The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-26
The Enclosure of Stonehenge.

tNlHcIccTtu SSSntuTy.
 We may not know exactly what Stone henge originally was; but we are all con vinced that 1t was either a place of wor- ship a place where rites thought to be pleasing to some higher power were per formed, or a place of burial for the illus trious dead. or a place of tribal meeting, perhaps for the crowning of kings, or as is very probable. place used for more than one of these purposes. It is also quite certain that of its kind 1t was place of the highest importance. It may be regarded as the Westminster Abbey of some tribe or race which in the neolithic age spread over the south of England. Obviously, 1t must have been a place of resort for a whole nation of people-the one place of all others to which public highways would lead. No one would sug- gest that a street leading to the doors of Westminster Abbey was not a public highway because it stopped there. It seems to be equally absurd to say that a road is not public road because 1t stops at Stonehenge. No doubt changes of race, changes of faith. changes in the distri- button of population. might have relegat- ed Stonehenge to obscurity, and might have led to such a disuse of the ways leading to 1t as to have amounted to prac- tieal destruction. But 1t happens not to have been so. So remarkable was Stone HSHSC lAdt when II CedScu 10 De used TOT worship, meeting or sepulture it became a. wonder in itself and continued to be a place of resort. from one motive or an other, throughout the centuries. Indeed, 1t Is not quite clear that there has not been something in the nature of a con tinuing rite performed at Stonehenge from age to age. Popular traditions cling strangely about these megaliths. In Brit tany. In the present ,Sly, weird customs
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 worship. though sometimes adopted and blessed by the priests. are observed be- fore many a prehistoric stone. At Stone henge there is. and has been beyond liv- ing memory. an assembly of persons on the longest day of the year to see the sun rise over the top of the Friar's Heel and strike the altar stone. The modern view of Stonehenge is that 1t was a tenn pie of the sun; If so, this gathering on June 21 is obviously a remnant of sun worship. Can there be any better reason for the existence of roads than that they lead to a place so remarkable that year by year 1t brings people many miles to take part in a gathering the origin and significance of which have passed into oblivion? Is 1t not idle. in the face of ! such facts. to suggest that there cannot
 be public right of way to Stonehenge because its stones were placed there by | man and may be removed by man? As a
 matter of fact they are older than any | thing else in the nature of a building
 which the British Isles can show. Re l movable they may be. but centuries have
 seen them standing in the same place | and centuries have seen them an object of interest and an object of resort. The
 megaliths of Stonehenge saw old Sarun grow into a great city: they saw it de
 serted; they saw its buildings fall tf
 pieces; they have seen it for centuries s
 mere series of concentric earthworks I they have seen the new city of Salisbury 1 (row old, az British cities go) rise mush l Foomlike in its stead. If any structure O. ] man can claim permanence. 1t ia Stone