58 Recent Excavations at Stonehenge. 
there can be no reasonable doubt. The comparative paucity of 
fragments of sarsen stone, especially those of large size, in the 
excavations recently made, points to the conclusion that these 
large monoliths were selected for their size and shape, and then 
rudely trimmed at the spots where they were found. Only the final 
dressing of the surfaces of the stones, with perhaps the carving of 
the tenons and mortices, would appear to have been left to be 
executed at the place of erection. It is scarcely conceivable that 
in dealing with the transport of such bulky and heavy masses the 
builders of the monument would not have reduced the weight of 
the stones as far as possible before attempting their removal. The 
proportion of sarsen to other fragments in the soil of Stonehenge 
fully supports the conclusion that the rough dressing was performed 
before the stones were brought to the place of ere ction. 
With respect to the “ bluestones,” it is no less obvious that they 
were for the most part chipped into the required forms and dressed 
near the place of their erection. This is shown by the circumstance 
that, within the limited area of the recent excavations, such a very 
large quantity of angular chips of these “ bluestones ” have been 
found. 
This fact, I think, completely negatives the old traditions con- . 
cerning Stonehenge, that it consisted of a circle of “ bluestones,” 
which had acquired a certain sanctity in a distant locality, and 
had been transported from the original home of the tribe, when it 
emigrated or was driven to Salisbury Plain, or that it was a trophy 
of war, the larger monoliths being afterwards erected around the 
primitive sacred stone-circle. If this had been the case, it is 1m- 
possible to believe that stones regarded with such veneration, and 
transported with such difficulty from distant localities, would have 
been reduced to something lke half their bulk (as they must have 
been in many cases) before re-erection. 
Many attempts have been made to suggest a probable locality 
from which the “ bluestones ” of Stonehenge may have been brought 
These have all been based upon the assumption that the present. 
standing stones represent the whole of the “foreign rocks” em- 
ployed. As we have seen in the preceding pages, however, the 

