Another kind of megalithic monument are the stone circles, only they
are circles no longer, many stones having been carted away to mend
walls. If you look at the ordnance map of Penzance you will find large
numbers of these circles, but if you visit the spots where they are
supposed to be, you will find that many have vanished. The "Merry
Maidens," not far from the "Pipers," still remain--nineteen great
stones, which fairy-lore perhaps supposes to have been once fair
maidens who danced to the tune the pipers played ere a Celtic Medusa
gazed at them and turned them into stone. Every one knows the story of
the Rollright stones, a similar stone circle in Oxfordshire, which
were once upon a time a king and his army, and were converted into
stone by a witch who cast a fatal spell upon them by the words--
Move no more; stand fast, stone;
King of England thou shalt none.
The solitary stone is the ambitious monarch who was told by an oracle
that if he could see Long Compton he would be king of England; the
circle is his army, and the five "Whispering Knights" are five of his
chieftains, who were hatching a plot against him when the magic spell
was uttered. Local legends have sometimes helped to preserve these
stones. The farmers around Rollright say that if these stones are
removed from the spot they will never rest, but make mischief till
they are restored.
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