After we had been there about an hour, there came a horseman within the
Druid's circle,--evidently a clerical personage by his white neckcloth,
though his loose gray riding pantaloons were not quite in keeping. He
looked at us rather earnestly, and at last addressed Mrs. ------, and
announced himself as Mr. Hinchman,--a clergyman whom she had been trying
to find in Salisbury, in order to avail herself of him as a cicerone; and
he had now ridden hither to meet us. He told us that the artist whom we
found here could give us more information than anybody about Stonehenge;
for it seems he has spent a great many years here, painting and selling
his poor sketches to visitors, and also selling a book which his father
wrote about the remains. This man showed, indeed, a pretty accurate,
acquaintance with these old stones, and pointed out, what is thought to
be the altar-stone, and told us of some relation between this stone and
two other stones, and the rising of the sun at midsummer, which might
indicate that Stonehenge was a temple of solar worship. He pointed out,
too, to how little depth the stones were planted in the earth, insomuch
that I have no doubt the American frosts would overthrow Stonehenge in a
single winter; and it is wonderful that it should have stood so long,
even in England. I have forgotten what else he said; but I bought one of
his books, and find it a very unsatisfactory performance, being chiefly
taken up with an attempt to prove these remains to be an antediluvian
work, constructed, I think the author says, under the superintendence of
Father Adam himself! Before our departure we were requested to write our
names in the album which the artist keeps for the purpose; and he pointed
out Ex-President Fillmore's autograph, and those of one or two other
Americans who have been here within a short time.
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