Stonehenge (24 page)

A little further away, at 41 Long Street, Devizes, is the Devizes Museum, home of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society and spiritual home of the antiquarian pursuit of Stonehenge. Its prime exhibit (and indeed its first acquisition) is John Britton’s Celtic Cabinet. In addition to this the museum holds many of William Cunnington’s finds, including the beautiful collection from Upton Lovell, the early Bronze Age ‘Golden Barrow’, as well as a rich collection of watercolours and engravings of Stonehenge and other
Wiltshire sites from the eighteenth century to the present day. The museum is open every day and the library, which holds a large collection related to Stonehenge, as well as many of John Britton’s papers, can be visited by appointment.

For a general study of Stonehenge in history and prehistory the best book by far is
Stonehenge Complete
, by Christopher Chippindale (London, 1983). Chippindale is an archaeologist whose own career has become part of the Stonehenge story over the last three decades. He is impatient with Druids, architects and others who fail to anticipate field archaeology, but he has an unrivalled grasp of the material and writes with great lucidity and humour. His title proved something of a hostage to fortune, however, and the book was republished in 2004 in a revised and expanded edition. Julian Richards’s
Stonehenge: the Story So Far
(Swindon, 2007) is the most upto-date overall survey of the archaeology and the history.

Stonehenge in Its Landscape: Twentieth-century excavations
, by Rosamund M. J. Cleal, K. E. Walker and R. Montague, published by English Heritage (London, 1995), is the monumental founding text of modern Stonehenge studies, bringing together for the first time all the surviving archaeological records. It led directly to
Science and Stonehenge
(Oxford, 1997),
edited by Barry Cunliffe and Colin Renfrew, which comprises papers given at a British Academy conference on various aspects of
Stonehenge in Its Landscape. Science and Stonehenge
has contributions by archaeologists, engineers, astro-archaeologists, geologists and environmentalists and includes a study of possible construction techniques. Both volumes are fairly heavy going. For a scholarly but less dense archaeological account of Stonehenge and the culture to which it belonged go to
Hengeworld
by Mike Pitts (London, 2000), a gripping read which reconstructs the ancient world in vivid detail by the light of the late twentieth-century discoveries at and near Stonehenge. Pitts has his own theories to offer, as has Aubrey Burl, whose
Stonehenge: A New History of the World’s Greatest Stone Circle
(London, 2006) is a persuasive but contentious account. Burl is a leading expert on stone circles and he argues for a strong Breton influence on Salisbury Plain. He is also the main, if not now the only, proponent of the theory that the bluestones arrived on Salisbury Plain as a result of glaciation. For children
The Amazing Pop-Up Stonehenge
, by Julian Richards and Linda Birkinshaw (Swindon, 2005), tells the story as simply as possible and allows readers to put up a sarsen at the mere pull of a paper tab.

The History of the Kings of Britain
, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, was published in Penguin Classics (Harmondsworth, 1976). Lewis Thorpe, who translated it, also contributed a long and compelling introduction that puts Geoffrey in context and discusses the meaning of history in the Middle Ages. A new edition, translated by Neil Wright and edited by Michael
Reeve (Rochester, NY) was published in 2007.
The Anglia Historia of Polydore Vergil
(London, 1950) also has an excellent introduction by Denys Hays. Lucas de Heere’s watercolour is discussed in ‘Lucas de Heere’s Stonehenge’, by J. A. Bakker,
Antiquity
, LIII (1979), 107–11, and
Chorea Gigantum…
, by Walter Charleton (London, 1663), was reprinted with Jones’s and Webb’s treatises as a single volume in 1775. The two twentieth-century editions of this volume are discussed under ‘Architects’.

John Aubrey’s vast and rambling manuscripts have never attracted the team of scholars they need – and deserve – to produce a fully annotated edition.
Monumenta Britannica, John Aubrey, Part 3
, edited by Rodney Legg and John Fowles (Sherborne, Dorset, 1982), which reproduces his Stonehenge study, is, however, very much better than nothing.
John Aubrey and the Realm of Learning
, by Michael Hunter (London, 1975), is an intellectual biography. For a briefer but vivid account of his life and remarkable character I recommend ‘John Aubrey’ in
The Trophies of Time: English Antiquarians of the Seventeenth Century
, by Graham Parry (Oxford, 1995). This collection of essays opens up the world of antiquarianism with humour as well as erudition and also includes ‘Phoenicia Britannica’, a rare study of Aylett Sammes.

