39 



been burnt down in 1908 and rebuilt in 1910. A conspicuous 

 object was the tomb, under a handsome canopy, and the effigies 

 of Sir Anthony Ashley and his wife, and the kneeling figure of 

 their only daughter and sole heiress. 



After seeing a very fine Tulip tree in the Rectory 

 garden, and an ancient yew tree, about 22ft. in girth, in the 

 Churchyard, the party had lunch near the lake, where are some 

 good examples of the Oriental Plane. The chief Arboreal feature 

 of the Park was the noble avenue of Beeches, about three-quarters 

 of a mile in length. The remarkable shell grotto was another 

 object of interest. It was composed chiefly of some hundreds of 

 thousands of Indian shells, arranged in a most artistic manner 

 about 150 years ago by the fifth Earl and Countess. 



Knowlton. The Rev. Hy. Shaen Solly, M.A., gave a short 



address on the old 14th Century Church, now a 

 ruin covered with ivy, and the earthworks. The Church was a 

 Chapel of Ease for Horton parish, with which it was always con- 

 nected. He then described the origin and significance of the 

 earthworks as representing a spot connected with pre-historic 

 worship. The fosse (ditch) is inside the vallum (rampart), and 

 such an arrangement is never made for defence, but is found where 

 the place is a temple, and, it may be, also a cemetery. 

 Both Chartres Cathedral and St. Paul's, London, were built 

 on ground dedicated to a heathen deity, and at Le Mans the 

 cathedral was built on the site of a stone circle. Such circles, 

 with the ditch inside the rampart, are found in Dorset, Wilts, 

 Cumberland and Westmoreland, and vary in size from 50 paces to 

 that of the great circle at Avebury, 400 yards across, and the 

 great cathedral of the race that built it. At Knowlton there were 

 originally four circles, the one surrounding the Church remaining 

 nearly perfect. A short distance south of this are three Round 

 barrows, accurately in line, and this line, prolonged, passes 

 through an opening in a vallum running east and west, and then 

 through the centre of our circle. Thus there are five points 

 indicating a definite orientation. This is N. 26 degrees E., and is 

 the same as that of three other stone circles at Roll-rich, Oxon. ; 

 Stripple Stones, Cornwall ; and Long Meg, Cumberland. Sir 

 Norman Lockyer considers this was arranged to watch the rising 

 of a star which would give warning of the approaching sun-rise. 

 The direction is also exactly at right angles to the older orienta- 

 tion of Stonehenge, which may be a further indication of a con- 

 nection with solar worship. The accuracy of the Knowlton line 

 had been kindly verified that afternoon by Mr. Le Jeune. Mr. 

 Solly then spoke of the importance to pre-historic man of the 

 influence of the sun and the seasons. From Yuletide to Midsum- 

 mer the sun continued to rise further and further to the north, 

 culminating about 40 degrees N. of E., when the reverse process 

 began. The summer and winter solstices were the occasion of 



