
By William Gowland F.S.A., BIL. 3 
As regards the first, | may say, that after having worked among 
the stones daily during September and part of October last, I have 
come to the conclusion that without the enclosure there could be 
no efficient preservation of the monument, considering the changed 
conditions brought about by the establishment of the large military 
camp in the neighbourhood. 
As regards the second, I think it will be admitted by all who 
desire the preservation of Stonehenge in its entirety, that it is 
greatly to be deplored that a trackway for wheeled traffic should 
exist through the monument between the rampart and the stones. 
And I may add that it is, to say the least, astounding that the 
diversion of that roadway should be opposed by any archeologist. 
As regards the third, I can assure you that the hitherto leaning 
stone has now been made safe for all time. 
That this leaning stone, said to be the largest native monolith 
in Britain, should be set upright was imperative, as it has three 
horizontal fissures of unknown depth extending almost right across 
its broad face. As these are on the upper side, fully exposed to 
the weather, they must, by the action of rain and frost, have been 
steadily deepening more and more year by year, so that the breaking 
off of the upper part of the stone was merely a question of time. 
The necessity for raising it was further emphasized by the fact 
that its inclination from the perpendicular had been gradually 
increasing. In 1660 its angle of inclination was 75°, in 1720 70°, 
in 1870 66°, and in the present year (1901), before the operations 
were commenced, I found it to be only 60°5° (Fig. 2). 
Mops or ConDUCTING THE EXCAVATIONS. 
Before proceeding with the excavations, a datum line passing 
through the highest point of the surface of the ground to be exca- 
vated was carefully determined, and from this line the vertical 
‘position of each layer of material removed from the various exca- 
vations was observed and recorded. This was rendered necessary 
by the irregular contour of the ground surrounding the stone. 
The exact level of this line was then ascertained by levelling up 
to the bench mark (338°9) of the Ordnance Survey on stone No. 16, 
B 2 
