WHO BUILT STONEHENGE? 203 



But there are, and have l^een, many theories 

 which profess to give the only true origin of these 

 stone circles. An antiquary formerly living at 

 Amesbury went to the beginnings of creation and 

 held that they were erected by Adam. If so, it is to 

 be hoped for Adam's sake that he finished the job in 

 the summer, or that if it occupied him in winter 

 time, he had clothed himself with something warmer 

 than the traditional fig-leaf, in view of the rigours 

 of these Wiltshire Downs. It would be interest- 

 ing also to have Adam's opinion as to the compara- 

 tive merits of Salisbury Plain and the Garden of 

 Eden. 



Then a tradition existed that Merlin, the sorcerer, 

 arranged the circles. Those who do not think much 

 of this view may take more kindly to the legend of 

 our old friends the Druids, who, according to Dr. 

 Stukeley and others, made this their chief temple ; 

 while, according to other views, the Britons before 

 and after the Roman occupation, and the Romans 

 themselves, w^ere the builders. Then there are others 

 who conceive this to have been the crowning-place of 

 the Danish kings. The Saxons, indeed, appear to be 

 the only people who have not been credited with the 

 work ; although, curiously enough, its very name is 

 of Saxon derivation, and the earliest writers refer to 

 it as ' Stanenges,' from Anglo-Saxon words meaning 

 'the hanojinor-stones.' That the Saxons discovered 

 Stonehenge, and were puzzled by it as greatly as it 

 must have excited the wonder of the Romans, 

 hundreds of years before, seems obvious from this 

 name they gave the lonely place. Ignorant as to its 



