Our Visit with Ron & Maurene, Part VIII: Stonehenge.

The day following our whirlwind tour of London was deemed Stonehenge Day. It was a rainy day on the Salisbury Plain. Indeed, it seemed that the rain stayed mainly on the plain, but we didn't care because we were on vacation!

Perhaps it is of interest to note what the American author Nathanial Hawthorne had this to say about Stonehenge:

"There never was a ruder thing made by mortal hands as if Nature and man had worked upon it with one consent, and so... all the stranger and more impressive from its rudeness."

Be that as it may, Stonehenge is believed by some archaeologists to have been a burial site for cremated remains as long ago as 3000 BC. At that time, ditches were being dug around the area in which the huge stones were placed. The burials continued for another 500 years as the stones were brought in and erected. Archaeologists claim that the smaller stones, consisting of what are called Welsh Bluestone, were quarried from some 200 miles away in the Preseli Hills of Wales (an area surrounded by sacred springs). These large stones,they say, would have been floated across the Bristol Channel on hewn logs. On the other hand, Geoffery Monmouth in The History of The Kings of Britain (c. 1135 AD) indicates that the origin of the stones is Mt. Killaraus in Ireland and that they had "medicinal value." According to Geoffery, Merlin brought the stones to their current location "in a whirlwind one night." Which account is more correct? Hey, The Old Curmudgeon reports, you decide. Whichever side one comes down upon regarding the country of origin or mode of transport, there seems to be agreement that the larger standing stones are sarsen (sandstone that, at one time, covered much of southern England), and weigh in at about 50 tons each.


Big ol' rock that didn't make the cut to be part of the official 'Henge, so it stands around over here waiting to see if one of the regular stones is going to get sick or something.

Here's Grif in his uniform. He did change his shirt each day, not that you would particularly notice. With his cloth cap and broilly, one might think he was a native (in a stereotypical sort of way). Notice the fence in the background. For about $16 American (each) we could have all gotten inside the fence to that little walk way you see behind Grif. You cannot, however get any closer than that. We opted to stick our camera lenses through the chain link to make it look as if we had not been so cheap.


See what I mean? You would never know we weren't among the big spenders from the look of this shot.

It's an impressive structure.

Yep, it's still raining. Where can a person get a nice cuppa tea about now? With a few McVitie's digestives?

Next: Wales