Stonehenge
"... Clare became conscious of some vast erection close in
his front, rising sheer from the grass. They had almost struck themselves
[Angel Clare and Tess] against it.
'What monstrous place is this?' said Angel.
'It hums,' said she. 'Hearken!'
He listened. The wind, playing upon the edifice, produced a booming tune,
like the note of some gigantic one-stringed harp. No other sound came from
it, and lifting his hand and advancing a step or two, Clare felt the vertical
surface of the structure. It seemed to be of solid stone, without joint
or moulding. Carrying his fingers onward he found that what he had come
in contact with was a colossal rectangular pillar; by stretching out his
left hand he could feel a similar one adjoining. At an indefinite height
overhead something made the black sky blacker, which had the semblance of
a vast architrave uniting the pillars horizontally. They carefully entered
beneath and between; the surfaces echoed their soft rustle; but they seemed
to be still out of doors. The place was roofless. Tess drew her breath fearfully,
and Angel, perplexed, said –-
'What can it be?'
Feeling sideways they encountered another tower-like pillar, square and
uncompromising as the first; beyond it another and another. The place was
all doors and pillars, some connected above by continuous architraves.
'A very Temple of the Winds,' he said.
The next pillar was isolated; others composed a trilithon; others were prostrate,
their flanks forming a causeway wide enough for a carriage; and it was soon
obvious that they made up a forest of monoliths grouped upon the grassy
expanse of the plain. The couple advanced further into this pavilion of
the night till they stood in its midst.
'It is Stonehenge!' said Clare.
'The heathen temple, you mean?'
'Yes. Older than the centuries; older than the d'Urbervilles! ...'"
(Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Chapter 58.)
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