STONE CIRCLES 



STONEHENGE 



747 



ive than mere conjecture for the assumption of a 

 different purpose for the larger circles, and the 

 great size of the circle surrounding the immense 

 chambered cairn of New Grange shows that a great 

 circle was associated with sepulture. 



The largest of the Scottish stone circles is that 

 of Stennis in Orkney, standing on the slope of 

 the hill overlooking the loch of that name about 

 4 miles NE. of Stromness. It is surrounded by 

 a trench 30 feet wide and about 6 feet in depth, 

 enclosing a total area of about 2 acres. The 

 trench is crossed by two accesses to the enclosed 

 area on opposite sides of the circle, each 17 feet 

 wide. The circle of pillar-stones stands 13 feet 

 within the trench on a circumference of 340 feet 

 in diameter. The original number of pillar- 

 stoncs was probably sixty, of which only thirteen 

 are now standing ; ten are prostrate, and the 

 stumps or fragments of thirteen more are still 

 recognisable. The highest stone standing is 14 

 feet in height, and several of those now prostrate 

 xceed 12 feet in length. The average distance 

 between the stones is about 17 feet. A smaller 

 circle, which seems, however, to have been com- 

 posed of larger stones, stood about a mile to the 

 south. Its whole interior area is raised about 

 3 feet above the surrounding level, and has had 

 a circumscribing ditch, with a rampart on the 

 inner side. Only two stones remain standing, and 

 a somewhat larger one, now prostrate, is 19 feet 

 long and 5 feet broad. It was near this circle that 

 the perforated stone stood, through the aperture of 

 which it was the custom in the 18th century for 

 young men and women of the district to plight 

 their troth by joining hands, a promise of marriage 

 thus made being regarded with superstitious rever- 

 ence as specially binding. The largest stone circle 

 in England is that of Avebury (q.v.) in Wiltshire. 

 This monument is apparently alluded to in a 

 charter of King Athelstan, dated 939 A.D., 

 where one of tne boundaries is said to run 

 ' from the road to Hackpen northward, up along 

 the Stone Row, thence to the burying-places. 

 Stonehenge (q.v. ), the most famous of British stone 

 circles, stands within a ditch and embankment 

 enclosing an area of about 360 feet in diameter. 

 It differs from other stone circles not only in its 

 ground-plan, but in the pillar-stones of the exterior 

 circle and the larger ellipse surmounted by imposts, 

 mortised on tenons in the tops of the uprights, 

 and also oy the larger stones being thus at least 

 partially tool-dressed. In Norway and Sweden the 

 few stone circles systematically explored have been 

 found to be burial-places of the iron age. They are 

 usually simple circles composed of eight to thirteen 

 stones ; occasionally there are two concentric 

 circles, one within the other, the inner circle being 

 sometimes composed of small stones set close to- 

 gether in a ring. Sometimes there is a single 

 pillar-stone in the centre of the circle. As a rule 

 they are not remarkable either for the size of the 

 circles themselves or for the massiveness of the 

 stones of which they are composed. Circles of stand- 

 ing stones are rare to the south of the Baltic. In 

 France they are comparatively few in number, and 

 scarcely anything is yet known of their contents. 

 In Algeria megalithic circular burial-places are not 

 uncommon, but they do not correspond in general 

 with those of northern Europe, being rarely com- 

 posed of pillar-stones. Circles of pillar-stones, 

 apparently of comparatively recent origin, have 

 been found in northern India, and megalithic circles 

 re stated to have been occasionally met with east 

 of the Jordan, and in northern Arabia. 



See Ferguson's Rude Stone Monument! (Lond. 1872); 

 Anderson's Scotland in Pagan Times ( Edin. 1886 ) ; 

 Plant and Photograph* of Stonehenge, by Sir Henry 

 Junes (Southampton, 1867). 



Stone-coal. See ANTHRACITE. 

 Stone-crop. See SEDUM. 



Stpnefield, an industrial town of Lanarkshire, 

 2J miles NW. of Hamilton and 8 SE. of Glasgow. 

 It was the scene of riots in February 1887. Pop. 

 (1871)395; (1891)5581. 



Stone-fly (Perla), a genus of insects typical of 

 the order Plecoptera. The hind-wings are broader 

 than the fore-wings, and folded at the inner edge. 

 The body is elongated, narrow, and flattened ; the 

 wings fold close to the body, which generally bears 

 two terminal bristles. The larvae are aquatic, and 

 much resemble the perfect insect, except in the 

 absence of wings. A number of species e.g. P. 

 bicaudata are common in Britain, and are well 

 known to anglers as an attractive lure for fishes. 



Stone-fruit. See FRUIT, Vol. V. p. 20. 



Stoneham, a town of Massachusetts, 9 miles 

 N. of Boston, with which it is connected by rail 

 and tram. It has large boot and shoe factories. 

 Pop. (1890)6140. 



Stonehaven (locally Stanehive), a seaport and 

 (since 1607) the county town of Kincardmeshire, 

 16 miles SSW. of Aberdeen, is situated on a rocky 

 bay at the mouth of Carron Water, which divides 

 it into an Old and New Town. The harbour, 

 formed since 1826, can admit only small vessels ; 

 but Stonehaven has very considerable herring and 

 haddock fisheries. It was constituted a police- 

 burgh in 1889. Pop. (1841) 3012; (1891) 4497. 

 See DUNNOTTAR CASTLE. 



Stonehenge ( Saxon Stanhengist, ' the hanging 

 stones'), a circular group of gigantic standing 

 stones on Salisbury Plain, about 2 miles from 

 Amesbury in Wiltshire, situated in the midst of 

 an extensive group of prehistoric barrows of the 

 bronze age. The circle of stones, which is about 

 100 feet in diameter, occupies the central portion 

 of an area of about 360 feet in diameter, enclosed 

 within an earthen rampart and ditch. It consists 

 of two concentric circles enclosing two ellipses, 

 both open at the north-east end. The exterior 

 circle, which is composed of pillar-stones of Tertiaiy 

 sandstone, locally called 'sarsens,' set up at pretty 

 regular intervals of about 4 feet apart, has been 

 surmounted by a continuous line of imposts closely 

 fitted to each other at the extremities, and having 

 mortise-holes in their under sides, which receive 

 tenons on the tops of the pillar-stones. The pillar- 

 stones show generally about 13 feet of height above 

 the ground, and the imposts are about 10 feet long, 

 3J feet wide, and 2 feet 8 inches deep. Of this 

 circle seventeen pillar-stones and six imposts retain 

 their original position. About 9 feet within the 

 exterior circle are the remains of a second circle of 

 smaller undressed blocks or boulders of primitive 

 rock, locally known as 'blue stones.' They are 

 irregular in shape and height, and do not seem to 

 have supported imposts, but few now remain stand- 

 ing, and their number and respective positions can- 

 not be accurately determined. Within this inner 

 circle, and separated from it by about the same 

 distance, is an incomplete ellipse, nearly of horse- 

 shoe form, with the open end facing the north-east, 

 formed of five trilithons or groups of two immense 

 pillar-stones supporting an impost. The central 

 trilithon facing the open end or the ellipse is the 

 largest, the pillar-stones being about 23 feet in 

 height above ground, and the added height of the 

 impost making the whole height of the trilithon 

 nearly 28 feet. The dimensions of this trilithon 

 given by Sir Henry James are : height of uprights 

 out of ground, 22 feet 5 inches ; breadth, 7 feet 6 

 inches ; thickness, 4 feet : length of impost, 15 feet ; 

 breadth, 4 feet 6 inches ; thickness, 3 feet 6 inches. 

 The other four, which stood facing each other, two 





