Here, then, if anywhere in England, we, or the
persons who are endowed with this unpleasant gift, might look
for visions of the time when Stonehenge was the spiritual
capital, the Mecca of the faithful (when all were that), the
meeting-place of all the intellect, the hoary experience, the
power and majesty of the land.
But no visions have been recorded. It is true that certain
stories of alleged visions have been circulated during the
last few years. One, very pretty and touching, is of a child
from the London slums who saw things invisible to others.
This was one of the children of the very poor, who are taken
in summer and planted all about England in cottages to have a
week or a fortnight of country air and sunshine. Taken to
Stonehenge, she had a vision of a great gathering of people,
and so real did they seem that she believed in the reality
of it all, and so beautiful did they appear to her that she
was reluctant to leave, and begged to be taken back to see
it all again. Unfortunately it is not true. A full and
careful inquiry has been made into the story, of which there
are several versions, and its origin traced to a little
story-telling Wiltshire boy who had read or heard of the
white-robed priests of the ancient days at "The Stones," and
who just to astonish other little boys naughtily pretended
that he had seen it all himself!
Chapter Twenty-Three: Following a River
The stream invites us to follow: the impulse is so common that
it might be set down as an instinct; and certainly there is no
more fascinating pastime than to keep company with a river
from its source to the sea.
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