46 



These mysterious stones have attracted the greater 

 attention because of their occurrence in parts of the country 

 where there are no hard rocks, and they therefore possess an 

 economic value, being used for road metal, gate posts, farm 

 buildings, paving, etc., which has led to the destruction of 

 many megalithic monuments. Camden complained of the 

 vandalism that was rampant in his day in destroying such 

 interesting archaeological structures for utilitarian purposes. 

 He says, ( 2 ) "Above the head of the River Ock, by Ashbury- 

 park, is a camp of a figure as near round as square, the 

 diameter above an hundred paces and the works single, but the 

 works are now almost quite spoiled and defaced by digging for 

 the sarsden stones as they call them) to build a house in the 

 park belonging to the Lord Craven/' 



A few years ago a public movement was inaugurated in 

 England, and an appeal for funds was made, commended and 

 financially supported by the Geological Society of London, for 

 the preservation of the grey- wethers of Marlborough Downs. 

 Our Honorary Fellow, Mr. Edward Meyrick, B.A., F.R.S., 

 was one of a committee of gentlemen formed for this object, 

 and at my request sent out some fragments broken from sarsen 

 stones for comparison with our local examples. 



The subject has given rise to a somewhat extensive 

 literature, and references will be found to these objects in 

 most county histories (where they occur), geological textbooks, 

 encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and newspaper correspondence/ 3 ) 



Many conflicting theories have been advanced to account 

 for the origin and distribution of the sarsen stones, but it is 

 now generally agreed that they form the remnants of what was 

 once an extensive geological formation (or formations) of 

 Tertiary Age that covered a considerable portion of southern 

 England. The beds consisted of sands and fine gravels (prob- 

 ably of different geological ages), the greater portion of which 

 remained unconsolidated and has been removed by denudation, 

 but in places a lcoal silicification took place which converted 

 more or less of these sediments into very hard siliceous rocks, 

 that have resisted weathering and have been preserved in the 

 form of isolated boulders or slabs of rock. This gives us the 

 distinctive features of a sarsen stone — a partial silicification has 



(2) "Britannia," 2nd ed. (1722), col. 162. 



(3) The following; might be consulted: — H. B. "Woodward: 

 "Geology of England and Wales," 1876, p. 363: W. Whitaker : 

 "Age of the Grev-wethers," Jour. Geol. Soc. of London, v. 18 

 (1862), p. 271; E.* C. Spicer : "Sarsen Stones in a Clav Pit," ibid., 

 v. 61 (1905), p. 39; A. C. Ramsay: "Phvsical Geologv and 

 Geography of Great Britain," 1872, p. 126; H. W. Monckton : 

 "Notes on the Sarsen Stones of the Bagshot District," Report 

 Brit. Assoc. Adv. Science (Southport), 1903, p. 669 



