Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
The name here, as throughout, creates the difficulty, but Stanton on
the Stones, or Stone Town, is simply an epithet applied to all these
groups by the Saxons at some period subsequent to that of which we are
speaking, when the memory of their purpose was lost, or little cared
for by those of a different race, and speaking a different language,
who had succeeded to the Bryts, who had erected them. Unless we assume
that Stonehenge, Stanton Drew, the circles on Stanton Moor, and the
stones at Stennis, and others, were erected by the Saxons themselves,
they must originally have borne Celtic names, and it would be these
names that Nennius would quote, and which consequently could not be
those by which they are now known.
The expression "in monte" is singularly confirmatory of this
determination, inasmuch as one of the remarkable features of the
locality is the fortified hill known as Maes[180] Knoll, which
literally looks into Stanton Drew, and is the most remarkable feature
seen from it, and a fight on its ridge is as probable an operation as
any likely to be undertaken in this quarter.
* * * * *
If the above were all the evidence that could be produced in support
of the hypothesis that all these great circles belonged to the
Arthurian age, it might be admitted to be sufficient to establish not a
conclusion but a fair _prima facie_ case. The reasonableness, however,
of what has been here advanced will, it is hoped, become more and more
apparent as we proceed. Absolute mathematical or logical proof it is to
be feared, in the present state of the evidence, is not available. Till
attention is fairly turned to a certain definite line of argument, the
experiments are not made, and the authorities are not read, which bear
upon it, or if made or read are not understood; but when the arguments
are examined with the earnest desire to prove or disprove them, new
light springs up from every quarter, and before long there may be
grounds for a positive answer.
Meanwhile it may be well to point out, before going further, that this
class of circles is peculiar to England. They do not exist in France
or in Algeria. The Scandinavian circles are all very different, so too
are the Irish. The one circle out of England that at all resembles them
is that at Stennis, or rather Brogar, in the Orkneys, which will be
described in detail further on. There we have a great 100-metre circle,
with a ditch (but no rampart), a smaller 100-foot circle, with a ruined
dolmen in its stone circle, as at Stanton Drew, and we have the Maes
Knoll for the Maes How. The Stennis group has also the detached stones,
though it wants the rudimentary avenues, and some minor peculiarities,
and it may be more modern, but it is very similar; whereas those in
Cornwall and elsewhere are small and irregular, and totally wanting
in the dignity belonging to those which we have ventured to call
Arthurian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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