Nancy Stockwell, daughter of the merchant, in love with Belford, but promised in marriage to Sir Harry Harlowe’s son. It so happens that Sir Harry’s son has privately married another lady, and Nancy falls to the man of her choice.--Garrick, Neck or Nothing (1766).
Stolen Kisses, a drama by Paul Meritt, in three acts (1877). Felix Freemantle, under the pseudonym of Mr. Joy, falls in love with Cherry, daughter of Tom Spirit, once valet to Mr. Freemantle (who had come to the title of Viscount Trangmar). When Tom Spirit ascertained that “Felix Joy” was the son of the viscount, he forbade all further intercourse, unless Felix produced his father’s consent to the marriage. The next part of the plot pertains to the brother of Tom Spirit, who had assumed the name of Walter Temple, and, as a stock-broker, had become very wealthy. In his prosperity, Walter scornfully ignored his brother, Tom, and his ambition was to marry his daughter, Jenny, to the son of Viscount Trangmar, who owed him money. Thus, the two cousins, Cherry and Jenny, came into collision; but at the end Jenny married Fred Gay, a medical student, Cherry married Felix, the two brothers were reconciled, and Tom released his old master, Viscount Trangmar, by destroying the bond which Walter held and gave him.
Stonehenge. Aurelius Ambrosius asked Merlin what memento he could raise to commemorate his victory over Vortigern; and Merlin advised him to remove “The Giant’s Dance” from Mount Killaraus, in Ireland, to Salisbury Plain. So Aurelius placed a fleet and 15,000 men under the charge of Uther, the pendragon, and Merlin, for the purpose. Gilloman, king of Ireland, who opposed the invaders, was routed, and then Merlin, “by his art,” shipped the stones, and set them up on the plain “in the same manner as they stood on Killaraus.”--Geoffrey, British History, viii. 11-12 (1142).
How Merlin, by his skill and magic’s wondrous might,
From Ireland hither brought the Sonendge in a night.
Drayton, Polyolbion, iv. (1612).
Stonehenge, once thought a temple, you have found
A throne, where kings, our earthly gods, were crowned.
Dryden, Epistles, ii.
Stonehenge a Trophy. It is said, in the Welsh triads, that this circle of stones was erected by the Britons to commemorate the “treachery of the Long Knives,” i.e., a conference to which the chief of the British warriors were invited by Hengist, at Ambresbury. Beside each chief a Saxon was seated, armed with a long knife, and at a given signal each Saxon slew his Briton. As many as 460 British nobles thus fell, but Eidiol, earl of Gloucester, after slaying seventy Saxons (some say 660), made his escape.--Welsh Triads.