By W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 161 



Stonehenge ; but Nennius tells the story of a massacre of certain 

 British nobles by Hengist, which later writers say took place in 

 the neighbourhood of Amesbury. 



Group III. Medieval Chroniclers, etc. : A.D. 1125 to A.D. 

 1655. Here we get the first undoubted mention of Stonehenge by 

 that name; by Henry of Huntingdon in 1130. Closely following 

 him comes Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1140), whose " wondrous tale " 

 of Stonehenge erected by the British monarch Aurelius Ambrosius 

 as a monument in honour of the chiefs there treacherously slain 

 by Hengist in 470 A.D. (in which task Aurelius was aided 

 by the prophet Merlin, who brought the stones from Ireland) took 

 firm hold of the credulity of the age, and was re-told by author 

 after author for a period of almost exactly five centuries. Among 

 the followers of Geoffrey we may name Alfred of Beverley (1143) ; 

 Wace (1155); Giraldus Cambrensis (1187); Layamon (1205); 

 Neckham (1215); Langtoft (1307); Higden (1327); Mannyng 

 (1338) ; Eastall (1530) ; Polydore Vergil (1534) etc. ; down to 

 Stow (1565); Camden (1586); Speed (1611); and Fuller (1655); etc. 

 The later authors of this group, however, show a lamentable 

 tendency to break loose from tradition; and begin to question 

 some of the current legends — such as that the stones were 

 artificial, that they could not be counted, and that only by magic 

 aid could they have been transported and set up ! Edmund Bolton 

 (in his Nero Ccesar, 1624) boldly throws aside the Merlin story 

 and declares Stonehenge to be the tomb of the British queen, 

 Boadicea ! 



Group IV. Dawn of Actual Eesearch : A.D. 1655 to A.D. 

 1735. The early part of the seventeenth century saw a great 

 change come over Britain. Old methods began to be departed 

 from, and the infallibility — whether of popes, kings, or chroniclers, 

 began to be questioned. It must be placed to the credit of James I. 

 — the " British Solomon " — that while staying at Wilton in 1620 

 he commissioned his " Architect Generall," the famous Inigo Jones, 

 to examine and if possible determine the age and purpose of 

 Stonehenge. Jones did not live to finish the task, which was 

 completed by his pupU John Webb, and the results published in 



VOL XXXII. — ^NO. XCVI. M 



