By William Long, Esq. 57 



excavation where it originally stood when erect. This stone is in form 

 like the annexed figure. By digging I found the excavation in 

 which the end A was placed. At B., on the east side, you may see 

 similar irregularities as you must have noticed on the butt ends of 

 the upright stones of the fallen trilithon. Let any persons who 

 have doubt, examine the stone, and they will be convinced.'^ [See 

 the copy of Mr. Cunnington's sketch of this stone] . 



Mr. William Cunnington, F.Gr.S., informs the writer that if this 

 stone stood erect, it must have entirely concealed the "gnomon" 

 from persons standing in front of the " altar." " It woidd have 

 been impossible," he says, "to see the sun rise over the "gnomon" 

 from " the exact centre of the building. It is nevertheless a fact 

 that the gnomon does occupy this critical position, as to the sunrise 

 at the solstice." 



Before we go inside to view the remains of the circles and ellipses 

 we will walk down the avenue for 98 feet, until we come to the 

 large stone, 16 feet high, which is somewhat on the incline. This 

 is a stone of much importance in connection with Stonehenge, since 

 it has been found that, viewed from the exact centre of the building, 

 at the summer solstice, the sun rises immediately over the top of it.^ 

 On Midsummer Day of the year 1858, Dr. Thurnam found this to 

 be the case j and in 1868, four members of the Bath Field Club left 

 Amesbury between 2 and 3 a.m., on the 25th of June to see if it 

 were so : " As the long-looked-for moment arrived, one stationed 

 himself at the outer circle, the others on the 'altar-stone,^ and 

 awaited the first indication of the rising of the sun. Just as hopes 

 were beginning to fail, and the minutes dragged wearily along, an 

 exclamation of surprise burst from all as the sun gradually rose, a 

 globe of fire, immediately behind the ' Friar's Heel,' and no sooner 

 had its first beams touched the top of the gnomon than they fell 

 right athwart the ' altar-stone ' — a glorious and long-to-be-re- 



' On the importance which Dr. Smith attached to this stone in this point of 

 view, see page 43, 47. He, a hundred years ago, had come to the conclusion that 

 the sun, at the summer solstice, would be seen to rise over the summit ot the 

 "Friar's Heel." 



