Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 255 



The nine pages of this little pamphlet, originally prefixed to the 

 Malmesbury Directory— to which, perhaps, attention might never have 

 been called if the Society had not met at Malmesbury this year — 

 positive bristle with a really marvellous display of philological learning, 

 and the amount of light thrown on the early history of Britain from the 

 author's study of place names is almost bewildering in its volume. After 

 stating, for instance, that in very early times the ancient Trojans sailed 

 up the Thames and founded Troy-novant, whence the Trinovantes, or 

 Trinobantes, he says : — " Some of the Trojans settled in Dorsetshire, 

 where they were called Durotridges, these people were partly Trojans or 

 Troges and partly Dorians.'' " The Somer-setae were derived partly 

 from the Setae and partly from the Semari, the latter were descended 

 from Zemar the son of Canaan, the son of Ham ; they came originally 

 from the Zemarites of the land of Canaan or Palestine, they were after- 

 wards called Samaritans and their capital city Samaria." Mr. Painter 

 does not lack the courage that learning gives, and, after referring to the 

 erroneous theories of ordinary ethnologists and historians, he says : — 

 "their errors and misstatements I shall now sweep away, as I have 

 traced all the nations in every part of the world and have discovered 

 from whom they originally came, especially the British, the Welsh, and 

 the Scotch." 



On two pieces of Medieval Embroidery from 

 Sutton Senger and Hullavington Churches, 



by W. H. St. John Hope, with two illustrations. Proceedings of Society 

 of Antiquaries, vol. xvii., pp. 239 — 243. 



[ Stonehenge] 



" On the age and purpose of the Megalithic Structures of Tripoli and 

 Barbary," by J. L. Myres. Proc. Soc. Antiq., xvii., p. 280—293. 



" On the Tripoli Senams ; Idols or Oil Presses ? " by H. Swainson 

 Cooper. Proc. Soc. Antiq., xvii., 297—300. 



The purport of both these papers is to prove that the Trilithons of 

 Northern Africa, whioh have been cited as the nearest analogues of those 

 of Stonehenge, are really oil presses of Eoman date, the supposed " altar 

 stones" in front of the "Senams" being the channelled beds of the 

 presses. Mr. Swainson Cooper, in his former writings, held strongly to 

 the belief that the Trilithons were pre-Boman and connected with religious 

 worship. He now joins Mr. Myres, considering it satisfactorily proved, 

 by the analogy of presses still in use elsewhere, that their origin and 

 purpose is as above stated. 



Erchfont Church. An account of the extensive works of repair 

 lately carried out under Mr. Ponting's supervision, and of the re-opening 

 ceremony on their completion, is given in the Devizes Gazette, Aug. 30th, 

 1900. 



