STONEHENGE — STEVENS 461 



relative position, and careful fitting together, the undersides of the 

 lintels and the tops of the uprights have not suffered from weather- 

 ing, and in replacing the lintels Colonel Hawley says the joints fitted 

 so well "as to make it diflacult to return the lintels to their former 

 places." 



Within this circle of Sarsen Trilithons lies a concentric circle of 

 Prescelly uprights of about Y8 feet in diameter. This circle has 

 suffered considerable from depredation by farmers and others in 

 search of convenient building stone in the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries. Today only 18 stones remain, but it has been generally 

 accepted that the original number must have been about 40, and some 

 writers have suggested that they numbered 60. The method of their 

 destruction has made it difficult to distinguish the holes from which 

 they were wrenched, for a continuous trench was dug between some of 

 the stones in order to loosen them. Colonel Hawley, from personal 

 examination, is of opinion that the stones were formerly only about 

 18 inches apart. In some places only the stumps of them remain. 



The stones of the inner circle of uprights are between 9 and 10 feet 

 in length and about 2l^ feet in width. 



Within the two circles just described stands a horseshoe of five de- 

 tached Trilithons, graduated in height from 16l^ feet to 17 feet 9 

 inches for the first two pairs and 22 feet for the "Great Trilithon" in 

 the center. Two of these five Trilithons are still standing and are 

 certainly the most impressive features of the monument. The central 

 Trilithon is said to have fallen in the year 1620 when the Duke of 

 Buckingham was seeking buried gold at Stonehenge. Wlien this fall 

 took place, one of the uprights cracked into two pieces and the other 

 was dragged forward into a leaning position, in which condition it 

 remained till 1901, when it was restored to its former vertical state. 



The next Trilithon, on the north, fell on January 3, 1797, after a 

 sudden thaw, the fall being due in some measure to a shelter dug at the 

 foot of the stones by gypsies. 



Of the fifth and last of the Trilithons in the horseshoe, two uprights, 

 one fallen and one erect, remain. 



These Trilithons are well worthy of close examination; first, be- 

 cause of their size, for, with the exception of some of the stones at 

 Avebury, they are the largest monoliths in England ; secondly, because 

 it is possible to see in them, more clearly than in any other of the stones 

 at Stonehenge, the fitting of the mortise and tenon joints. The stand- 

 ing upright of the Great Trilithon shows on its summit a very perfect 

 example of the tenon, while the fallen lintel which lies at its foot dis- 

 plays the two mortise holes very perfectly. 



The Great Trilithon was carefully examined in 1901 by Professor 

 Gowland, who was in charge of the excavations. Two very special 

 Sarsen boulders must have been required for a Trilithon 22 feet high. 



