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We
like stones here in Britain, we take good care of them!
Stones
with curative powers We
believe that some stones can cure illnesses - for example, the
12 o'clock Stone near Nancledra in Cornwall can, it is said, cure
children of rickets as long as they are not illegitimate or the
offspring of dissolute parents.
 Another
stone, also in Cornwall, is equally strange. Near Penzance is
Madron there is a ring-shaped stone which for centuries has
been believed to possess curative powers. If a child is passed
through the hole nine times it will be cured of scrofula, rickets
and other diseases. Not to be recommended in the depth of
winter though! Suffolk
has a very curious stone - it grows! It is called the Blaxhall
Stone and it can be found at Stone Farm in Suffolk. It started
off a century ago the size of a small loaf but now it weighs 5 tons
and may still be growing. In
Scotland near Loch Earn, Perthshire, is a hill called Dunfillan
above the town of Comrie. There is a rock seat on the top of
the hill called St. Fillan's Chair. Local people believe that
sufferers from rheumatism can be cured if they sit on the chair -
and then be hauled down the hillside by their ankles! In
Monmouthshire at Mynyddislwyn, if you are bitten by a mad dog, a
piece of stone from this region was ground up into a fine powder and
given, in milk, to the victim. Alternatively, the victim was
made to lick the stones. They say that these treatments worked! Not
all the stones in Britain have curative powers. In Wales are
the standing stones at St. Nicholas, Glamorgan. These are
large standing stones reputedly cursed by the Druids., It is
said that if you sleep near them on May-Day's Eve, St Johns Eve
(June 23rd) or Midwinter Eve you will either die, go mad or become a
poet!
 Stonehenge
on Salisbury Plain is an awe-inspiring sight especially by moonlight
and to this day there are still many unanswered questions about this
Celtic shrine. In 1700 B.C. huge 'blue' stones were
brought from the Prescelly Mountains in South Wales 200 miles away,
by land and sea to form two inner circles. (A thought - how on
earth did Celtic Man know where to find them?) Eight
miles north of Stonehenge is the Avebury Stone Circle which is the
largest prehistoric monument in Europe built around 1800 B.C.
(Another thought - why then build another stone circle close by at
Stonehenge?) The
Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds are on the boundary between
Oxfordshire and Warwickshire and consist of 72 upright stones.
There is a legend surrounding these stones - the saying is
'The man will never live who shall count the stones three times and
find the number the same.' The
Hoston Stone in Leicestershire comes with a warning - disaster shall
come to any man who attempts to move it! (A double hernia
perhaps?) The
Stone of Scone is the stone that is incorporated into into the base
of the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. It was brought
to the Abbey in 1296 by Edward
I and all English kings and queens have been seated over the
'Stone of Destiny' when the actual crowning took place. Nearly
every town or village in Britain seems to have its own special
stone, steeped in history or deemed o have magical powers, and these
stone remain throughout the centuries never decaying, always there!
©
E.P.C
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