November 2 i, 1907 



N^I TURE 



57 



The following- table shows the relation of the latter 

 to the former, and also to the surrounding- hill-tops, 

 as I believe \v;is first ndiced by Mr. A. L. Lewis. 



We indeed learn -why the circle was erected on 

 the precise spot it occupies. 



Trippet Stones, Blisland, lat. 50° 33' N. 



My wife and I visited the Trippet stones in .April 

 1907, in the company of Mr. Horton Bolitho and Mr 

 CoUings. A hail-storm made observations difficult 

 and this may explain the departure 

 of the May and November days 

 from the normal. The coincidence 

 of the dates of the possible observa- 

 tions of Arcturus and Capella sug- 

 gests that we have then the true 

 date of the erecting of the circle, 

 Brcpwn Willy being subsequently 

 used with Capella when the old 

 alignment of Arcturus on Rough 

 Tor became useless in consequence 

 of the precessional movement. 



I shall have more to say on 

 the inter-relation of monuments 

 and double and multiple circles on 

 a future occasion. 



Ancient Connection between Stone- 

 henge and Grovcly. 



Figs. I and 2 suffice to show the 

 old association between Stone- 

 henge and Grovely. Canon Words- 

 worth, in a paper on " Grovely 

 Customs," communicated to the 

 annual meeting of the Wiltshire 

 Archseological Society held in July, 

 1906, at Wilton, has brought to- 

 gether some additional particulars touching this 

 association. 



Some of the new information refers to the gather- 



NO. 1986, VOL. 77] 



ing of wood in the valleys near Stonehenge ; this, I 

 think, may be accepted as strengthening the evidence 

 that the plain at Stonehenge was not wooded, con- 

 trary to the opinions of many 

 that the monument was built 

 in a sacred grove of oaks. 

 My argument against this 

 view was that if the monu- 

 ments had any astronomical 

 use at Stonehenge, Dartmoor, 

 or elsewhere, they would not 

 have been erected among- 

 trees, which would have 

 spoiled the observations which 

 were always made on the 

 horizon. 



Next, in support of my view 

 that Stonehenge was initially 

 a May-year temple, the celebra- 

 tions referred to by Canon 

 Wordsworth occur in May. He 

 recalled an extract from a 

 paper written by Mr. J. N. 

 Powell, on " South Wilts in 

 Romano-British Times," in 

 keard. which the Writer approached 



the subject from the point 

 of view of the folklorist and student of primitive 

 religion. Mr. Powell said : — " At Wishford an oak 

 bush is cut annually, formerly at Whitsuntide, but 

 since the Restoration on May 29, and hauled down 

 into the village. It is then decked with ribbons and 

 hung from the church tower, and the day is kept as 

 a revel." Canon Wordsworth said that, if he rightly 

 understood his drift, he supposed that that symbol 

 of the villagers' right to gather wood, and in olden 

 times also to pasture cattle in Grovely Forest, was 

 associated with, or found its expression in, a cere- 

 mony of prehistoric cult or nature-worship. He then 

 read a number of extracts from documents lent by 

 the Rector of Wishford, the Rev. F. W. Macdonald, 

 amongst which were the following : — " The aforesaid 

 lords, freeholders and tenants of Barford .St. Martin, 



. 4.— The Trevethy C 



have had, or should time out of mind have, yearly 

 brought unto them against every Whit Sunday by the 

 Ranger or his assigns, one fat Buck, the one half to 



