128 The Fourteenth General Meeting. 



In Sir John Lubbock's very interesting paper,* he tells us that 

 " the antiquities referable to the Palaeolithic age are found in gravel 

 or loam, or as it is technically called loess, extending along our 

 valleys, and reaching sometimes to a height of 200 feet above the 

 present water level. These beds were deposited by the existing 

 rivers when they ran in the same directions as at present, and 

 drained the same areas." 



Assuming this to be true as to direction and area, and proved 

 by the material of the gravel and loam, yet something more than 

 mere lapse of time, a much greater body of water than these rivers 

 now contain, must have often been required to give the gravel its 

 extent, both vertical and superficial. This last ingredient, how- 

 ever to be accounted for, is too much overlooked by some modern 

 geologists. 



Let us now turn to the undoubted works of man so abundant on 

 our downs. They afford a most interesting field for speculation ; 

 and the facts are to a great extent known, though not universally 

 nor accurately. It is disputed whether Silbury Hill is not on the 

 line of Roman Road,^ and therefore posterior to the Roman occu- 

 pation. It has been examined whether, where the Roman Road 

 coincides with Wansdyke, the excavators of the dyke used the 

 road or the roadmakers used the dyke. A theory that does not 

 rest on an accurate investigation of this fact must be unsatisfactory. 

 A theory which does not allow time for progress from the rude 

 masses of Avebur}' to the squared and fitted stones of Stonehenge 

 is unsatisfactory. A theory which deals with onr Wiltshire monu- 

 ments alone without embracing the many smaller kindred works 

 widely dispersed, and the greater kindred works of Carnac, is un- 

 satisfactory. A theory which attributes Stonehenge to Romanized 

 Britons without accounting for the entire absence of moulding, so 

 near the finished Roman work at Bath, is unsatisfactory. I would 

 not deprive the local observer either of the mental pleasure or of 

 the aid to memory derivable from stringing his facts on a specu- 

 lation. His guesses also may be of farther value. But he must 



^ Archseological Journal, 1866, p. 190. 

 * This has been disproved by excavations made since the meeting. 



