Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, Articles, &c. 129 



StOlielieng e and Avebury are dealt with in Chap. II., pp. 15—29, 

 of " Rough Stone Monuments and their Builders, by T. Eric Peet. 

 Harper, London and New York." 1912. 7in. X 4jin., pp. xii. + 172. 

 Cloth. 2/6 net. 



This book, one of the series of " Harper's Library of Living Thought," 

 aims at giving in a short compass " a complete though brief sketch of 

 our present knowledge of the Megalithic Monuments " of the world. 

 It is a useful little conspectus of the subject, but its usefulness would 

 have been increased if the accuracy of its statements had been always 

 more evident. Weyland Smith's Cave is spoken of in one passage as 

 in Buckinghamshire, and Merivale Bridge on Dartmoor and its Rude 

 Stone Monuments as in Somerset. The account of Stonehenge and 

 Avebury again has slips that might easily have been avoided. The 

 Vallum of the Earth Circle is "several feet high." The Friar's Heel 

 Stone is "nearly at the extremity of the avenue" "still 1200 feet in 

 length." " Between the horseshoe and the outer circle another circle of 

 diabase stones is sometimes said to have existed, but very little of it 

 now remains." Of "Avebury and the Kennett Avenue" a very small 

 plan is given, which is said to be " after Sir R. Colt Iloare," but neither 

 Hoare nor anybody else ever gave a plan at all like this. The centre of 

 the northern circle is said to have been occupied by " a cover slab 

 supported on three uprights." The author does not seem to have known 

 of the recent excavations in the ditch, <fec. Two good photographs of 

 Stonehenge " from the S. W." and " from the S.E." are given, together 

 with a very poor plan. The various theories, astronomical and other- 

 wise, of the date of the structure are shortly and clearly stated, and, as 

 a rule, both here and elsewhere in the book, the reader is left impar- 

 tially to take his choice. 



Some Notes on the Ancient Church of St. Leonard , 

 Stanton Fitzwarren, Wilts ; and otherwise. By 

 W. Caldwell Masters, MA, Saint Mary Mag- 

 dalene College, Oxford ; Hon. Canon of Bristol 

 Cathedral. Printed by A. R. Mowbray & Co., 

 Ltd., London and Oxford, 1913. 



Linen, lO^in. X 7|in., pp. viii. + 49 + 1 page appendix. 4s. 6d. net, 

 5 illustrations, Interior General View ; the Font with New Cover, and 

 Panelling; the Altar, Reredos and Sanctuary Screen; "The Pugin 

 Feretrum at Magdalene College, Oxford. The above are good photos, 

 there is also a plate from the Builder, 1844, showing the font on its 

 14th century base as then existing. This Church is remarkable 

 amongst all the Churches of the county for the wealth of modern 

 carved oak work, roofs, screens, reredos, panelling, &c, that it contains, 

 a large proportion of it executed in the course of a long series of years 

 by the present Rector and author of this book. Heraldry and 

 symbolism, in which the arms and the lilies of Magdalene College 

 are prominent, are lavishly scattered over all this carving — and in the 

 pages of this book its meaning is expounded and the author indulges 



i'OL. XXXVIII. — NO. CXIX. K 



