From Edenvale to the Plains of York

Yet stay, there uprears three mysterious relics [The Devil's Arrow's [Map]] just to the west of Boroughbridge; by whom raised, and for what purpose, no one will ever know. That they are the oldest British memorials known, we have not the slightest doubt. Here they still stand, sentinels from hoary antiquity, inscribed with no record; and as we muse in front of the immense blocks, trying to unravel the great mystery of their origin, and peer back into the far past, we almost imagine some voice from the old world will come to our aid, but, as we ponder, our thoughts only become more and more confused amidst the hazy web of an unfathomable mystery which surrounds them; yet the great blocks, defying the ravages of time, stand silent in front of us, revealing the fact that some powerful people, far away down the shadowy aisles of time, who have not left their names on the pages of history, have raised them, to be gazed on for all ages, and have not left a key to solve the problem whereby to tell the story of their use or origin. Thus musing, a gruff voice of the 19th century breaks the stillness, and disperses the dim figures of two thousand years ago: *' Hi, mister, deant ya knaw what them thair stenes is?" On acknowledging our ignorance, he triumphantly informed us "that they wer't devil's arrows."