By William, Long, Esq. 75 



Destruction of the Stones op Stonehenge. 



The measurement of many stones, large and small, recently made 

 by the writer, convinced him that the stones composing the different 

 portions of the structure were intended to be, as far as possible, of 

 the same height and size. The small recumbent stones of sarsen, 

 therefore, must be considered as being only frusta of the originals, 

 the remaining portions having been broken up and carried away. 

 We find Inigo Jones complaining of the destruction of these stones^ 

 which came iinder his notice. He says, in 1620: " Those of the 

 inner circle and lesser hexagon, not only exposed to the fury of all- 

 devouring ages, but to the rage of men likewise, have been more 

 subject to ruine. For being of no extraordinary proportions, they 

 might easily be beaten down or digged up, and at pleasure made 

 use of for other occasions, which I am the rather euduced to believe, 

 because, since my measuring the work, not one fragment of some 

 then standing are now to be found." — Jones'* "Notable Antiquity ,■'■' 

 p. 63. (1655.) Stukeley speaks of the chipping of stones which was 

 common in his day,' but in many cases large portions of stones which 

 had fallen must have been carried away. He mentions that he had seen 

 a stone, as big as any at Stonehenge, in Durrington fields, another 

 at Milford, another at Fighelden. " They seem to have been carried 

 back to make bridges, mill-dams, or the like, in the river. There 

 is another in the London road, east from Amesbury, about a mile 

 from the town. Another in the water at Bulford,^ and yet 

 another stands leaning at Preshute farm near the church, as big 

 as those of Stonehenge.^^ Stukeley seems to have thought that 

 these stones had formed part of a sacellum or little temple upon 

 what he calls Haradon Hill, and where the avenue began. Aubrey 



• pp. 5, 23, 26 of reprint. 



'The common tradition respecting this stone at Bulford is, that as the Devil, 

 who had been employed by Merlin to buy of an old woman in Ireland the 

 stones for Stonehenge, was bringing them over, bound up in a wyth, the wyth 

 slackened as he was crossing the river Avon at Bulford, and one of them 

 dropped down into the water, where it lies to this very hour. 



A farmer, with his team of oxen, made an unsuccesbful attempt to move this 

 stone some years since. 



