poetic resemblance to a flock of titanic sheep, reclining
at ease upon the pasturage of the Downs. The alternative name Sarsen,
has an interesting derivation. It is a corruption of the word "Saracen."
But what have Saracens to do with Wiltshire? Frankly nothing. The
name has come to the stones from Stonehenge itself, and is a part of
that ever interesting confusion of ideas, which has been bequeathed to
us by our ancestors of the Middle Ages. To them all stone circles and
megalithic monuments were the work of heathens, if not of the devil
himself. Heathenism and all its works was roundly condemned,
whether it be Celtic, Mahomedan, or Pagan; and the condemnation was
as concise and universal as the phrase "Jews, Turks, Infidels, and
Heretics" of the Christian Prayer Book to-day. In the early days of the
Moyen Age, the Saracen stood for all that was antagonistic to
Christianity. Consequently the stones of Stonehenge were Saracen or
heathen stones, which the Wiltshire tongue has shortened in due time to
Sarsen.
This confusion of ideas may seem amusing, but it is not more absurd
than the existing popular idea that Stonehenge is of Druidical origin.
The stone circle of Salisbury Plain was many hundred years old when
those half mythical Celtic priests first set foot in England, and the
Druids of yesterday have about as much connection with Stonehenge as
the Salvation Army of to-day.
The Sarsen well repays a close examination. A glance at one of these
stones as it lies on the Downland, shows that it has suffered greatly
from the weather. It is the core, or kernel, of a much larger block of
friable sandstone, worn away on all sides by wind and weather.
Moreover, these isolated blocks appear on the Downs in a country
devoid of any rock save chalk.
How came they in their present position? In one sense they never came
at all; for they existed on the surface of the chalk from the time it rose
from the bottom of the sea to its present position. They are, in fact, the
remains of a great sheet of fine sand and gravel cemented together by
silex, which formerly overlay the chalk downs, the other parts of which
have been dissolved and worn by wind and rain until only the harder
cores or kernels survive to tell the tale. And the proof of this is not far
to seek. The chalk of the London Basin is still capped by layers of such
sandstone, as may be seen at Purfleet in Essex. The titanic sheep, or
Grey Wethers, therefore, are merely a small residue of that widespread
sandy deposit which once covered the whole of the south of England
with its inhospitable sheet, and of which larger patches remain to-day
in Surrey, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight. But though the hand of
Time and the buffets of the weather have been heavy on the Sarsens,
the hand of man has likewise borne its share. In a district like the Plain,
devoid of building material other than flint, these stones have attracted
the unwelcome attention of the farmers. Walls, gateposts, and
paving-stones have accounted for many, while in the interest of the
road-mender many a noble Grey Wether has been led to slaughter to
provide macadam for the roads. Hence it is not surprising that the
number of Sarsen stones to be found on the Plain where Nature placed
them is becoming less and less. Indeed, the time may yet come when
they will be as extinct as the Great Bustard who once strutted among
them, and their memory will survive only in their accidental use in a
prehistoric monument like Stonehenge.
THE FOREIGN STONES
While the Sarsens usually awake the greatest interest by reason of their
bulk, and the problem of how a primitive people was able to deal with
them, a far greater problem is presented by the small uprights, or
Foreign Stones, the like of which cannot be matched within a hundred
miles of Salisbury Plain, while some can only be found upon the
continent of Europe. Fragments carefully removed and submitted to
mineralogists have made this fact abundantly clear, and consequently it
is possible to arrive at the very definite conclusion that Stonehenge is
certainly not a "Wiltshire" monument, and probably that it is not even
"British" at all.
Where have the stones come from? One school of writers ventures to
suggest Kildare in Ireland. Others suggest Wales, Cornwall, Dartmoor,
Shropshire, or Cumberland, where similar rocks are to be found,
though perhaps not absolutely identical in character. Yet another theory
advanced is that the Foreign Stones were transported to the plain as
boulders of the "glacial drift." It has even been stated that the gravels of
the district contain small pebbles composed of
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.