Stones In English History

Stones in English History A lecture might be made out of stones in connection with English history; but I have not the time to do this.

Cromlech at Chywoone, Cornwall.

Stones lead us back to the days of old, when our countrymen worshipped all kinds of idols and false gods. Their earliest sacrifices seem to have been presented upon altars made of large unhewn stones. The cromlechs or dolmens which are to be seen in Devon, Cornwall, and other parts, are supposed to be such Druidical altars. We know that stones, and series of stones, were set up and set apart by our forefathers for what was to our Pagan progenitors sacred service. At Kingston-on-Thames you may see the stone on which seven of our Saxon kings were crowned. Then there is the stone in the New Forest near the spot where King Rufus was shot, and the stone taken from Scone in Scotland, whereon the kings were crowned. There are stone steps in Canterbury Cathedral worn in hollows by the knees of pilgrims going up and down for penance. Speaking of Canterbury, I always think they must have been very hard up for saints when they made a man like Thomas a Becket one. Innumerable stone relics of the monastery may be picked up here.

I should be delighted to make "ducks and drakes" of the finest carvings of the finest monastery in the world; for I think we shall never get rid of the crows till we pull down their nests. It was a proud day for us when, all over England, the crosses were pulled down: they set it down to Oliver Cromwell, as usual. I was once taken into a church where, it was said, Oliver Cromwell had knocked off the heads of all the statues. The best way to deal with these things, when they are defiled by superstition, is to touch them with Cromwell's hammer. When he saw the twelve Apostles in solid silver, every one said, "Surely, you will reverence these statues: you would not spoil these beautiful things!" Cromwell said, "Yes, I'll melt them down, and send them about the country doing good."

People talk about "the good old times." Well, those "old times" may have been all very well; but how would they like to go back to those "good old times"? In those "good old days," if people could not pay their rent, or committed some trivial offence, they were made "a foot shorter," or sometimes even "a head shorter." I don't believe in "the good old times," for Time was never so old as he is now; so let us rejoice in "the good old times" in which we are now living. When we come to the dissolving views, I shall have to show you quite a series of stone memorials of English history.