Chapter Six
Explanations
When Henry and P.C. arrived at the wood shed, Uncle Steve was already sitting in his dilapidated Queen Anne chair gently puffing his favourite pipe and scrutinizing Rev's map. The latecomers slid on to the two remaining three legged stools and slipped into position facing him.
"I'm impressed with this, Rev. Really impressed. Especially with the way you have seen that the stones are lined up with the points of the compass, but what do you make of it?"
"I'm not completely sure. At first I thought it might be a compass, but it doesn't make any sense to have it stuck in one place. Henry thought it might be a calendar of some sort, but I'm not sure how that would work."
"Why have you written a name of a village in brackets next to each stone?"
"That was P.C.'s idea. He found out that when you look through the stones you see the villages."
"Not villages, churches," interrupted P.C.
"Did you notice the paths leading away from the stones?"
"We did, but didn't have time to follow them," said Henry
"You should. Me and my pal Molyneux went along them, and made quite an interesting discovery."
"What was that?" queried Henry.
"That's up to you to find out. I recommend you try to follow those paths. Not all of them mind you. If you trace two or three of them, and compare, you'll get the idea. Now how about the tunnels? Did you manage okay in there? Did you find all three exits?"
"Three!" exclaimed P.C. "How about one? The only exit we found came out at Bardsea."
"Ah! So you went down the steps and must have had trouble in the cavern. There's another passage leading off there that you missed."
"It was like a maze, Mr.D; I began to think we would never find our way out."
"I told you we should have taken breadcrumbs," said Henry. Everyone laughed.
"You need to try again, because it leads to another interesting place."
"What's so interesting about Bardsea?" asked Rev.
"It's one of the few villages in the district that kept its Ancient British name. Most of the other villages have Anglo-Saxon or Viking names. Place names are often very revealing. What do you think Bardsea means?"
Quick as a flash P.C. had an answer.
"It's obvious. Just say by the sea like a Cumbrian, bah de sea, and you've got it."
Mr.D, conceded the possibility, but then pointed out there were many other villages by the sea and he knew of no other with this name.
"So what do you think, Uncle Steve?"
"As you all know, folks around here have a terrible habit of shortening words and I think that's what happened here. My guess is that it was once called Seat of the Bard or Bard's Seat."
"What does that mean? That Shakespeare sat there?"
"Quite a wit, aren't we Rev? No. I think in the time of the Ancient Britons the village was the headquarters of the Bards and Druids. Celtic people kept their history and traditions alive by telling stories. The Bards knew these stories by heart and travelled the countryside keeping the people informed of past and present events, Remember, there were no books then."
Henry couldn't conceal his excitement. "The Druids. Tell me more about the Druids."
"They were the priests of that time. Unfortunately little is known about them."
"But weren't they magicians, like Merlin? I bet the Druids lived in Bardsea where they trained the Bards and used the tunnel to go to their temple, the ring of stones."
"I prefer P.C's explanation of the name," said Rev curtly.
"It's up to you to decide," said Uncle Steve. "Now tell me. What about the other passage, the one to the left? Did you explore that?"
"We couldn't," said P.C. "It was blocked by a rock fall. We tried but couldn't find a way through."
"What a shame. Have you any idea where it might have been heading?"
"I do. When we went back in after lunch I used my compass to find out. That tunnel heads in a westerly direction and if you look at my map it would probably end up at Urswick."
"It does. Molyneux, and me passed along there with no problem - it must have been about twenty years ago now- it ended up in thick woods just outside the village. Do you know anything about Urswick?"
Rev, for once, admitted ignorance.
"Antiquarians, the people who study local history, claim that it's the oldest village in the Furness Peninsula. There's a tarn and the Setantii Celts are believed to have built a lake village there."
"What do you mean by a lake village?" asked Rev.
"In the early Iron Age, the Setantii used to build villages in the middle of small lakes, like the tarn, for protection. The only way to enter was by boat."
"Is the village still in the middle of the tarn?"
"No, Henry. It's long gone, vanished under the water and mud."
"Oh come on, Mr. Dover," scoffed Rev. "How can anyone possibly know?"
"Several years ago there was a drought and the tarn dried up. An archaeological dig was held, and they uncovered all sorts of evidence. It's all in Barrow Museum, if you want to learn more. Maybe I should mention one or two other things about the tunnel. It ended up in the middle of a dense cluster of huge oak trees, all draped in mistletoe. They partially hid what looked to us like the foundations of an ancient building. We couldn't make head or tail of them. No one in the village seems to know anything about them either and they just refer to them as the "Stone Walls". Out of interest I mapped out the structure but I still haven't figured it out."
"Do you have the map with you?" asked Rev.
"It just so happens..."
"Let's look," said the boys as one.
The boys carefully unfolded the map on the card table situated in the centre of the woodshed. The sun had set so Uncle Steve lit one of the hurricanes to help them pore over the diagram. As usual Rev was the first to come up with an explanation.
"I think it's the foundation of an old farmhouse and the circle outside is a wolf-fold."
"A wolf fold? What the heck is that?" asked a puzzled Henry.
"From what I've read, there used to be a lot of wolves in England."
"You're joking, Rev."
"No he's not, P.C. He's right. In Cartmel Priory there's a memorial to a child who was killed by a wolf. There's also a claim that the last wolf in England was killed near here."
"Can I finish my explanation?"
"Sorry Rev, I didn't mean to interrupt you."
"Because of the wolves the villagers couldn't leave their sheep and cattle untended in the open so they brought them in to the wolf-fold at night for protection."
"You're forgetting a couple of things, Rev. First, this diagram is drawn to scale, and that means the walls, which by the way are dry stone walls, are almost nine feet thick. Secondly it wasn't built on farmland. It was in the middle of a forest."
"What's that funny picture you've drawn opposite the tunnel entrance?" asked P.C.
"The strangest thing. We found this huge egg shaped rock lying next to three smaller rocks. The locals told us that originally the egg was supported on a pedestal made from the three smaller ones."
"Why have you written the word "Drustone' next to it?" asked Henry.
"That's the name they give to any stone held up by three other vertical stones, like a tripod. "
"With a name like that it must have something to do with the Druids," said Henry. "The tunnel would lead them directly to it from Bardsea."
"Maybe the tunnels are just a path from Bardsea to Urswick that the Druids could use in bad weather."
That was too much nonsense for Rev.
"That's it. I have to go now. It's almost dark outside, and I'll be in real trouble if I don't get home soon."
"Sorry, Rev. I didn't mean to keep you so late. Just one more thing before you all leave. Unfortunately I have to go away for a few days. Do you have enough to keep you busy until I return?"
"Well we have to follow the trails from the stones..."
"Find the other passage...."
"Check out the museum..."
"And try to make some sense of these stonewalls..."
Author's Note:- Rev's map, and the diagram of the stone walls (taken directly from "Antiquities of Furness") are included in the publishable version of this story. I was unable to include them in the Wattpad version.