xlii. CERNE AND MINTERXE MEETING. 



appearance may be preserved, for there are some indications 

 that changes may be impending which may alter its appearance 

 considerably. 



No. i presents a view which would be recognised by any one 

 who was resident in Cerne 200 or more years ago, for very little 

 change has taken place in it since those days, but for the modern 

 windows, the old timbered houses opposite the church would be 

 very familiar to him, as well as the Manor House at the end of 

 the street, and even the cobble stones of the pavement, where 

 they have not been displaced, as in the foreground, by the more 

 modern paving stones. 



View No. 2 is a photograph of the same street from the further 

 end, and shows the church tower and houses of Georgian and 

 later date. 



THE GIANT. 



Time did not allow of the party climbing the hill as had been 

 intended, to view the "Giant" at close quarters, and Dr. Colley 

 March, who had promised to make a short statement about the 

 " Giant," did so at the foot of the hill. Dr. March's paper on 

 the subject will be found in this volume. 



Of this figure Professor Boyd Dawkins, at the meeting of the 

 Royal Archaeological Institute at Cerne on August 9th, 1896, 

 observed that he was in ignorance as to its date. It was, how- 

 ever, in the midst of what was in the Bronze and Prehistoric 

 Iron Age a centre of dense population. On the hills above 

 were hut circles, early settlements, camps, and tumuli, showing 

 that once there was a large population scattered over these 

 downs. Nine out of ten of the tumuli which had been opened 

 belonged to the Bronze Age. By its surrounding the figure was 

 in a position which would make one pause before assigning 

 it to any particular modern time. Figures of this class were 

 not altogether unknown in sculpture belonging to the Bronze 

 Age, and which had been found in Scandinavia ranging 

 down to the early Iron Age. He thought it by no means im- 

 probable that this figure might really belong to that remote 

 period. 



