By William Goivland F.S.A., F.I.C. 



3 



As regards the first, 1 may say, that after having worked among 

 the stones daily during September and part of October last, I have 

 come to the conclusion that without the enclosure there could be 

 no efficient preservation of the monument, considering the changed 

 conditions brought about by the establishment of the large military 

 camp in the neighbourhood. 



As regards the second, I think it will be admitted by all who 

 desire the preservation of Stonehenge in its entirety, that it is 

 greatly to be deplored that a trackway for wheeled traffic should 

 exist through the monument between the rampart and the stones. 

 And I may add that it is, to say the least, astounding that the 

 diversion of that roadway should be opposed by any archaeologist. 



As regards the third, I can assure you that the hitherto leaning 

 stone has now been made safe for all time. 



That this leaning stone, said to be the largest native monolith 

 in Britain, should be set upright was imperative, as it has three 

 horizontal fissures of unknown depth extending almost right across 

 its broad face. As these are on the upper side, fully exposed to 

 the weather, they must, by the action of rain and frost, have been 

 steadily deepening more and more year by year, so that the breaking 

 off of the upper part of the stone was merely a question of time. 



The necessity for raising it was further emphasized by the fact 

 that its inclination from the perpendicular had been gradually 

 increasing. In 1660 its angle of inclination was 75°, in 1720 70°, 

 in 1870 66°, and in the present year (1901), before the operations 

 were commenced, I found it to be only 60*5° (Fig. 2). 



Mode of Conducting the Excavations. 



Before proceeding with the excavations, a datum line passing 

 through the highest point of the surface of the ground to be exca- 

 vated was carefully determined, and from this line the vertical 

 position of each layer of material removed from the various exca- 

 vations was observed and recorded. This was rendered necessary 

 by the irregular contour of the ground surrounding the stone. 



The exact level of this line was then ascertained by levelling up 

 to the bench mark (338-9) of the Ordnance Survey on stone No. 16, 



B 2 



