A CONTEMPTUOUS SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY (THE 19th CENTURY)

A blossoming of the Romanticised depictions of Stonehenge and the Druids occurred during the first half of the 1800s. However, as the century progressed the zeitgeist slowly switched, cumulating in Lieutenant General Augustus Pitt Rivers’ 1889 presidential address to the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: “[Stukeley’s name] has been handed down to us chiefly as an example of what to avoid in archaeology.”100 This denouncement from the president of the Archaeological Society shows how far Stukeley’s Druidic ideas had fell out of favour. Ultimately it was bigger then archaeology, and “by the end of the nineteenth century, support for the druids among the scientific establishment had been replaced with contempt…suggestions that the Celtic priests might have been connected with Stonehenge was dismissed out of hand.”101

The ball for this had supposedly began to start rolling by the turn of the century when the archaeologist Sir John Lubbock, was able to accurately attribute the site to the Bronze age.102 This well documented find didn’t hamper artists though, with seminal figures like John Constable and J. M. W. Turner producing paintings of the stones arranged for romantic effect, helping to further the megalithic myths into popular imagination. The British philosopher Edmund Burke explained it well when he proposed the idea of the ‘sublime’ sense as being evoked by ‘feelings of danger and terror, obscurity and power’.103 This already was a feature for the artworks of the period and it bestowed the theoretical foundation for the increasing admiration of barren landscapes and prehistoric ruins. Burke himself wrote “Stonehenge, neither for disposition nor ornament, has anything admirable; but those huge rude masses of stone, set end on end, and piled high on each other, turn the mind on the immense force necessary for such a work.”104

One person who’s mind was particularly enamoured by the stones was William Blake’s. A seminal figure in poetry, he became greatly inspired by the Druidic writings of Stukeley. Haycock describes him as the “most famous propagator of Stukelian ideas in the early nineteenth century.”105 Particularly after reading Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1820) by Blake, you get the sense of the many observations and images that he clearly drew upon and developed into his own interpretation of Stonehenge and it’s culture. It’s interesting to see the similarities drawn upon by Blake, however equally salient are the divergences.106 Whilst Stukeley saw the Druids as primarily a force of positivity and was very admiring in his comments, Blake was highly critical and saw them as symbols of Deism. Deistical religion in his view meant inhuman sacrifice, vengeance for sins and everything that was opposed to his interpretation of Christianity.107 This interestingly exhibits the general zeitgeist shift towards depictions of Stonehenge from when Stukeley published his book in 1740 and when Blake did 80 years later. This growing anti-pagan approach108 is also seen in the works of William Overend Geller, with his painting The Druid’s Sacrifice (1832), as well as the work of Thomas Hardy in his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891).

Fig 34. A depiction of Stonehenge and Avebury by William Blake for Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1820).

Fig 35. A drawing of a Druid’s sacrifice at Stonehenge by William Overend Geller.

Fig 36. A depiction of a Druid’s sacrifice by William Blake for Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1820)

The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson states “Stonehenge was created during a time of profound social change…unlike previous thought, it’s construction probably involved all the people of Britain.”109 Parallels can be drawn then between its construction during the Neolithic Revolution, a period marked by the lifestyle change from hunter-gathers to agricultural, and the only other comparable moment in terms of material advancement; the Industrial Revolution.110 Beginning in 1760 Britain, the Industrial Revolution marked a rapid period of mass production, scientific discovery and use of electric, steam and water power. It was a major turning point in world history and swept the world in waves, eventually influencing almost every aspect of daily life until its culmination in 1914. Countless practical factors explain why it started in Britain, but many historians also consider British society’s greater receptiveness to change, compared to continental Europe, as an important aspect too.111

