THE ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE TO STONEHENGE

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 212, 8 September 1936, Page 10

THE ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE TO STONEHENGE

Mysterious Memorials from a Dim Past have been Brought Under Government Protection to Prevent Further Damage from Lack of Care and Possible Vandalism.

ONCE0 NCE a year, on June 21, hundreds of

Stonehenge has been tho subject of endless speculation down the ages. When tho Saxons came to Britain ICOO years ago, they found Stonehenge already many centuries old. It stood more or less as it docs to-day, an earthwork 300 feet in diameter surrounding a circle of stones somo 98 feet across. Inside this aro tho remnants of 30 upright stones, and inside these again is what once was a circle of smaller stones. In the centre are tho famous trilithons, great upright stones supporting a massivo crossbar, and these surround the Altar Stone, which is iu approximate alignment with tho stono known as tho Friar’s Heel and the rising

visitors come to Salisbury Plain from all parts of Britain in order to see the sun rise over England’s biggest puzzle. Following longestablished custom, they swarm on bicycles,

The question /when were tho stones erected, has now been answered. The first step toward tho solution of this particular mys-

tery was taken in the eighteenth century, when a certain Dr. Stukeley took elaborate measurements ,and suggested that Stonehenge was built in the fifth century 8.C., under Egyptian influence. .This gave rise to the idea of tho sun striking the Friar's Heel and the Altar Stone simultaneously at dawn on Midsummer Day, and it was calculased that Stonehenge was probably built at a time when the sun and tho two stones were in exact alignment on Jlino 21. Somo 30 or more years ago the astronomer, Sir Norman Lockycr, calculated that this date must havo fallen roughly about ISOO D.C. Lately archaeological excavations have indicated that Stonehenge is a mono

on motor cars, and on foot over the roads from Salisbury, London and Exeter ,as tho huge trilithons of Stonehenge stand grey and forbidding in the night, and turn slowly red in tho spreading dawn.

These visitors, and the millions of their fel-

low countrymen all over Britain, are now the possessors of Stonehenge, for comparatively recently the sum of £32,000 was raised by public subscription in order that Stonehenge might be adequately protected for posterity. With this sum, some 1500 acres of land around the great niegalithic monument have been purchased, and the whole area is now the property of the nation. It is the general opinion that the purchase was not made any too soon. Massivo as is tho scale of Stonehenge, the ravages of wind and rain havo dealt hardly with it. Many of its stones aro prostrate, including the famous Altar Stono which is the centre of tho wholo monument.

ment of tho early Bronze Age, which con

firms the date given by Sir Norman

Tho most recent scholarship believes Stonehenge to havo been built for somo

ritual purpose, connected with tho worship of the sun, but as yet no ono knows tho do

tails of this worship,

Two of its stones collapsed on the last day of the nineteenth century, but wero restored in 1901, when their foundations wero strengthened. Stonehenge, too, has had to contend with the vandalism and ig'norance of men. The dairist Evelyn, writing in tho seventeenth century, shows what was tho public attitude and behaviour toward the monument in those days by observing that the stones wero “so exceeding hard that all my strength with a hammer could not break a fragment.” Stonehenge is no longer exposed to that kind of treatment, and the effects of weather are to be counteracted as best

The old idea, first suggested by John Aubrey iu the seventeenth century, that Stonehenge was a temple of tho Druids, has now been completely abandoned. Most of the early speculations on the stones havo been forsaken, but a little of the work of past ages remains.

The name of Stonehenge, the Handing Stones, so-called on account of the trilithons, was given by the Saxons, and the title of sarseus, held by the bigger grey stones, comes from the Middle Ages.

At that time Stonehenge was thought to

be the work of demons, and these stones

they may. Stonehenge's visitors have a better conception of the meaning and purpose of tho huge erection than any of their predecessors, but the veil of mystery is by no means entirely lifted from it even now.

were called sarsens, after the Saracens, who, in the days of the Crusades, were identified with everything hostile to Christianity. But. though much of the mystery of Stonehenge remains, efforts are still being made to pierce through to its origins, and these may ono day be successful.