8o FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



Derbyshire, and Oxfordshire, as well as 'monuments oi 

 the same kind in Wales. Sir Norman Lockyer has 

 obtained measurements of most of these and plans 

 showing the relations of the principal lines of their 

 ground plan to the points of the compass, and so to the 

 position occupied by the sun and by certain stars on 

 given days of the year at the rising or setting of those 

 heavenly bodies. It may well be asked what is Sir 

 Norman's object in doing this ? 



The explanation is as follows : The builders of 

 Christian churches in Europe have, as a rule, set out 

 the ground plan of the church shaped like a Latin 

 cross, so that the arms of the cross run north and south 

 the head points to the east, or Orient, and the base to 

 the west. In consequence of this custom the word 

 " orientation " has come into use, to signify the direction 

 purposely given to the main length of a temple or 

 church. Now it appears that many, if not all, ancient 

 temples (including the ancient stone circles and avenues 

 of Britain) were purposely so "oriented" by their 

 builders that a particular star, or the sun itself, should 

 at a fixed day and hour in the year be seen during its 

 movement across the heavens through an opening in 

 the building especially designed for this purpose, so as 

 to allow the light of the star to fall into the most sacred 

 part of the temple, the "Naon," or Holy of Holies. 

 At the moment of its appearance special ceremonies 

 were performed by the priests and worshippers in the 

 temple. The temple w r as dedicated to and carefully 

 " oriented to " that particular star. Thus, in ancient 

 Greece, the Pleiades, Sirius (the dog star), Spica, and 

 other stars were thus used ; in Egypt, Capella, Canopus, 

 and Alpha Centauri ; in Britain, Arcturus, as well as 

 those used by the Greeks. 



These temples were really astronomical observatories, 

 and were meant always to remain " oriented " to their 

 special star, which must, if the earth were steady in its 



