I visited Stonehenge on my recent trip to England. Many said I would be disappointed. Not in a million years! On this, the first day of summer, I decided to honor that moment I entered the valley and gazed at the mammoth stones set in a circle. It was one of the most incredible sites I have ever seen. Walking around the stones was like being inside a battery charger!
I'd had that same feeling when I had sat upon a huge boulder behind Ralph Waldo Emerson's Old Manse the year before. It is lovingly called the "philosopher's rock" because Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and others would sit there and share their Transcendentalist views as local friends. Little did I know that Emerson had visited Stonehenge until I researched it to honor this first day of summer! He shared his thoughts about Stonehenge in his diary. Nothing short of fascinating!
While in England, Emerson visited with George Eliot, the famous 19th century British novelist (at that time she was young Mary Ann Evans). Later George Eliot and her soul mate George Lewes would visit Avebury and Stonehenge. They traveled through Wiltshire to the Salisbury Plains, visiting the ancient sites. Eliot later wrote about the massive stones in Daniel Deronda making mention of Avebury, but obviously recalling Stonehenge.
On my recent trip to England, I was unaware that Eliot or Emerson had seen Stonehenge, or that both had written about their adventures at England's oldest and finest sites. I find it remarkable that I had traveled the same circuitous route from Eliot's Griff House to Stratford (where Eliot and Emerson had taken in a Shakespeare play with friends) then south to Salisbury through the Wiltshire countryside. I stayed at an inn in Salisbury and visited Stonehenge from there. I had walked in Eliot's footsteps and my old Transcendental friend, Emerson, was along for the ride!
May your summer be full of sacred surprises and long and lovely days of musing. Namaste. ~ Freda
I'd had that same feeling when I had sat upon a huge boulder behind Ralph Waldo Emerson's Old Manse the year before. It is lovingly called the "philosopher's rock" because Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and others would sit there and share their Transcendentalist views as local friends. Little did I know that Emerson had visited Stonehenge until I researched it to honor this first day of summer! He shared his thoughts about Stonehenge in his diary. Nothing short of fascinating!
While in England, Emerson visited with George Eliot, the famous 19th century British novelist (at that time she was young Mary Ann Evans). Later George Eliot and her soul mate George Lewes would visit Avebury and Stonehenge. They traveled through Wiltshire to the Salisbury Plains, visiting the ancient sites. Eliot later wrote about the massive stones in Daniel Deronda making mention of Avebury, but obviously recalling Stonehenge.
On my recent trip to England, I was unaware that Eliot or Emerson had seen Stonehenge, or that both had written about their adventures at England's oldest and finest sites. I find it remarkable that I had traveled the same circuitous route from Eliot's Griff House to Stratford (where Eliot and Emerson had taken in a Shakespeare play with friends) then south to Salisbury through the Wiltshire countryside. I stayed at an inn in Salisbury and visited Stonehenge from there. I had walked in Eliot's footsteps and my old Transcendental friend, Emerson, was along for the ride!
May your summer be full of sacred surprises and long and lovely days of musing. Namaste. ~ Freda