Stonehenge by Rosemary Hill

This is a fascinating account of Stonehenge’s grip on the public imagination.  Having recently wandered into The Circus, the circular street designed by John Wood in Bath, I was fascinated to discover that it had been influenced by the ancient monument, and that Wood’s work in turn influenced Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus.  In addition to this, after recently reading Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (which explores Freemasonry in depth), I was intrigued to read that Inigo Jones believed that all classical architecture (such as Stonehenge) was derived from King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, since this is the building that Freemasons venerate above all others.  Since I also lived in Milton Keynes for a few years, I was amazed to find out just how much the building of this new city was influenced by Stonehenge.  There are a great many other fascinating revelations to be found within the pages of Rosemary Hill’s Stonehenge, such as the fact that many previous commentators on the site mistakenly came to the conclusion that the momument must have been post Roman, simply because the Romans never mentioned it!  Or at least, the Romans never mentioned Stonehenge as far as we know, as they may have written about it in an account which was lost, in the same way that the name of Boudicca was lost in the annals of British history until the rediscovery of Roman accounts during the Renaissance.  Rosemary Hill also relates how the story of the Wicker Man became entwined with Stonehenge’s history, along with the Druids.  The story of how modern man has tried and failed to replicate the transportation of the stones is most amusing!  Rosemary Hill’s Stonehenge is a really great exposition of the monument, and very much stands comparison with Mary Beard’s recent account of Pompeii.