June 7, 1906] 



NA TURE 



127 



and farming operations have changed the conditions 

 of the sight-lines, so that i and 3 are just invisible 

 from the circle. This is by no means the only case 

 in wliich the sighting stone has just bei'U hidden 

 oviT the brow of a hill and in which signals from an 

 observer on the brow itself have been suggested, or a 

 via sacra to the brow from the circle ; there are many 

 monoliths in this direction which certainly never 

 belonged to the circle. From menhir P (No. 2) a 

 tine view is obtained from N. to .S. through E., so 

 lliat the Blind Fiddler and the two large menhirs, 

 and almost the circle, are visible. The curious shapes 

 of I and 2 are noted, the east face vertical and the 

 west boundary curved, like several sighting stones on 

 Dartmoor. 



TliP circle itself has several peculiarities. In the 

 first place, as shown by Lukis, it is not circular, the 

 di.mieters being about 85 and 65 feet; the minor ;ixis 

 runs through the pillar stone in the centre and the 

 " fallen stones " of Dr. Borlase towards the " stone 

 cross " (which is no cross but a fine menhir) in 

 \/.. \. 43° 15' E. This would suggest that this was 

 the original alignment in 2250 B.C., but against this 

 is the fact that the two stones of the circle between 

 which the " fallen stones " lie are more carefully 

 squared than the rest. It is true, however, that this 

 might have been 

 done afterwards, g^- 



and this seems 

 probable, for they 

 are closer together 

 than the other 

 circle stones. 



The one quartz 

 stone occupies an 

 azimuth S. 66° W. 

 It was obviously 

 placed in a post 

 of honour. As a 

 matter of fact, 

 from it the May 

 sun was seen to 

 rise over the 

 centre of the 

 circle. 



As there are 

 both at Tregaseal 

 and Boscawen-un 

 alignments s u g- 

 gesting the ob- 

 servation of the 

 summer solstice 

 sunrise, it is de- 

 sirable here to 

 refer to the azi- 

 muths as calcu- 

 lated. For this 



purpose Fig. g has been prepared, which shows these 

 for lat. 50° both at the present day and at the date 

 of the restoration at Stonehenge. 



My readers should compare this with the table on 

 p. 33, vol. Ixxii., which gives the solstice sunrise con- 

 ditions of Stenness in lat. N. 59°. Such a comparison 

 will show how useless it is to pursue these inquiries 

 without taking the latitude and the height of the 

 sky-line into account. 



The " Stripple Stones" (lat. 50° 32' 50" iV.. 

 loug. 4° 37' W.) 

 This is a very remarkable circle consisting of 5 

 erect and 11 prostrate stones situated on a circular 

 level platform 175 feet in diameter on the boggy 

 south slope of Hawk's Tor on Hawkstor Downs in 

 the parish of Blisland. The circle itself is about 148 



NO. 1 9 10. VOL. 74] 



feet in diameter, and the whole monument is, in 

 Lukis's opinion, the most interesting and remarkable 

 in the country. Surrounding the platform there is a 

 ditch II feet wide, and beyond that a penannular 

 Vallum about 10 feet in width. The peculiarity of 

 the vallum is that it has three bastions situate on 

 the north-east, north-west, and east sides. It is to 

 the north-east bastion that I wish to refer. 



Sighting from the huge monolith, which is now 

 prostrate but originally marked tlie centre of the 

 circle along a line bisecting the arc of this bastion, 

 we find that the azimuth of the sight-line is N. 25° E. ; 

 the angular elevation of the horizon from the i-inch 

 Ordnance map appears to be about 0° 22'. Thus we 

 get in the same form .-is before : — 



Centre of circle 



AligniT 



Capella 



indicating that this alignment was formed for the 

 same purpose as that which dominated the erection 

 of " The Pipers." 



The " Nine Maidens " {lat. 50° 28' 20" A'., 

 io"S- 4° 54' 35" M'-) 

 In this monument we find a very different type from 

 those considered previously. 



-Showing the 



2imuths at the present 



with diflferent elevations of the sky-li 



The Nine Maidens are simply 9 stones in a straight 

 line 262 feet in length at the present day; possibly, 

 as suggested by Lukis, it may have extended 

 originally to the monolith known as "The Fiddler," 

 situated some 800 yards away in a north-easterly 

 direction. Measuring the azimuth of the alignnient 

 on Lukis's plan, and finding the horizon elevations 

 from the i-inch Ordnance map, we have the follow- 

 ing :-- 



N. 28° E. 



Dec. 



33° 47' N. 



Capeila ... 14S0 E>.c. 



It may be remarked that here wc have a date for 

 the use of Capella intermediate between those 

 obtained for " The Pipers " and the " Stripple 

 Stones " respectively. 



NORM.VN LOCKVER. 



