

The Eleventh General Meeting. 19 
officer of the name of Beamish made an excavation under the stones, 
and deposited a bottle containing a report of the fact, With 
regard to the “L.V. and sickle” which were cut upon the fallen 
trilithon, Docter Thurnam acknowledged that the matter had been 
satisfactorily cleared up by the exertions of Mr. Kemm and Mr. 
Zillwood, of Amesbury, who had ascertained that the figures had 
been cut by a travelling mason.! It was very satisfactory that the 
matter had been so cleared up. He then proceeded to read an 
extract of the report of the meeting of the Archeological Institute 
of Great Britain and Ireland in 1849, as showing what were the 
feelings at that time with regard to the raising of the stones :— 
“The Right Hon. Sidney Herbert begged to remind the meeting 
that that proposition (the raising of the fallen trilithon) involved 
no incongruous addition to, or alteration of the temple. The stones 
had fallen in the memory of man, and they would be re-erected 
precisely in their former position in a spirit of reverent regard 
for their antiquity. For the sake of posterity he was deeply 
desirous of taking every precaution to preserve that-august relic 
of the past in its integrity and simplicity.—The Bishop of Oxford 
likewise gave the weight of his opinion in favor of the restoration; 
_ and Sir John Awdry assured the assemblage that the proposal met 
with the entire concurrence of Sir Edmund Antrobus, who had 
moreover, liberally offered to raise the stones. The question was 
put to a show of hands, and carried by acclamation.” 
The doctor’s interesting explanation was listened to with great 
| interest, and he was frequently applauded. 
After a few observations from Mr. Cunnineton, 
Mr. Parker was called upon. He said there was one branch of 
a the subject which the doctor had not referred to, and which he 
thought the assemblage would be interested in. In the Oriental 
language a circle of stones was called a Gilgal, and in Scripture 
_ there was every reason to believe that such a place was a circle of 
| stones. A Gilgal was a temple where holy rites were celebrated, 

where the army met together, and was also used for a place of 
eerial for the chieftains, and if they put all things together, and 


Vide Wiltshire Magazine, vol, ix., p. 268, et seq. 
B 2 
