Stonehenge

It was a horribly cold and windy day but well worth the excursion. We visited Stonehenge, Salisbury and Lacock. Stonehenge was built over a period of a thousand years in three distinct phases. The first, c. 3100 BC a circular bank and ditch, dug out with deer antler picks and then followed by the double circle of bluestones. These stones, each weighing about five tons were transported from the Prescelli mountains in south Wales, 240 miles away, c. 2150 BC. The last phase, c. 2000 BC, consisted of 30 huge sarsen stones brought from Marlborough Downs 20 miles to the north of Stonehenge. These last stones were linked together with lintels and erected within the previous circles. All I could think about the entire time, however, was Tess of the d'Urbervilles and the protagonist's unfortunate circumstances when she travels to Stonehenge. With the dreary cold and the wind, those final scenes of the book seem entirely too real.