r 



By William Gowland, F.S.A., FLO. 61 



boulders would, from their peculiar characters, be the first to 

 attract attention, and be gradually removed by the races of men 

 who have successively inhabited the district. In the South of 

 England large boulders of granite and other large rocks, when 

 found, as they occasionally are, if not preserved as " curiosities," 

 like that on Southsea beach, very soon disappear, being broken up 

 and utilised in various ways. 



In conclusion, then, I may repeat my conviction that if the 

 prevalent beliefs and traditions concerning Stonehenge were true, 

 and the " bluestone " circles were transported from some distant 

 locality, either as trophies of war, or as the sacred treasures of a 

 wandering tribe, it is quite inconceivable that they should have 

 been hewed and chipped, as we now know them to have been, and 

 reduced in some cases to half their dimensions, after having been 

 carried ivitli enormous difficulty over land and water, and, over hills 

 and vcdleys. On the other hand, in the glacial drift, which once 

 probably thinly covered the district, the glacial deposits dying out 

 very gradually as we proceed southwards, we have a source from 

 which such stones might probably have been derived. It is quite 

 a well-known peculiarity of the glacial drift to exhibit considerable 

 assemblages of stones of a particular character at certain spots, 

 i each of these assemblages having probably been derived from the 

 same source. 



I would therefore suggest as probable that when the early in- 

 habitants of this island commenced the erection of Stonehenge, 

 Salisbury Plain was sprinkled over thickly with the great white 

 masses of the sarsen-stones (" grey wethers "), and much more 

 I sparingly with darker coloured boulders (the so-called "bluestones") , 

 j the last relics of the glacial drift, which had been nearly denuded 

 i away. From these two kind of materials the stones suitable for 

 j the contemplated temple were selected. It is even possible that the 

 1 abundance and association of these two kinds of materials, so 

 strikingly contrasted in colour and appearance, at a particular spot, 

 I may not only have decided the site, but, to some extent, have 

 :! suggested the architectural features of the noble structure of 

 Stonehenge. 



