SUNRISE AT STONEHENGR 209 



the morning is misty. If this sunrise phenomenon is 

 not an accident, then Stonehenge, as the Temple of 

 the Sun, is the earliest cathedral in Britain. But, as 

 we have already seen, in these multitudes of guesses at 

 the truth, no one can arrive at the facts, and all we 

 can do is to say frankly, with old Pepys, who was 

 here in 1668, ' God knows what its use was.' 



The present historian has waited for the sun to 

 rise here. Arriving at Amesbury village at half-past 

 two in the morning, the street looked and sounded 

 lively with the clustered lights of bicycles and con- 

 veyances gathered there ; with the ringing of bicycle 

 bells, the sounding of coach-horns, and the talk of 

 those who had come to pay their devoirs to the 

 rising luminary. The village inn was open all night 

 for the needs of travellers journeying to this shrine, 

 and ten minutes was allowed for each person, a 

 policeman standing outside to see that they were 

 tluly turned out at the end of that time. 



To one who arrived early on the scene, while the 

 Plain remained shrouded in the grayness of the mid- 

 summer nio-ht, and the ruo-o-ed stones of Stoneheno-e 

 yet loomed vague and formless, the scene looking 

 down towards Amesbury was an impressive one. 

 Dimly the ascending white road up to the stones 

 could be discerned by much straining of tired eyes, 

 and along it twinkled l^rightly the lights of approach- 

 ing vehicles, now dipping clown into a hollow of 

 this miscalled ' Plain,' now toiling slowly and pain- 

 fully up a corresponding ascent. It is not to be 

 supposed that it was a reverent crowd assembled 

 here. Eeverence is not a characteristic of the age, 



