80 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



full half-a-mile distant from Stonehenge, suddenly felt a considerable 

 concussion, or jarring, of the ground, occasioned, as they afterwards 

 perceived, by the fall of two of the largest stones and their impost. 

 This trilithon fell outwards, nearly in a westerly direction, the im- 

 post in its fall striking against one of the stones of the outer circle, 

 which, however, has not been thereby driven very considerably out of 

 its perpendicularity. The lower ends of the two uprights, or sup- 

 porters, being now exposed to view, we are enabled to ascertain the 

 form into which they were hewn. They are not right-angled, but 

 were bevilled off in such a manner that the stone which stood nearest 

 to the upper part of the adytum is 22 feet in length on one side, and 

 not quite 20 on the other ; the difference between the corresponding 

 sides of the fellow-supporter is still greater, one having as much as 

 23, and the other scarcely 19 feet, in length. The breadth of each 

 is (at a medium) 7 feet 9 inches, and the thickness 3 feet. The im- 

 post which is a perfect parallelopipedon, measures 1 6 feet in length, 

 4 feet 6 inches in breadth, and 2 feet 6 inches in thickness. This 

 impost is considerably more than 11 tons in weight. It was pro- 

 jected about 2 feet beyond the supporters, made an impression in the 

 ground to the depth of 7 inches or more, and was arrested in its 

 tendency to roll by the stone it struck whilst falling , . . One 

 of the supporters fell on a stone belonging to the second circle, 

 which I at first supposed to have been thrown down by it, but which, 

 from recurring to plans of the prior state of the structure, I find to 

 have been long prostrate. The longer of them was not more than 

 3 feet 6 inches deep (measuring down the middle) in the ground, 

 the other little more than 3 feet. In the cavities left in the ground 

 there were a few fragments of stone of the same nature as that 

 f brmino- the substance of the trilithon, and some masses of chalk. 

 These materials seem to have been placed here with a view to secure 

 the perpendicular position of the supporters. The immediate cause 

 of this memorable change in the state of Stonehenge must have been 

 the sudden and rapid thaw that began the day before the stones fell, 

 succeeding a very deep snow. In all probability the trilithon was 

 originally perfectly upright, but it had acquired some degree of in- 

 clination long before the time of its fall. This inclination was 



