1897. SOME NEW BOOKS. 53 



and in Newbury (E. P. Richards) might have been mentioned for 

 England. 



In chapter xi,, on " Rude Stone Monuments," Mr. Hutchinson 

 has collected, from Fergusson and others, various notes about Crom- 

 lechs, Dolmens, Pillar-stones, Monoliths, Standing Stones, and 

 Menhirs, also about lines and avenues of stones — these are well- 

 known evidences of the work of some prehistoric peoples. Not 

 knowing anything more than others about the feelings and intentions 

 of the original makers of these rough stone-works and earth-works, 

 the author uses a judicious caution for the most part. But he 

 apparently gets out of temper with those who have called Stone- 

 circles Temples (p. 265); and especially with those who have 

 supposed the Druids to have been connected with their origin or uses; 

 nor may the Keltic people be hypothetically connected therewith. 

 Stonehenge is a sad trouble to our author ; he knows apparently, like 

 others, just what he has read about it, after or before an occasional 

 inspection of the place. After suggesting that Pre-keltic Dwarfs may 

 have built it, because they were clever at " chambered cairns and 

 dolmens," he finishes with eighteen observations and arguments 

 amounting to little, except that " Stonehenge may be purely 

 memorial," but is not merely a burial place ; he thinks that it has 

 not any astronomical or solar meaning, but that it may have been used 

 for public meetings and a court of justice. We cannot here indulge 

 in any controversial remarks for the sake of helping the author or 

 his readers, although there are many points of interest tempting to 

 the philologist and archaeologist. A new course of reading about 

 Stonehenge, even in the writings quoted by himself, might improve 

 the second edition to which this book is well entitled. 



In a new edition the very interesting and suggestive researches 

 of Dr. J. S. Phene and others on shaped mounds, having definite 

 outlines of animals, with associated stone-work of probably sepulchral 

 and sacred meanings, in different parts of the world, should be fully 

 referred to. 



The plates should be inscribed with the pages where they are 

 described ; the list of publications should have some kind of classifi- 

 cation, or (best) a chronological arrangement ; and there should be a 

 better Index. 



In the later chapters, as indeed with other parts of the volume, 

 the author has conscientiously tried to fulfil his intention " to gather 

 and put the scattered threads of inquiry into a continuous web and 

 pattern " (page vii.), so that every-day readers may know something 

 definite (if not conclusive) about the too frequently imperfect and 

 confused statements and notions concerning Man in his early 

 existence on the Earth. 



The ten phototint plates, very suggestive of the author's views, 

 have been carefully designed by Mr. Cecil Aldin, but the original 

 drawings, of larger size, lately exhibited at the Geological Society's 

 soiree, had a more artistic aspect. 



Plate I., " An eviction scene at Wookey Hole, near Wells, Older 

 Stone Age," is described at page 53, as the defence (of very doubtful 

 success) of his cave, woman, and child, by a skin-clad man, against a 

 select lot of the carnivorous beasts of the period. 



Plate II,, " Hunting the Mammoth in Southern France," shows 

 one hairy elephant marching along with apparent disregard of 

 javelins and stones, and another coming up behind with a man lifted 

 up in his coiled trunk. The picture might be termed elephants hunt- 

 ing men. Possibly in front of the first elephant is a part of a badly 