This acceptance to change generally wasn’t held in intellectual and artistic circles though. Hostility was obviously held most greatly by the Romantics, who’s movement in part started as a reaction against industrialisation.112 During their peak between 1800 and 1850, works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Blake’s And did those feet in ancient time (1808) reflected concerns of scientific progress on working classes and stressed the importance of nature. However, their view soon became challenged from the mid-century onwards. Realism emerged in 1840s France and, although it shared a general distrust of industrialisation, it heavily rejected Romantic and historical idealisation and instead focused on depicting real and contemporary people and landscapes with truth and accuracy.113

It’s no surprise then when Henry James, one of the key figures of 19th century literary Realism, travelled to Whiltshire in the 1870s he remarked “Stonehenge is rather a hackneyed shrine of pilgrimage.”114 From now on, as the concept of prehistory enlarged and clarified, Stonehenge seemed to pull less at the imaginative writer. This disparaging view is endorsed by the local area turning into a ‘racecourse’ in the Victorian era and the monuments use as a “handy spot for race-goers to dispose…rubbish.”115 There also was a huge problem with vandalism and people taking chunks of the monument, leading to many letters being published in the London Times in 1860 and 1871 decrying the “foolish, vulgar and ruthless practice of the majority of visitors.”116 In her book The Discovery of Britain: The English Tourists, 1540–1840, the historian Esther Moir wrote that “all” Victorian English upper-class tourists “recounted the triumphs they enjoyed in securing trophies on their travels, whether they came by them by honest means, by craft, or by outright theft.”117 This problem was exasperated by the construction of railroads in the mid-19th century that made travel far more accessible for the middle and working classes. In the book, Stranded in the Present, the historian Peter Fritzsche argues that at the wake of increasing industrialisation, Europeans began to stop seeing the past as a reliable guide to the future. He believes that as the world became more and more unrecognisable, “the past was conceived more and more as something bygone and lost.”118 For British tourists then, it seems travelling to Stonehenge and chipping pieces off as keepsakes provided a tangible link to their ever disappearing past.

Fig 37. A drawing of a course meeting at Stonehenge published in 1865.

Fig 38. Paintings by John William Inchbold in the late 1860s and early 70s. The paintings show much more of a realist perspective then previously and his work was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites.

With this increasingly avant-garde climate, Victorian architecture evidently became to embody the ‘new’; New materials, new techniques and new structures. In spite of this, architects tended to look at past styles like Renaissance, Gothic and Medieval for aesthetic inspiration. This period became known as Revivalism and architects often happily moved between styles, not being ideologically committed to any in particular. Furthermore, the new technology of iron and steel frame construction exerted a high influence over the forms of buildings as well.119 The Revivalists varied considerably in their faithfulness to the principles of construction and ornamental style of their originals; Buildings with a wholly 19th century plan using contemporary materials and construction methods, would sometimes just have pointed window frames and touches of Gothic decoration.120

A shallow exploration into past forms to bolster national character and a societal focus on the future meant Stonehenge didn’t seem to explicitly influence any major projects during the Victorian period. It can only be seen subtly through Burke’s idea of the British ‘sublime’ and Pearson’s theory about a time of social unity during profound social change. Stonehenge is the most architecturally sophisticated and only existing lintelled stone circle in the world, using precisely interlocking joints unseen in any other prehistoric monument.121 Although there is a lack of influence of Stonehenge on Architecture during this time parrells can be seen through the use of innovative materials and construction methods but none most prominent then The Crystal Palace, built for the 1851 Great Exhibition122 to grandstand the UK’s industrial prowess to the world.

Described by Norman Foster as the “birth of modern architecture,”123 the Palace was designed, not by an architect, but a botanist and greenhouse builder: Joseph Paxton. In spite of this, like Stonehenge, it became a fundamental building in world history, both for its monumental scale and technical innovations. Although the facade was inspired by the Classical arch, colonnade and plan of Roman basilicas, the form was largely derived from the new prefabricated glass and iron structural techniques pioneered by Paxton.124 The largest building in the world at its time, it inspired sublime awe for its feats of innovation, whilst also inspiring fear for what it signified. Augustus Pugin labelled it a “glass-monster”125 and John Ruskin worried about it’s consequences for ‘the building arts’.126 Foster states “since Stonehenge, architects have always been at the cutting edge of technology,”127 solidifying the monument and Crystal Palace’s seat as one of many symbols of British ingenuity.

