Curiosities of natural history. 3rd series / by Frances T. Buckland.

  • Francis Trevelyan Buckland
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of natural history. 3rd series / by Frances T. Buckland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/386 (page 41)
    THE LEGEND. exhibit curious gutter-ridges at the tops and down the sides, probably caused by the effects of wet and rain during the many hundred years they have been ex- posed to the storm and tempest. They are, in fact, huge giant stones, erected by a people long passed away. Their mysterious aspect, in their grim and silent soli- tude, makes the spectator regard them with a species of reverence and awe, which it is not easy to overcome. Now, the question arises, who put these stones in their . present position, and why were they so placed ? At the present time they stand in solitary grandeur, and are, to modern eyes, “ apropos to nothing in particu- lar.” Some folks will tell you that they are monuments of victory, erected by the Romans; others, that they are the work of ancient Britons, and were part of a temple used by the Druids. The common people, of course, have a legend, and ascribe them to Satanic influence,* for every great work of unknown origin is, by the unre- flecting, invariably attributed to the Devil. He has .been blamed, or rather praised, for building bridges and other useful erections in different places, and that, more often than not, in a single night. On this occasion meaning mischief,” so says the legend, he took his stand upon How-hill (about seven or eight miles from this place, and near to Fountains Abbey), planted one * “ History of Boro’-bridge.” 1853.