364 
* 
Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 
April 13th; Wilts County Mirror, Jan. 25th and April 19th; Wiltshire 
Times, April 6th; Bristol Times and Mirror, April 15th; whilst a 
descriptive article with a good ground-plan appeared in the Times, April 
9th, 1901, reprinted in Wiltshire Times, April 13th, 1901. 
‘“The Relation of Stonehenge to English Royalty,” an article in the 
San Francisco Chronicle, March 81st, 1901, contains a curiously cireum- 
stantial account of the ‘‘ facts ’’ on which the superstition that the fall of 
one of the stones presages the death of a monarch are said to be founded 
—from this it appears that falls of stones foretold the deaths of Edw. L., 
Edw. II., James II., Anne, George II., George IV., and William IV. 
Of these falls of ‘‘huge rocks” in 1830 and 1837 no record appears to 
have been preserved ‘‘ on this side.” 
Stonehenge, Age and Origin of; Astronomical 
Theories. By Washington Teasdale, F.R.A.S. Reprinted from 
No. 7 Transactions of Leeds Astronomical Society, 1899. Pamphlet. 
8vo. Pp. 8, with good collotype frontispiece of two views of Stonehenge 
—‘‘ Pointer or Sunrise Stone” and ‘‘ Axial View along Sunrise Line from 
so-called altar.” This pamphlet contains notes of a lecture delivered at 
Leeds. The author traces the progress of the astronomical theory shortly 
in its various forms from its origin in Dr. John Smith’s ‘‘ Choir Gaure ” 
in 1771 down to the present time, pointing out the absurdities of many 
of the suppositions and arguments. The author himself considers the 
theory of Ferguson, that the legend of Ambrosius in the 5th century is 
substantially true, to be the most probable solution, as agreeing best 
with the astronomical evidence. 
The Rey. J. M. Bacon, in Good Words, Dec., 1900, in an article 
on ‘“‘ Monumental Timekeepers,” speaks of Stonehenge as the ‘‘ Grandest 
Sun Register in Europe,” but he is refreshingly outspoken on the folly 
of building up elaborate theories of its age based on minute calculations 
derived from the present position of the stones, their orientation, and so 
forth. 
The Bath Road, History, Fashion, and Frivolity 
on an old Highway; by Charles G. Harper. 
The part of this gossiping book which is concerned with Wiltshire 
begins at p. 73, where the Bath Road enters the county at Hungerford, 
and ends on page 227, where it leaves it at Box. Littlecote and the 
legend of Wild Darell, Froxfield, Savernake Forest, Marlborough, 
Avebury and Silbury, Cherhill and its white horse, Calne (which the 
author abuses), Chippenham and Maud Heath’s Causeway, Pickwick and 
Corsham, and Box, are in turn very lightly touched on and illustrated 
with a number of sketches of Littlecote (View and The Haunted Chamber) 
—Marlborough—Roadside Inn, Manton—Fyfield—Marlborough Downs 
near West Overton—Avebury—Silbury Hill—The White Horse, Cherhill 