Fig 39. Drawing of the inside of The Crystal Palace in 1854.

100 Haycock

101 Time-Life

102 Lubbock, John. 2015. Pre-Historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages - Scholar’s Choice Edition (London, ON, Canada: Scholar’s Choice)

103 Burke, Edmund. 2015. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 2nd edn, ed. by Paul Guyer (London, England: Oxford University Press)

104 Ibid

105 Haycock

106 Blake, William. 1997. The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 1: Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, ed. by Morton D. Paley and David Bindman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)

107 Ibid

108 Strmiska, Michael F. (ed.). 2005. Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO)

109 Edwards, Mary, Alex Heuer, and Don Marsh. 2013. “Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson Unravels the Mysteries of Stonehenge,” STLPR <https://news. stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2013-03-27/archaeologist-mike-parker-pearson-unravels-the-mysteries-of-stonehenge> [accessed 18 January 2023]

110 North, Douglass C., and Robert Paul Thomas. 1977. “The First Economic Revolution,” The Economic History Review, 30.2: 229 <https://doi. org/10.2307/2595144>

111 Allen, Robin Wagner Rowan. World History. United Kingdom, ED-Tech Press, 2018.

112 Mhaske, Sanghapal Uttam, Mandakini Sharma, Richa Thapliyal, Théodore Gericault, Eugene Delacroix, and others. 2021. “Romanticism and Art: An Overview,” Webology <https://doi.org/10.29121/web/v18i3/25>

113 Malpas, James. 1997. Movements in Modern Art: Realism (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press)

114 James, Henry. 2012. Complete Works of Henry James, 6th edn (Hastings, England: Delphi Classics)

115 Pearson, Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery

116 Barber, Martyn. 2014. “restoring” Stonehenge 1881-1939: Stonehenge World Heritage Site Landscape Project (Swindon, England: Historic England)

117 Moir, Esther. 2012. The Discovery of Britain: The English Tourists 1540-1840 (London, England: Routledge)

118 Fritzsche, Peter. 2010. Stranded in the Present: Modern Time and the Melancholy of History (London, England: Harvard University Press)

119 Dixon, Roger. 1978. Victorian Architecture, 2nd edn (London, England: Thames & Hudson)

120 Matthew A. McIntosh “An Old Style in the Modern World: Gothic Revival Architecture,” Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas <https://brewminate.com/an-old-style-in-the-modern-world-gothic-revival-architecture/> [accessed 18 January 2023]

121 “Why Is Stonehenge Important?” [n.d.]. English Heritage <https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/ significance/> [accessed 18 January 2023]

122 The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. 2022. “Crystal Palace,” Encyclopedia Britannica

123 Ravenscroft, Tom. 2019. “Crystal Palace Was ‘Birth of Modern Architecture’ Says Norman Foster,” Dezeen <https://www.dezeen.com/2019/11/28/norman-foster-crystal-palace-modern-architecture/> [accessed 18 January 2023]

124 Schoenefeldt, Henrik. 2011. “Adapting Glasshouses for Human Use: Environmental Experimentation in Paxton’s Designs for the 1851 Great Exhibition Building and the Crystal Palace,” Sydenham.” Architectural History, 54: 233–73 <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066622X00004068>

125 Richards, Brent. 2006. New Glass Architecture (London, England: Laurence King Publishing)

126 Ruskin, John. 2019. The Opening of the Crystal Palace the Opening of the Crystal Palace: Considered in Some of Its Relations to the Prospects of Art (Classic Reprint) (London, England: Forgotten Books)

127 Bennetts, Helen, Antony Radford, and Terry Williamson. 2004. Understanding Sustainable Architecture (London, England: Taylor & Francis)