Long Meg & Her Daughters

The appearance of this Circle is much hurt by a stone wall built cross it, that cuts off a considerable segment which stands in the road. The enclosed part, in 1774, when this view was drawn, was sowed with corn, and it being then nearly ripe, many of the Stones which had fallen down, were thereby hidden.

The same ridiculous Story is told of these Stones, as of those at Stonehenge, i.e. that it is impossible to count them, and that many persons who have made the trial, could never find them amount twice to the same number. It is added, that this was a holy place, and that Long Meg and her Daughters were a company of Witches transformed into Stones, on the prayers of some Saint, for venturing to prophane it; but when and by whom, the Story does not say.

Thus has Tradition obscurely, and clogged with fable, handed down the destination of this spot, accompanied with some of that veneration in which it was once undoubtedly held, though not sufficiently to protect its remains from the depradations of avarice, the enclosure and cultivation of the ground bidding fair to destroy them.