Folklore

Stonehenge
Stone Circle

No messing about here with your fate, unlike in Charles Dickens’ story.

The common people about Stone-henge entertain a notion, that no one could ever count the number of the stones, as they now stand; and that, should any one succeed in this attempt, instant death would be the consequence of his temerity.

From p35 of ‘A Tour Through the South of England, Wales, and Part of Ireland, Made During the Summer of 1791’ by Edward Daniel Clarke (now online at Google Books).

Aptly, Edward’s servant saw that Stonehenge would have entailed a lot of work for someone: “For my part, I am a little of our valet Jeremy’s opinion, who exclaimed upon the first view of this place, that “It must have been a tedious great waggon, to bring such stones over Salisbury Plains!” Every idea one forms of Stone-henge, is faint, except those we receive upon the spot, in the contemplation of its awful charms and stupendous features.”