William Stukeley has attracted a considerable modern literature in addition to his own
Stonehenge A Temple Restor’d to the Druids
(London, 1740). ‘“A small journey into the country”: William Stukeley and the Formal Landscapes of Stonehenge and Avebury’, by David Haycock, in
Producing the Past: Aspects of Antiquarian Culture and Practice 1700–1850
, edited by Martin Myrone and Lucy Peltz (Aldershot, 1999), demonstrates elegantly the connection between Stukeley’s view of Stonehenge
and the landscape art of his age. David Haycock followed it with his biography,
William Stukeley: Science, Religion and Archaeology in Eighteenth-century England
(Woodbridge, 2002). As a historian Haycock sees Stukeley in context and is able to accommodate both his archaeological and his religious views in a consistent account. The archaeological riposte to Haycock came in
Stukeley’s ‘Stonehenge’: An Unpublished Manuscript 1721–24
, edited by Aubrey Burl and Neil Mortimer (New Haven and London, 2005), which has an introduction arguing that Stukeley’s reason was undermined by his ordination as an Anglican clergyman. A middle way between the two is suggested in ‘The Religion of William Stukeley’, by Ronald Hutton,
Antiquaries Journal
, 85 (2005), which considers Stukeley’s religious ideas throughout his life.

The literature on the Druids is vast and ever expanding but
The Famous Druids
, by A. L. Owen (Oxford, 1962), which covers ‘three centuries of English Literature on the Druids’, is still the best introduction.
The Druids
, by Stuart Piggott (Harmondsworth, 1974), is a scholarly if occasionally bad-tempered account of ancient and modern Druidry, while
The Druids
, by Ronald Hutton (London, 2007), takes a deeper and more forgiving overview of old and new Druids and their cultural significance and can be profitably read in conjunction with
The Image of Antiquity, Ancient Britain and the Romantic Imagination
, by Sam Smiles (New Haven and London, 1994) and Rosemary Sweet’s
Antiquaries: The discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain
(London, 2004).

The Margate shell grotto has a website,
www.shellgrotto.co.uk
, which gives details of its possible history and its opening times. It was also the inspiration for
The Realm of Shells
, a novel by Sheila Overall (London, 2006).

The 1725 edition of Inigo Jones’s
The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly called Stone-heng on Salisbury Plain Restored
(including Charleton’s and Webb’s treatises) was published in a facsimile edition by Gregg International in 1971. It has a discouraging Introduction, by Stuart Piggott, that promises only ‘a forgotten controversy on forgotten lines of argument’. In 1972 the Scolar Press retaliated with another facsimile edition introduced by Graham Parry, who enters with more sympathy and knowledge into the debate and its intellectual context. The best introduction to Jones’s work overall is still John Summerson’s
Inigo Jones
(New Haven and London, republished 2000).
Britannia Triumphans: Inigo Jones, Rubens and Whitehall Palace
, by Roy Strong (London, 1980), discusses the iconography of the Banqueting Hall ceiling and its relation to Jones’s other ideas. Jones’s intellectual status is the subject of ‘Inigo Jones, Architect and Man of Letters’, in
The Collected Essays of Rudolf Wittkower: Palladio and English Palladianism
(London, 1974). The classical sources for
Stoneheng
are discussed in detail in ‘Inigo Jones’s Stone-Heng’, by A. A. Tait,
Burlington Magazine
, 120, 900 (March 1978), 154–9, and the connections between Jones’s theories about Stonehenge, his theatrical work and the memory theatres of the Renaissance are discussed in ‘Public Theatre and Masque: Inigo Jones on the Theatre as a Temple’, Chapter Ten of
Theatre of the World
, by Frances Yates (Chicago, 1969).

John Wood’s
Choir Gaure, vulgarly called Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain Described, Restored and Explained
, was published in Oxford in 1747. His
The Origin of Building: or, the Plagiarism of the Heathens Detected
(1741) was republished in a facsimile edition by Gregg International in 1968. John
Summerson’s essay ‘John Wood and the English Town-Planning Tradition’, in his
Heavenly Mansions
(London, 1949), was the first critical study of Wood and although outdated in some points, especially in its account of his life, is full of acute observations. The most extensive study of Wood’s life and work is
John Wood: Architect of Obsession
, by Tim Mowl and Brian Earnshaw (Bath, 1988), though a more perceptive critique of his thinking is to be found in Eileen Harris’s ‘John Wood’s System of Architecture’,
Burlington Magazine
, 131, 1031 (February 1989), 101–7.
Obsession: John Wood and the Creation of Georgian Bath
(Bath, 2004) is a small but well-illustrated exhibition catalogue comprising essays on many aspects of Wood and his career. George Wither’s
A Collection of Emblemes Ancient and Modern
(1635) was reprinted with a scholarly introduction by Rosemary Freeman (South Carolina, 1975). There is a discussion of Soane’s interest in Stonehenge in Peter Thornton and Helen Dorey’s
A Miscellany of Objects from Sir John Soane’s Museum
(London, 1992). Derek Walker’s
The Architecture and Planning of Milton Keynes
(London, 1982) tells the official story of the town’s development and includes some of the more far-out unbuilt designs.

