ENGLAND AND WALES 



should have been had they been later in 

 date. 



Many attempts have been made to date the 

 monuments by means of astronomy. All these 

 start from the assumption that it was erected in 

 connection with the worship of the sun, or at least 

 in order to take certain observations with regard 

 to the sun. Sir Norman Loclryer noticed that 

 the avenue at Stonehenge pointed approximately 

 to. the spot where the sun rises at the midsummer 

 solstice, and therefore thought that Stonehenge 

 was erected to observe this midsummer rising. 

 If he could find the exact direction of the avenue 

 he would know where the sun rose at midsummer 

 in the year when the circle was built. From this 

 he could easily fix the date, for, owing to the 

 precession of the equinoxes, the point of the mid- 

 summer rising is continually altering, and the 

 position for any year being known the date of 

 that year can be found astronomically. But how 

 was the precise direction of this very irregular 

 avenue to be fixed ? The line from the altar stone 

 to the Friar's Heel, which is popularly supposed 

 to point to the midsummer rising, has certainly 

 never done so in the last ten thousand years, and 

 therefore could not be used as the direction of the 

 avenue. Eventually Sir Norman decided to use 

 a line from the centre of the circle to a modern 

 benchmark on Sidbury Hill, eight miles north- 

 east of Stonehenge. On this line the sun rose in 



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