Stonehenge was erected by Merlin, at the command of Ambrosius, in memory of the plot of the “Long-Knives,” when 300 British chiefs were treacherously massacred by Vortigern. He built it on the site of a former circle. It deviates from older bardic circles, as may be seen by comparing it with Avebury, Stanton-Drew, Keswick, etc. It is called “The Work of Ambrosius.”[Ambrosius.”]--Cambrian Biography, art. “Merddin.”
⁂ Mont Dieu, a solitary mound close to Dumfermline, owes its origin, according to story, to some unfortunate monks, who, by way of penance, carried the sand in baskets, from the sea-shore at Inverness.
At Linton is a fine conical hill, attributed to two sisters (nuns), who were compelled to pass the whole of the sand through a sieve, by way of penance, to obtain pardon for some crime committed by their brother.
The Gog Magog Hills, near Cambridge, are ascribed to his Satanic majesty.
Stonewall Jackson, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, general in the Southern army, in the great civil war of the United States. General Bee suggested the name in the battle of Bull Run (1861). “There is Jackson,” said he to his men, “standing like a stone wall” (1824-1863).
Storm-and-Stress Period. The last quarter of the eighteenth century was called in Germany the Sturm-und-Drang Zeit, because every one seemed in a fever to shake off the shackles of government, custom, prestige, and religion. The poets raved in volcanic rant or moonshine sentimentality; marriage was disregarded; law, both civil and divine, was pooh-poohed. Goethe’s Man with the Iron Hand and Sorrows of Werther, Schiller’s Robbers, Klinger’s tragedies, Lessing’s criticisms, the mania for Shakespeare and Ossian, revolutionized the literature; and the cry went forth for untrammelled freedom, which was nicknamed “Nature.” As well go unclad, and call it nature.
Storms (Cape of). The Cape of Good Hope was called by Bartholomew Diaz Cabo Tormentoso in 1486; but King John II. of Portugal gave it its present more auspicious name.
S.T.P., the initials of Sanctæ Theologiæ Professor: Professor of Sacred Theology. The same as D.D., Divinitatis Doctor: Doctor of Divinity.
Stradiva´rius (Antonius), born at Cremo´na, in Italy (1670-1728). He was a pupil of Andreas Amāti. The Amati family, with Stradivarius and his pupil, Guarnerius (all of Cremona), were the most noted violin-makers that ever lived, insomuch that the word “Cremona” is synonymous for a first-rate violin.
The instrument on which he played