Recent Wiltshire Boohs, Articles, &c. 121 



until long after his time. " Ealdhelm's diocese therefore consisted of 

 Somerset, Dorset, the land of Malmesbury, and the land of the Exe." 



A chapter is devoted to Aldhelm's miracles, and then the author settles 

 down to what " to me is the most interesting side of Aldhelm's life," as 

 a teacher and a literary man. He points out that Aldhelm was a 

 champion of the Canterbury or Roman system of education as against 

 the Irish or Celtic, and that he is one of those to whom is due the final 

 triumph of Roman over Celtic Christianity in Britain. At this point the 

 author is carried away into a very schoolmastery exposition of Aldhelm's 

 notions on Latin verse, filling nearly twenty pages of the book. The 

 contents of his other principal works are summarised and examples of 

 his poems given, and the author waxes indignant at the extraordinarj' 

 way in which the lines of these poems are often misplaced and the whole 

 reduced to nonsense in Migne's edition of his works. Mr. Wildman 

 finishes up with a complete list of the undoubted works of Aldhelm and 

 a list of his more important works in what he believes to be their 

 chronological order. Altogether a useful little book, and for the most 

 part very readable. Noticed, Guardian, June 7th, 1905. 



Notes on StOUehenge. sir Norman Lockyer has a series of articles 

 under this heading in Nature for January 26th, February 9th, 16th, 

 and 23rd, 1905. In the first number, illustrated by two plans and a 

 view from the west, he pays a handsome ti-ibute to the work of the 

 Wiltshire Archaeological Society, and gives his blessing to the enclosure 

 and the work of reparation begun by Sir Edmund Antrobus, a work 

 which he hopes to see carried further. He then refers to the circular 

 temple of the Hyperboreans, mentioned by Hecateus, as in all probability 

 Stonehenge. In the second paper he describes the raising of the leaning 

 stone and the results of the excavations then made, illustrating his notes 

 by blocks from Dr. Gowland's paper, " The arrangements for raising the 

 stone," "Some of the flint implements," '• Section of excavation," and 

 " Present aspect of the monument with the leaning stone raised." In 

 his third paper he summarises what Prof. Judd and Mr. Cunnington 

 have said as to the origin of the sarsen and blue stones, noting especially 

 the fact revealed by the late excavations that the blue stones had 

 been shaped on the spot (judging from the number of the fragments 

 found) far more extensively than had the sarsens. He then notes with 

 regard to the two outlying small sarsens on the edge of the vallum, that 

 "a line from the centre of the circle over the N.W. stone would mark 

 the sunset place in the first week in May, and a line over the S.E. stone 

 would similarly deal with the November sunrise. We are thus brought 

 in presence of the May-November year." " We see that dealing only 

 with the untrimmed sarsens that remain, the places of the May sunset 

 and June and November sunrises were marked from the same central 

 point." He also notes that the slaughter of the British chieftains is said 

 in the Mabinogion to have taken place on May Eve. "Is it likely that 

 this date would have been chosen in a solar temple dedicated exclusively 

 to the solstice ? Now the theory to which my work and thought have 



