William Wordsworth, the great romantic poet, was a native of Cumbria. He visited Long Meg in 1833, noting that:
Though it will not bear a comparison with Stonehenge, I must say, I have not seen any other relique of those dark ages which can pretend to rival it in singularity and dignity of appearance.
Comparison with Stonehenge is frequently made for all large stone circles, but is of dubious validity with regard to Long Meg which we now think predates the great sarsen circle at Stonehenge by 500 years. And anyway, the experience of spending time at Long Meg is in many ways far superior to doing likewise surrounded by hundreds of tourists at Stonehenge, where you aren’t allowed anywhere near touching distance of the stones!
Wordsworth was clearly moved by his experience of Long Meg, about which he wrote a very fine poem, reminding us that such places have much potential to enrich our lives outwith the bounds of conventional archaeology:
A weight of awe, not easy to be borne,
Fell suddenly upon my spirit,—cast
From the dread bosom of the unknown past,
When first I saw that family forlorn.
Speak thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn
The power of years,—pre-eminent, and placed
Apart, to overlook the circle vast,—
Speak, giant-mother! tell it to the Morn
While she dispels the cumbrous shades of night;
Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud;
At whose behest uprose on British ground
That sisterhood, in hieroglyphic round
Forth-shadowing, some have deemed, the infinite,
The inviolable God, that tames the proud!