2 6o STONEHENGE AND THE STARS 



may have had some symbolical and esoteric mean- 

 ing to those who erected the monument, quite 

 apart from any utilitarian motive connected with 

 agricultural operations. Nor, certainly, is there 

 any proof that whatever kind of priesthood may 

 have existed amongst these shadowy predecessors 

 of other races in England owed its existence to the 

 knowledge which its members possessed of the 

 seasons and their power, and consequently, of 

 telling when certain agricultural labours should 

 be undertaken. Nor, again, in our opinion, is there 

 any kind of evidence that many, perhaps any, of 

 the dolmens were ever star or sun observatories 

 for similar purposes, since their orientation seems 

 to us to have depended far more probably upon 

 some religious motive than on any other. 



Those who have paid any attention to folk-lore 

 and these considerations may be judged to 

 belong in some measure to the domain of that 

 fascinating branch of study will not have failed 

 to note that there are dominant fashions there as 

 in other and more mundane affairs. 



Just now the solar theory of monuments is such 

 a fashion, but it may find itself replaced some day 

 by another, as it has supplanted the snake theory 

 and the horticultural theories of other writers. 



At the same time the evidence in connexion 

 with Stonehenge and with some other circles is 

 so strong that it will require a great deal of proof 

 to the contrary to show that they were not con- 

 nected in some way with the worship of the sun, 

 whatever may have been the special significance of 

 the peculiar method of orientation followed in each. 



