evidence for such a monument. Bloxham had suggested in 1847 that the monolith was associated with a burial, or a larger cemetery. Lambrick came to agree with him, "tentatively" interpreting the monolith as a cemetery marker, primarily because of the "unsatisfactory nature of other explanations and the existence nearby of Bronze Age barrows and cremations, one of which had been marked by a broad wooden post." He estimated that when it was originally erected, the King Stone would have weighed somewhere in the region of 4.7 tonnes, but that since, much has been chipped away. Using his own estimates, Lambrick suggested that with a team of 58 workers, the King Stone could have been set up in about two hours. Folklore Early Modern period Numerous folktales are associated with the stones. A rhyming version was reported by William Camden in 1610. A king riding across the county with his army was accosted by a local witch called Mother Shipton. She said to him: Seven long strides thou shalt take, says she And if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be! His troops gathered in a circle to discuss the challenge, and his knights muttered amongst themselves, but the king boldly took seven steps forward. Rising ground blocked his view of Long Compton in the valley, and the witch cackled: As Long Compton thou canst not see, King of England thou shalt not be! Rise up stick and stand still stone, For King of England thou shalt be none; Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be, And I myself an elder tree! The king became the solitary King Stone, while nearby his soldiers formed a cromlech, or circle, called the King's Men. As the witch prepared to become an elder tree, she backtracked into four of the king's knights, who had lagged behind and were whispering plots against the king. She turned them to stone as well. Today they are called the Whispering Knights. 18th and 19th centuries Legend holds that as the church clock strikes midnight, the King Stone comes alive. Similarly, the king and his men were said to come to life on certain saints' days. The Rollright Stones became associated with fertility in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. Several different, related local customs arose in the nineteenth century: Girls from local villages ran naked around the stones at midnight of Midsummer's