Stonehenge Today and Yesterday   By: Frank Stevens

Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation matches the original document. Typographical errors have been corrected in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of this document.

STONEHENGE:

TO DAY AND YESTERDAY

[Illustration: Stonehenge as it probably was. Plan & Bird'seye View.]

STONEHENGE TODAY & YESTERDAY

BY

FRANK STEVENS

Curator of the Salisbury Museum with Plans and Illustrations by

HEYWOOD SUMNER. F.S.A.

[Illustration]

LONDON: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd Price 1s net 1916.

FOREWORD

The interest that has always attached itself to Stonehenge has, without doubt, been in a great measure due to the mystery as to the origin of this unique monument of bygone time. But the careful investigations carried out by the modern school of archæologists, as instanced in the work of General Pitt Rivers, Mr. Gowland, and others, every excavation being carried out with great care and scientific accuracy, have had good results; little by little the history of Stonehenge has been unravelled; a fact that Mr. Stevens has clearly demonstrated in the present volume. We now know how, when, and who, built this remarkable temple. One point, however, still remains a mystery, viz. whence the so called foreign stones were obtained? Clearly, as geology shows, from no spot in Wiltshire.

Amongst the many rude stone circles scattered over Great Britain, Stonehenge is unique, in the fact of having its sarsen stones carefully though roughly worked; and also in the introduction of the horseshoe within the circles, in the design or plan of the building. As in the present day, our churches, in their design, symbolise the Cross, so we may fairly infer that the horseshoe at Stonehenge had its own special meaning, as it still has in the East.

I would advise all interested in the subject, after reading Mr. Stevens' lucid and comprehensive account, to visit this weird monument and judge for themselves; take Omar's sound advice, " To day " view the " Dead Yesterday ," wait not for the " Unborn To morrow ."

H.P. BLACKMORE. SALISBURY. March 1, 1916.

CONTENTS

PAGE FOREWORD v

STONEHENGE SUMMARISED FOR VISITORS 1

SALISBURY PLAIN 8

STONEHENGE 12

THE LITHOLOGY OF STONEHENGE 15 1. The Story of the Sarsens 17 2. The Foreign Stones 20

THE STONES WITHOUT THE CIRCLE 27 1. The Hele Stone or Friar's Heel 28 2. The Legend of the Friar's Heel 29 3. The "Slaughtering Stone" 31 4. The Earthwork 34

THE BUILDING OF STONEHENGE 36 1. Dressing the Stones 40 2. Tenons and Mortices 42 3. The Process of Erection 45 4. Raising the Foreign Stones 49

WHEN WAS STONEHENGE ERECTED? 51

WHAT WAS STONEHENGE? 57

THE DRUID QUESTION 67