A facsimile edition of Blake’s
Jerusalem
, with an introduction and notes by Morton D. Paley, was published by Princeton in 1991 and Peter D. Fisher explores the subject of ‘Blake and the Druids’ in the
Journal of English and Germanic Philology
, LVIII (1959), 589–612. For a masterly and detailed critical discussion of both Wordsworth and Blake in this context see Anne Janowitz’s
England’s Ruins: Poetic Purpose and the
National Landscape
(Cambridge, Mass., and Oxford, 1990), and for a list of poems on Stonehenge and other monuments see
Topographic Poetry in Eighteenth-century England
, by Robert Arnold Aubin (New York, 1936). ‘Iolo Morganwg and the Romantic Tradition in Wales’ is now the subject of an extensive publishing project currently being undertaken by the University of Wales under the general editorship of Geraint H. Jenkins. They have so far published:
A Rattleskull Genius: The Many Faces of Iolo Morganwygg
, edited by Geraint H. Jenkins;
Bardic Circles: National Regional and Personal Identity in the Bardic Vision of Iolo Morganwygg
, by Catherine A. Charnell-White; and
The Truth Against the World: Iolo Morganwyg and Romantic Forgery
, by Mary-Ann Constantine (Cardiff).

John Britton’s plans for the Druidical Antiquarian Company appeared in the
Gentleman’s Magazine
for December 1825 and his Celtic Cabinet is fully discussed by Christopher Chippindale in ‘John Britton’s “Celtic Cabinet” in Devizes Museum and its Context’,
Antiquaries Journal
, LXV, Part One (1985), 121–38. The plans for the light show form part of the discussion in ‘Megalithic Follies: Soane’s “Druidic Remains” and the Display of Monuments’, by Christopher Evans,
Journal of Modern Culture
, 5 (2000), 347–66. Scott Paul Gordon’s analysis of the meaning of James Barry’s painting is in ‘Reading Patriot Art: James Barry’s
King Lear
’, in
Eighteenth-century Studies
, 36, 4 (2003), 491–509, and the evolution of Constable’s watercolour is discussed in
Constable’s Stonehenge
by Louis Hawes (London, 1975).

The ‘Sarum Plain’ section of Coventry Patmore’s
Angel in the House
is in Canto VIII of Book One, written in 1854. Recent years have seen a greatly increased interest in the Victorians and their reaction to evolutionary theory. For Charles Lyell and his influence I relied on James Secord’s introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of
Principles of Geology
(London, 1997), as well as his brilliantly detailed and far-reaching analysis,
Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
(London and Chicago, 2000). The literature on Darwin himself is vast. Perhaps the best way into it is via Janet Browne’s two-volume biography,
Voyaging
and
The Power of Place
(London, 1995 and 2002), and her
Darwin’s Origin of Species, a Biography
(London, 2006).
Darwin’s Plots
by Gillian Beer (second edition, Cambridge, 2000), examines the influence of evolutionary theory on Victorian novelists, including Hardy and George Eliot; while Elizabeth Jay’s
Faith and Doubt in Victorian Britain
(London, 1986) takes a broader view of the impact of science on religious belief.

The Establishment of Human Antiquity
, by Donald K. Grayson (New York and London, 1983), gives a detailed account of that debate and Robert F. Heizer’s ‘The Background of Thomsen’s Three-Age System’,
Technology and Culture
, 3, 3 (Summer, 1962), 259–66, shows how the archaeological account of prehistory emerged. The history of archaeology itself as a separate discipline is covered by Glyn Daniel’s
A Short History of Archaeology
(London, 1981) and
The History of Archaeology
by John Romer (London, 2001). John Herschel’s camera lucida drawing was published for the first time in ‘John Herschel Visits Stonehenge’, by Howard Mitchell,
British Archaeology
(July/August 2007), 50–51, where comparison with a modern photograph shows clearly how the stones which fell in 1900 were restored at a slightly different angle. The troubled later nineteenth-century history of Stonehenge is told in full in ‘The enclosure of Stonehenge’, by Christopher Chippindale,
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine
, 70–71 for 1975–6 (1978), 109–23.
Preservation
, by Wayland Kennet (London, 1972), deals with the history and culture of conservation. Michael Hunter’s Introduction to a collection of essays,
Preserving the Past: The Rise of Heritage in Modern Britain
(Stroud, 1996), discusses the first conservation legislation. ‘Is Anyone Minding Stonehenge? The Origins of Cultural Property Protection in England’, by Joseph L. Sax,
California Law Review
, 78, 6 (December 1990), 1543–67, analyses attitudes to private property and the moral implications of the legislation.