82 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



thousand years ago. Accordingly, if you know the 

 star to which an ancient temple was set or aligned, the 

 day of the solar year which was the festival or critical 

 moment of the appearance of the star in the sacred 

 aperture and how much the temple is to-day out in 

 its pointing, that is to say, the exact amount of 

 swinging which would bring the temple back into its 

 original relation to the star you have a means of 

 measuring the age of the temple ; you have a measure 

 of the time which has elapsed since it acquired this 

 amount of departure from correct orientation. 

 Astronomy tells you how much it must get out of line 

 in every hundred years. 



Mr. F. C. Penrose, F.R.S., investigated this matter in re- 

 gard to several Greek temples ; others besides Sir Norman 

 Lockyer have written on the aberration and calculable 

 age of Egyptian temples. It has, for instance, actually 

 been found that the temple of Ptah was aligned to the 

 sun in the year 5200 B.C. The alignment is no longer 

 correct, and it appears that the Egyptians themselves 

 discovered that some of their most ancient temples had 

 lost correct alignment, and erected new and corrected 

 buildings in connection with them, and re-dedicated 

 them. Now Sir Norman is making a vigorous effort to 

 procure all the possible measurements and indications 

 concerning the prehistoric circles and avenues of 

 Britain before it is too late. They are being more and 

 more rapidly destroyed. Stonehenge has been carefully 

 measured and its present alignment determined by 

 various surveyors. Its age is discussed by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer in an interesting book, but we may soon 

 expect a further discussion of the whole subject of 

 these prehistoric British monuments from his pen. In 

 some cases, as in that of Stonehenge, the relation of 

 the temple to the sun is obvious and confirmed by 

 tradition and existing custom. But in many cases in- 

 vestigation is rendered very difficult by the absence of 



