243 



^eylg to t^z ^werg xthtxn^ k ^tott^j^enge. 



At p. 112 of the present volume of the Wiltshire Magazine, 

 By "W. C. Kemm, Esq. 



AM not aware of any instances in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Stonehenge, of church towers having large blocks of 

 Barsen stone in their foundations, though there are many instances 

 of it in the Pewsey vale and its vicinity. 



My father resided for twenty-five years in West Amesbury 

 House, and I have often heard him express his conviction, that a 

 considerable quantity of fragments of the stones of Stonehenge 

 were built into its walls. I could myself point out pieces of stone 

 in the garden wall, which appear to be precisely similar in quality 

 to the stones of the outer circle. 



The house has undergone great alterations since my father lived 

 in it. One of its wings was taken down about 1824 or 5, and 

 about twenty- five years since, the court in front was filled up by 

 building some rooms, so that it might not now be so easy to 

 discover the original materials. It is now the farm house. Stone- 

 henge stands on the estate, so that the builder of the house was 

 the owner of that monument. 



As to the time when some of the stones disappeared ; it is most 

 [probable {if it teas ever completed,) that a long period intervened 

 between the destruction or removal of the first, and of the last 

 of the missing stones. Inigo Jones, in his work on Stonehenge, 

 which was written in 1620, according to the short account of his 

 life prefixed to the edition of 1725, says, " Those of the inner 

 circle, and lesser Hexagon not only exposed to the fury of all de- 

 Ivouring age, but to the rage of men likewise, have been more sub- 

 ject 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 enduced to beleeve, 

 because, since mi/ first measuring the work, not one fragment, of some 

 then standing are now to he found." Jones's Stonehenge, p. 63, 

 original small folio of 1655 ; p. 42 ed. 1726.— W. C. K. 



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