CHAP. III. UNDERMINED BY WORMS. 153 



had never since been moved ; nor could this 

 easily have been done, as, when I had them 

 removed, it was the work of two men with 

 levers. One of these stones, and not the 

 largest, was 64 inches long, 17 inches broad, 

 and from 9 to 10 inches in thickness. Its 

 lower surface was somewhat protuberant in 

 the middle ; and this part still rested on 

 broken bricks and mortar, showing the truth 

 of the old workman's account. Beneath the 

 brick rubbish the natural sandy soil, full of 

 fragments of sandstone was found ; and this 

 could have yielded very little, if at all, to 

 the weight of the stone, as might have been 

 expected if the sub-soil had been clay. The 

 surface of the field, for a distance of about 

 9 inches round the stone, gradually sloped up 

 to it, and close to the stone stood in most 

 places about 4 inches above the surrounding 

 ground. The base of the stone was buried 

 from 1 to 2 inches beneath the general level, 

 and the upper surface projected about 8 

 inches above this level, or about 4 inches 

 above the sloping border of turf. After the 

 removal of the stone it became evident that 

 one of its pointed ends must at first have 

 stood clear above the ground by some inches, 



