4 The Twenty -Seventh Annual Meeting. 



the stones to which their attention had been directed ; and though 

 their report has not yet been presented to the Society, and therefore 

 cannot now be naade public, the fact has been communicated to the 

 Wiltshire Archaeological Society that the whole question is to be 

 submitted to a general meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in 

 November next, with a view to such action as may then be deter- 

 mined on. Your Committee earnestly hope that immediate steps 

 will then be taken both to secure such stones as are now in danger 

 of falling, and to raise the great trilithon which fell almost within 

 the memoiy of living man, and whose original position can be 

 exactly determined. Should such a course be pronounced advisable, 

 it will then remain to approach the owner of Stonehenge, with the 

 view of obtaining his sanction to carry out the work recommended 

 in such a manner as to meet his wishes, and to obtain such help and 

 the loan of such appliances from the dockyards or elsewhere as may 

 be deemed most advisable. 



" In conclusion, the Committee repeats the exhortation it has 

 frequently addressed to its members scattered over the length and 

 breadth of the county, and earnestly invites the co-operation of all 

 who take any interest in the Antiquities or the Natural History of 

 the County of Wilts, as by such co-operation alone can its best 

 interests be promoted.^' 



The Rev. W. C. Lukis moved the adoption of the report, and 

 said he did so with great pleasure, because two statements which it 

 contained were very satisfactory, viz. , that the financial position o£ 

 the society remained good, and that the Members did not diminish. 

 In some further remarks, Mr. Lukis alluded to the leaning stones 

 at Stonehenge and the fallen trilithon mentioned in the report. 

 The attention of the Committee of the Society of Antiquaries, of 

 which he was a member, had been directed to two of the leaning 

 stones of the outer circle, but they did not think they were 

 sufficiently out of the pei'pendicular to make their position insecure. 

 The trilithon had fallen, and could not fall further, and might there- 

 fore be considered in a secure position, but the point to which the 

 attention of the Committee was directed was the leaning stone, 

 which was a remarkable feature in that monument. It was leaning 



