152 POXWELL CIRCLE. 



prehistoric antiquity : they cannot be disproved because they are 

 prehistoric, and no documentary evidence about them exists. It 

 might be said that Stonehenge and Avebury were built by the 

 South Sea islanders, or with more semblance of truth by the 

 Egyptians, instances of work of a similar character being 

 adduced as evidence of the latter. You cannot prove that they 

 were not, because being prehistoric there is no evidence any way ; 

 you can only express your doubt, and your belief that they were 

 not built either by the South Sea islanders or by the Egyptians. 



In prosecuting your enquiries, then, you have this very great 

 difficulty at the outset, that you have no documentary evidence 

 to guide you, and that you can only weigh probabilities and 

 accept the theory which seems to you most reasonable after 

 doing so. 



Until comparatively recent times these remains were all 

 considered to be Celtic, and the circles were thought to be 

 temples in which the Druids conducted some of their rites, 

 perhaps associated with the. worship of the sun. The most 

 solemn oath administered by the Druids to their disciples 

 showed their reverence for the sun, and possibly their worship 

 of it. They swore " By the bright circle of the golden 

 Sun." 



Some antiquaries, as Mr. E. Barclay (" Stonehenge," 1895), 

 ascribed Stonehenge and Avebury to the Britons of Roman or 

 Post-Roman times. First, because no mention of these stupen- 

 dous works is made by any Roman writer ; though no less than 

 six Roman historians wrote on Britain, and there are Roman roads 

 on each side of Stonehenge. And secondly, because at Stone- 

 henge some of the inner trilithons show signs of having been 

 worked by a tool, and chisels have only been found in tumuli of 

 late date. 



Another theory is that all these megalithic structures 

 Stonehenge, Avebury, the smaller circles, beehive huts, dolmens, 

 cromlechs menhirs, were all the work of the long-headed 

 (dolichocephalic) Aryan race, who are supposed to have 

 migrated from Central Asia in the neolithic age, and to have 



