"
We did not see one answering to that description as we crossed the
Plain, but no doubt there were such shepherds to be found.
The sky had been overcast that day, and it was gloomy and cloudy when we
reached Stonehenge. Without a house or human being in sight, the utter
loneliness of the situation seemed to add to our feelings of wonder and
awe, as we gazed upon these gigantic stones, the remains of prehistoric
ages in England. We had passed through the circles of stones known as
the "Standing Stones of Stenness" when we were crossing the mainland of
the Orkney Islands on our way to John o' Groat's, but the stones we now
saw before us were much larger. There had been two circles of stones at
Stonehenge, one inside the other, and there was a stone that was
supposed to have been the sacrificial stone, with a narrow channel in it
to carry off the blood of the human victims slain by the Druids. In that
desolate solitude we could almost imagine we could see the priests as
they had been described, robed in white, with oak crowns on their heads,
and the egg of a mythical serpent round their necks; we could hear the
cries and groans of the victims as they were offered up in sacrifice to
the serpent, and to Bel (the sun).
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