Chapter Twenty-FourBefore I continue I must explain that these ancient Stone raisers knew what they were about when they placed the Long Stone exactly where it is, for it commands one of the finest all-round panoramas in an island where extensive views are common. If we looked south and west we could see the headland of Hanover Point and the great sandy sweep of Compton Bay and Freshwater Bay all the way to Scratchell's Bay and the Needles. If we looked east we had the beautiful rolling downland, great hedged fields and patterned woods of the fertile interior of Wight. It is the finest spot in the island, and that means the finest spot in God's own garden, for Eden was surely planted here rather than in the heat and dust of somewhere East of Egypt.
Unfortunately, because it commands such
