that ' wondrous boy ' Chatterton : — 



A Avondrous pyle of rugged mountaynes standes, 



Placed on eclie other in a dreare arraie, 



It ne could be the worke of human handes, 



It ne was reared up by nienne of claie. 



Here did the Britons adoration paye 



To the false god whom they did Tauran name, 



Lightynge hys altarre with greate fyres in Maie, 



Roasteyng theire victims round aboute the flame ; 



'Twas here that Hengyst dyd the Brytons slee, 



As they were met in council for to bee. 



Stonehenge was probably standing when the 

 Romans came to Britain, and doubtless astonished 

 them when they first saw it as much as any one else. 

 Its surroundings were not very different then from now. 

 A farmstead, with ugly blue-slated roof, which has 

 appeared on the ridge of the down of late years, and 

 possibly a road which did not exist in days of old : 

 these alone have changed the aspect of the vast 

 solitude in which the hoary monument stands. No 

 hedges, no gates, never a sheep upon the meagre 

 grass. As Ingoldsby says of Salisbury Plain, in 

 general : — 



Not a shrub, nor a tree, nor a l;)ush can you see ; 

 No hedges, no ditches, no gates, no stiles, 

 Much less a house or a cottage for miles. 



This, saving that intrusive farmstead, still holds 

 good here ; and although every one is inevitably 

 disappointed with Stonehenge, as first seen at a 

 distance, looking so small and insignificant in the 

 vastness of the l)are downs in which it is set, the 



