316 Way land Smith's Cave or Cromlech. 



frequent Boulders (possibly the glacial deposits of antediluvian 

 •poche) offered ready materials to the piety and energy of the Celtic 

 worshippers. 



Sir Walter Scott, whose antiquarian lore is so well known, avails 

 himself of this rude mound as a feature in his novel of " Kenilworth," 

 where Tressilian, anxious to replace a lost shoe to his horse, is taken 

 to it as Wayland Smith's Forge, a traditionary name of long 

 standing. " Here are we," said Dickie, " at Wayland Smith's 

 Forge-dcor." "You jest, my little friend," said Tressilian ; "here 

 is nothing but a bare moor, and that ring of stones with a great 

 one in the midst like a Cornish barrow." 



"Ay, and that great flat stone in the midst, which lies across 

 these uprights," said the boy, "is Wayland Smith's counter, that 

 you must tell down your money upon." 



"What do you mean by such folly ?" said the traveller, "begin- 

 ning to be angry with the boy, and vexed at himself for having 

 trusted such a hare-brained guide." 



"Why," said Dickie, with a grin, "you must tie your horse to 

 that upright stone, that has the ring in't, and then you must whistle 

 three times, and lay me down your silver groat on that other flat 

 stone, walk out of the circle, sit down on the west side of that little 

 thicket of bushes, and take heed you look neither to right or left 

 for ten minutes, or so long as you shall hear the hammer clink, 

 and whenever it ceases, say your prayers for the space you could 

 tell a hundred, or count over a hundred, which will do as well, and 

 then come into the circle, you will find your money gone and your 

 horse shod." 



Lysons, in his " Magna Britannia," vol. i., p. 215, gives a plate 

 of the White Horse Hill, and in the corner a rudely drawn small 

 view of the Cromlech, which he calls " Wayland- Smith." There are 

 no trees around it. More covering stones appear to be in their places, 

 and earth seems piled up against the central stones. He calls this a 

 " tumulus, over which," he says, "are, irregularly scattered, several of 

 the large stones, called Sarsden Stones, found in that neighbourhood ; 

 three of the largest have a fourth laid on them in the manner of the 

 British Cromlechs. It is most probable that this tumulus is British." 



