Certainly the Iberian skull inclines to length, while that of Gaul is
broad and short, and these physical peculiarities, much modified
perhaps, prevail even to-day. It would seem, therefore, that the
practice of building stone circles originated with the fair-haired
pastoral race which had passed over from Europe to the West of
England, but that Stonehenge is the work of a later dark-haired people
who arrived from Gaul, with a higher and more organised civilisation,
and that it is due to this that Stonehenge possesses those special
features of wrought stone, and the horseshoe, which are not to be
found in any of the earlier monuments of the shepherd race. Having
erected Stonehenge, and possessed themselves of the land, the
religious associations of the spot very probably impelled them to
sleep their last sleep within easy distance of it. It must not be
supposed that by so doing they regarded Stonehenge as a definite
Sepulchral Monument: rather would it have been somewhat of the same
spirit which even at the present day led to the burial of the heart of
a well-known peer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Subsequently other forms of worship, such, for example, as Druidism,
may have been practised at Stonehenge; but of these it is beyond the
question to speak. These priests, whatever they may have been, were
not the originators or builders of the circle, they merely used it for
their own purposes; and their usages will in no way affect the central
facts of the Stonehenge of Yesterday.
VALEDICTORY
There is a certain sense of relief, not untinged with reluctance, on
laying down the pen after dealing seriously with so solemn a subject
as Stonehenge. The feeling of relief is akin to that of the schoolboy
whose task is done, and who is free to give vent to his animal spirits
unchecked by the hand of his master. The feeling of reluctance is that
which this same master must feel when he finally takes off his cap and
gown and becomes as other men, his brief authority gone with them. Cap
and gown are laid aside, and the present writer can now speak with his
readers freely, and offer perhaps some few words of practical advice.
The foremost question will surely be "How shall I get to Stonehenge?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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