The Brunswick daily news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1903-1906, 1903-11-18
ENCLOSURE OF sToNEHENGE.
Speculation as to the Meaning of the
MeqaIiths.

We may not know exactly what
Stonehenge originally was; but We are
all convinced that it was either place
of worship, place where rites thought
TO be pleasing to some higher power
were performed, or a place of burial
Tor the illustrious dead, or a place of
tribal meeting, perhaps for the crown
ing of kings, or, as is very probable,
a place used for more than one of
these purposes. 1t is also quite GER
tain that of its kind it was a place
4of the highest Importance. 1t may
be regarded as the Westminster Alb.
hey of some tribe or race which in
the neolithic age spread over the
south of England Obviously, 1t must
have been place of resort for
whole nation of people-the one place
OF all others to which public highways
would lead. No one would suggest
that street leading to the doors or
Westminster Abbey was not a public
highway because it stopped there. 1t
seems to be equally absurd 10 say that
road is not a public road because it
stops at StOnehenge No doubt
changes of race, changes of faith,
changes in the distribution of popula-
ton, might have relegated Stonehenge
to obscurity, and might have led to
such disuse of the ways leading to
it as to have amounted to practical
destruction. But it happens not to
have been So. So remarkable was
Stonehenge that when it ceased to be
used for worship, meeting or sepul-
ture, 1t became wonder in itself, and
continued to be place of resort, from
one motive or another, throughout the
centuries. Indeed, it is not quite clear
that there has not been something
in the nature of continuing rite per.
formed at Stonehenge from age to age.
Popular traditions cling strangely
about these megaliths.
In Brittany, to the present day,
weird customs, obviously unconnected
with Christian worship. though some
times adopted and blessed by the
priests, are observed before many
prehistoric stone At Stonehenge
there is, and has been beyond living
memory. an assembly of persons on
the longest Cay of the year to Sc the
sun rise over the top of the Friar's
Heel and strike the altar stone. The
modern view of Stonehenge is that it
was a temple of the sun; if so, this
gathering on June q is obviously
remnant of sun worship. Can there
be any better reason for the existence
of roads than that they lead to place
SO remarkable that year by year it
brings people many miles to take part
in gathering the origin and signif-
canoe of which have passed into OBJ
livion? Is it not idle, in the face OF
such facts, to suggest that there cam
not be a public right of way to Stone
henge because it's stones were placed
there by man and may be removed by
man? AS matter of fact, they are
older than anything else in the nature
of building which the British Isles
can show. Removable they may be,
h1s5tt gcennburies have seen them standing
in the same place, and centuries have
saan them an ~ ME iect of interest and an
= - IN an opJS~4 'vssz.z=az=zsy~slitI,c IF
Stonehenge saw &C i}asAEI.
a great city; they saw it deserted;
they saw it's buildings fall to pieces;
they have seen it for centuries mere
series of concentric earthworks; they
have seen the new city of Salisbury
(now old, as British cities go) rise
mushroomlille in its stead. If any
structure of man can claim perma-
hence, it is Stonehenge. If the public
character of a road depended in any
degree upon the permanence of the OBJ
ject to which it leads (as matter of
law, it does not), assuredly no place
could lay as god claim to be worthy
henge.-Nineteenth Century