no more; stand fast, stone;
King of England thou shall none."

[Illustration: ROLLRIGHT STONES From Camden's _Britannia_]

Immediately the king and his army were changed into stone, as if the
head of Medusa had gazed upon them. The solitary stone, still called the
King Stone, is the ambitious monarch; the circle is his army; and the
Five Whispering Knights are five of his chieftains, who were hatching a
plot against him when the magic spell was uttered. The farmers around
Rollright say that if the stones are removed from the spot, they will
never rest, but make mischief till they are restored. Stanton Drew, in
Somersetshire, has a cromlech, and there are several in Scotland, the
Channel Islands, and Brittany. Some sacrilegious persons transported a
cromlech bodily from the Channel Islands, and set it up at Park Place,
Henley-on-Thames. Such an act of antiquarian barbarism happily has few
imitators.

For what purpose were these massive stones erected at the cost of such
infinite labour? Tradition and popular belief associate them with the
Druids. Some years ago all mysterious antiquarian problems were solved
by reference to the Druids. But these priests of ancient days are now
out of fashion, and it is certainly not very safe to attribute the
founding of the great stone circles to their agency. The Druidical
worship paid its homage to the powers of Nature, to the nymphs and genii
of the woods and streams, whereas the great stone circles were evidently
constructed by sun-worshippers. There is no doubt among antiquaries that
they are connected with the burial of the dead. Small barrows have been
found in the centre of them. Dr. Anderson is of opinion that the stone
circles were developed out of the hedge, or setting of stone, which
frequently surrounds the base of a barrow, and was intended to keep the
ghost in, and prevent it from injuring the living. By degrees the wall
was increased in size while the barrow or cairn decreased; until at last
a small mound of earth, or heap of stones, only marked the place of
burial, and the huge circle of stones surrounded it. Stonehenge, with
its well-wrought stones and gigantic trilitha, is much later than the
circles of Avebury and Rollright, and was doubtless constructed by the
people who used iron, about two hundred years before our era. The
earlier circles have been assigned to a period eight or ten centuries
before Christ.

[Illustration: DOLMEN]

Many conjectures have bee