Books, Prehistory, Transactions of the Woolhope Club

Meeting at Bredwardine. Friday, July 26th, 1872.

The party re-assembled at the cromlech, or so-called druidical monument known as King Arthur's Stone [Map], which is situated in the middle of an ancient road, probably British, leading along the ridge to Herbage Point, and thence to Clock-mill where it joins the road to Hay along the south bank of the Wye. Arthur's Stone has been so often described as to need little to be said about it, save that it is a true cromlech evidently of great antiquity. It consists of a superincumbent slab of old red sandstone, probably brought from a neighbouring quarry on the west or Dorstone slope of the ridge, which is now broken in two ways. The lower stratum has become detached from the upper, and has fallen partly to the ground, while the upper portion, which is about two feet thick, and is estimated to be about 40 tons in weight, is split across the middle. The stone, however, is still supported by the six smaller stones upon which it was originally placed. It is surrounded at about eight feet distance by a circle of stones of considerable size, which are now mostly covered with greensward. There seems to have been an inner circle of upright stones about four feet high, of which only four are now to be traced, the remainder having probably been broken up and carried off to mend the road, or for some other purpose. One of these stones, which is singularly marked as though with a gigantic thumb and two fingers, lies on the roadside, where it is shown by some relaters of local tradition as bearing the marks of King Arthur's knees, as he knelt down, while others declare that the marks are those of his thumb and fingers, when he was playing at quoits. The marks themselves seem to have been produced by water, and are analogous to those produced upon the edge of a bed of rock where the stream breaks into tiny cascades, such as are common in the bed of the Wye near Builth and elsewhere. How the stone reached its present position is of course a matter for conjecture, but it is probable that it was with the other smaller stones brought from the Wye.

On the Dorstone slope of the hill, and in the valley, some large travelled stones are found, which would seem to suggest that at one time there had been an avenue of stones marking the ascent to the cromlech.

It is much to be regretted that this interesting relic of a far-off time is left in its present state of utter neglect, a prey not only to the destructive action of the seasons, but also to the heedless ravages of mankind. It would require no great expenditure at least to clear the outer circle of stones of the earth which has accumulated upon them, and thus to lay bare to the observer the exact nature of the place, and it would be a trivial sacrifice of land to divert the road a little to the eastsward, so as to save that side of the circle from further destruction. It is possible that the excavation necessary for the purpose would be rewarded by discoveries of articles of interest, but in any case the diversion of the road would be an easy way of presenting this fine relic from casual or wanton damage. As the only monument of its class in the county, it merits some little care for its own sake, while such care would relieve the archaeologists of the county of some discredit which the present neglected condition of the stone justly throws upon them.

As the party were grouped around the stone, the Vice-Presidents and some other gentlemen present invited Mr. Edmunds to say a few words on its history.

Mr. Edmunds, in responding to the unexpected call, said that he was much in the position of Canning's knife-grinder, when asked for his story:

Story, Lor' bless ye, I have none to tell. Sir!

He had not been able to find any historical references to King Arthur's Stone, while the legends were few and imperfect, yielding no distinct ground even for plausible conjecture as to the person to whom or the time when that structure was reared. The name was rather patriotism than history. There is no reason for supposing that King Arthur ever ruled in this district. It is true that the existence of Arthur had been disputed, but the doubt seemed to the speaker an unreasonable one. There was certainly a real King Arthur who ruled the district now known as Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, and whose body was found buried at Avallonia in the reign of Henry II., but there is no reason for connecting him with this cromlech unless we take the name as a patriotic myth. As the great national hero, Arthur was to the Briton the symbol of the glorious past of their independence, and everything remarkable or interesting seemed to be consecrated by bearing the name of Arthur. Thus we have mountains, cromlechs, stones, and other objects in distant places where Arthur never ruled, as well as in his own little kingdom, named from the hero-king. Of course where nothing certain was known there was a fine field for conjecture (a laugh). The archaeologists had "ample room and verge enough" for theory. There were indeed some facts, very massive and imposing and undeniable; there was the huge table of stone, the crom-lech, or covering stone, its firmly fixed supports, the remains of a small inner circle, and the large outer circle covered with earth and greensward, and fragrant with purple thyme and other wild flowers, upon which the audience were seated. These were the facts, and all he could do was but to endeavour to explain them from other monuments of the kind which he had visited. The ground plan, for example, seemed to be a miniature of that of Stonehenge, which, however, had no central cromlech. He thought it was probable that the circle had been double, a passage being thus left all round, although only one of the inner ring of stones was left standing. The circular form was to his mind conclusive evidence of British work. The Briton's mind seems to have been full of the circle: the circle of the heavens, the circle of the sun, the circle of the moon, the circle of the seasons, seem to have suggested the idea, which the Briton carried out in his camps, his dwellings, his temples, his burial places. Just as the Roman founded all his works on the right line and always used the square or the oblong, a square and a half. In this case, he thought the cromlech was built first. Some great Silurian chief was brought thither with rude pomp and ceremony; his body was placed on the ground, covered perhaps with a little earth; the body of his favourite horse was laid at his feet, and his weapons by his side, and the huge Lech or covering stone was brought up an inclined plane upon rollers, and so placed by the strong arms of a nation as a memorial of their lost chief to future ages. All this would be done, as the old British phrase has it, "in the face of the sun and in the eye of light," and amid a band of white-robed Druids and bards, while the armed throng formed a reverent circle around. Then, too, at night, if we might follow some interpreters of the bards, the hollow place beneath the cromlech might be used in the initiation of neophytes. Lonely watching in the house of death has always been supposed to confer wisdom, and especially prescience, upon the watcher, who regarded it as the house of life to his spirit. Here he communed with the invisible world, and from hence he issued after his vigils (like the knight of mediaeval times) pledged to a new life. Perhaps he ought to apologise for detaining the audience so long with these theories and conjectures, but he had told them that he had little of information to give them; and they would all agree with him that when one has really little to say it sometimes takes a great many words to say it (applause).

The Rev. James Davies expressed the obligations of the meeting to Mr. Edmunds for his most interesting address, and added that if that was an instance of a person having little to say they all felt that Mr. Edmunds had said it extremely well (applause).

Mr. Lloyd also expressed the interest which he had felt in the address.

Mr. J. E. Smith said that some writers looked upon Arthur as the sun, and the legends regarding him as myths of the sun-worship. "Ar" was said to be a word meaning light.

Mr. Edmunds doubted the correctness of that theory. He knew the word ar as meaning land, and lux and cognate words as meaning light, in the Celtic and Teutonic tongues, but he knew nothing of ar as meaning light in those tongues.

Sir George Cornewall, who had arrived while Mr. Edmunds was speaking, expressed his regret that he had accidentally missed the address. What he had heard had greatly interested him.

The party then made their way to the beautiful "Clumps" above the village of Bredwardine, where they partook of lunch. Afterwards the club held an ordinary meeting, when some formal business was transacted.

Sir George Cornewall then announced that the only paper to be read that day was that of Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Curley, who had visited the scene of the destructive whirlwind of Sunday week. (See the succeeding page.)