The Opening Meeting. 109 
horses driven amongst or tethered to the stones. In one instance a 
horse was thus tied up, but got hampered, and fell, and finally 
kicked two large pieces off one of the stones. The trilithon which 
fell in 1797 was used as a slide by boys, and it was as smooth as if 
it had been French polished. 
The PresrpentT said the subject was one of paramount importance, 
and one in which vigorous action on their part might really do 
something. The mischiefs alluded to were evidently accumulating. 
Every bit that came off Stonehenge was a bit more lost, and could. 
never be replaced. There were different kinds of stones in Stone- 
henge,and some of them were not only very much softer in their nature 
than the hard Sarsens, but were weathering and getting soft very 
fast. At present we knew not exactly where they came from ; some 
of them are exotic stones, and these were the very ones which were 
pitched upon by the man who went there to carry away, perhaps to the 
other side of America or to some remote English village, some little 
relic as testimony to his having been to Stonehenge. These precious 
stones ought to be preserved most carefully. Then came the question 
of how it was to be done. The only way was, he thought, what had 
been proposed by the deputation, viz., to, in some way or other, keep: 
the general public from meddling with the stones. This could only 
be done by having somebody appointed, not merely as a general 
eurator, but somebody who should be practically resident there and 
be supported by authority. How that authority was to be given 
against the will of a landlord, of course one could not say. They 
must only hope that by perpetually bringing this thing before the 
public, they might arouse the interest and zeal of the landlord, so 
that he and they might work together. The proposal to put a 
ha-ha round was one involving considerable expense; he frankly 
confessed that he did not see how that expense was to be provided, 
and, further, that he did not believe it would prove an effectual 
protection. He was in favour of a light iron fence, which at any 
rate would be a symbol of the line within which the public was 
not to be admitted without certain precautions. There should be 
one entrance at which the public could be admitted, and-they might, 
if thought desirable, charge a very small fee for entrance. Within. 
