56 



NA TURE 



[November 21, 1907 



NOTES ON ANCIENT BRITISH 

 MONUMENTS. 



I. 



SINCE the publication of my book " Stonehenge " 

 some months ago I have received so much vaki- 

 able information, so many suggestions and promises 

 of work, that I feel it will be convenient if I refer 

 to some of the points which have been thus raised. 

 They refer to many sides of the inquiry, and indicate 

 how very many questions susceptible of local study 

 are raised by the idea of the possible astronomical 

 use of the monuments. 



It is only right, however, that I should state 

 in litnine that the reviews of the book have been 

 almost entirel)' condemnatory. I am consoled, how- 

 ever, b)' the fact that there is evidence that the 

 volume had not been read, and that the reviewers 

 have taken so little trouble to inform themselves that 

 they confound the changes brought about in the 

 places of stars by the precession of the equinoxes 

 with those produced in the case of the sun in conse- 



=).a\i«'3 



(iv-oVel^ 





Ci\ca>rburjj 



quence of the gradual lessening of the obliquity of 

 the ecliptic. 



Ignoring all the new observations the statement of 

 which was the object of the book, they condemn what 

 they are pleased to call my theory, as if a theory 

 were anything but an attempt — even if only a feeble 

 one — to group facts together so that they may be 

 properly understood, and rigid tests applied to it by 

 further work. It is a supreme satisfaction to me to 

 know that further work is going on. Societies for 

 the " Astronomical Study of Ancient Monuments " 

 have been started in Cornwall and Wales, and local 

 inquiries of great value are being made. I am glad 

 to say that these efforts are being sympathetically 

 .[ided bv the existing archEeological societies, which, I 

 think, have much to gain by the constant companion- 

 ship of the spade and theodolite. I also have spent some 

 holiday time in Cornwall, Wales, and Aberdeenshire, 

 adding a special study of cromlechs to the inquiry. 

 What I have previously written concerning the May- 

 year is greatly strengthened by the fact that most of 

 the cromlechs I have examined were constructed so 



NO. iq86, vol. yy] 



that the sunrise in May or November could be 

 watched from the priests' quarters inside the cromlech 

 through the narrow opening necessary for their pro- 

 tection. I shall give the details of these observations 

 later. 



The Inter-relation of Monuments. 



In my " Notes on Stonehenge " (Nature, vol. 

 Ixxi., p. 391) I referred to some remarkable relations 

 between Stonehenge and the surrounding localities 

 which had been communicated to me by Colonel 

 Johnston, the late director-general of the Ordnance 

 Survey. These are rendered manifest by the accom- 

 panying diagrams which I reproduce. 



Fig. I shows that Stonehenge is (i) on the same 

 straight line which contains Sidbury, Grovely Castle 

 and Castle Ditches; (2) at the apex of an equilateral 

 triangle of exactly six miles in the side; (3) that 

 Salisbury, i.e. Solishury Cathedral, from its name 

 an old solar temple, was on the same straight line 

 which contained Stonehenge and Old Sarum. 



Fig-. 2 shows that the oldest cross-roads on Salis- 

 bury Plain exactly occupy the centre of the triangle 

 referred to. 



Such relations as the above, but on a smaller scale, 

 are often to be noticed, in some cases between monu- 

 ments, in others between monuments and decided 

 natural features on the sky line as seen from them. 



I give some examples from Cornwall. 



At Trevethy is one ot the most famous cromlechs 

 in that county, and it has not been restored, so that we 

 need not hesitate to measure it to try to determine its 

 meaning. Close by, at St. Cleer, is a renowned holy 

 well, and a little further away King Doniert's 

 stone. 



The accompanying photographic reduction of the 

 Ordnance map shows the strict relation of these monu- 

 ments. The entrance of the cromlech is directed to- 

 wards the November sunrise, az. S. 63° E. ; looking 

 in the opposite direction it commands the May sun- 

 set. I shall refer to this later. As seen from the 

 holy well the cromlech marks the azimuth of the May 

 sunrise. The monolith, King Doniert's stone, is true 

 west from the cromlech, and so marks the equinoctial 

 sunsets. 



In the Bodmin district are two famous circles, the 

 Stripple stones and Trippet stones, some half-mile 

 apart. 



