“Thou noblest monument of Albion’s isle! Whether by Merlin’s aid from Scythia’s shore To Amber’s fatal plain Pendragon bore, Huge frame of giant hands, the mighty pile, To entomb his Britain’s slain by Hengist’s guile; Or Druid priests, sprinkled with human gore, Taught ’mid thy massy maze their mystic lore; Or Danish chiefs, enriched with savage spoil, To victory’s idle vast, an unhewn shrine, Reared the rude heap; or in thy hallowed round Repose the kings of Brutus’ genuine line; Or here those kings in solemn state were crowned Studious to trace thy wondrous origin, We muse on many an ancient tale renowned.” To descend to prose. Langtoft, in his Chronicle, says:—“A wander wit of Wiltshire, rambling to Rome, to gaze at antiquities, and there screwing himself into the company of antiquarians, they entreated him to illustrate unto them that famous monument in his country called Stonage. His answer was that he had never seen it. Whereupon they kicked him out of doors, and bade him go home and see Stonage.” The immortal Pepys says the stones are “as prodigious as any tales I have ever heard of them, and worth going this journey to see.” The archæologist, Mr. Edmund Story Maskelyne, fixes the date of Stonehenge at 900 or 1000 B.C. I quote what he says from a lecture, read 1897, “On the Age and Purpose of Stonehenge”:— “It is of consequence that we should recognize that Stonehenge was built about nine or ten hundred years B.C., and not 700 A.D., as many writers would have us believe. For instance, Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, in his book, ‘Stonehenge, 1880,’ states his opinion that it was erected A.D. 700±200, that is, between A.D. 500 and 900. The date of Stonehenge will be of great interest if there is found at Avebury remains sufficiently perfect to determine astronomically the date when that monument was erected. For it cannot be but interesting to ascertain when the two cults—that of the sun, pure and simple, as exemplified in the original Temple at Stonehenge; and the cult of the sun in connexion with the serpent, as exhibited at Avebury—respectively prevailed in this country.” Mr. Story Maskelyne’s reasons for his theory that Stonehenge was built by the Phœnicians are as follows:— “I should like to add some reasons for my belief that Stonehenge was built by the Phœnicians. In the first place, I cannot think of any other people that could have either designed or executed such a monument, which required both science for its conception and skill for its erection. The Phœnicians, with their perfect familiarity with masts, and cordage, and pulleys, could easily lift the imposts, of which the largest—being about 11 ft. long, 4 or 6 wide, and 3 ft. thick—would weigh less than ten tons; and the Phœnicians must have known how the Egyptians raised masses of stone many times heavier.