when Mother Shipton, who had doubtless ridden on her broomstick from
her Norfolk home, appeared and pronounced the fatal spell--

"Move no more; stand fast, stone;
King of England thou shall none."

[Illustration: ROLLRIGHT STONES From Camden's _Britannia_]

Immediately the king and his army were changed into stone, as if the
head of Medusa had gazed upon them. The solitary stone, still called the
King Stone, is the ambitious monarch; the circle is his army; and the
Five Whispering Knights are five of his chieftains, who were hatching a
plot against him when the magic spell was uttered. The farmers around
Rollright say that if the stones are removed from the spot, they will
never rest, but make mischief till they are restored. Stanton Drew, in
Somersetshire, has a cromlech, and there are several in Scotland, the
Channel Islands, and Brittany. Some sacrilegious persons transported a
cromlech bodily from the Channel Islands, and set it up at Park Place,
Henley-on-Thames. Such an act of antiquarian barbarism happily has few
imitators.

For what purpose were these massive stones erected at the cost of such
infinite labour? Tradition and popular belief associate them with the
Druids. Some years ago all mysterious antiquarian problems were solved
by reference to the Druids. But these priests of ancient days are now
out of fashion, and it is certainly not very safe to attribute the
founding of the great stone circles to their agency. The Druidical
worship paid its homage to the powers of Nature, to the nymphs and genii
of the woods and streams, whereas the great stone circles were evidently