Excursion on Friday, August 20//£. 



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barrows. As to its object, it neither resembled a cromlech, temple, 

 nor place of worship, but partook of the characteristics of all these : he 

 however was disposed to believe that it was intended for sun-worship. 



Professor Rupert Jones, F.R.S., read a paper, written by Mr. 

 T. Claxtox Fidler, M.I.C.E., of Cork, on the astronomical theories 

 as to Stonehenge, The author detailed trigonometrical co-ordinate 

 surveys and mathemetical calculations made by himself and two 

 other engineers, during a week spent at Stonehenge, and stated that 

 the result, after allowing corrections for the apparent, as distinguished 

 from the true, horizon and position of sun, and also for the cyclical 

 change in the obliquity of the ellipse, proved that the Friar's Heel 

 is so situated, and the axis and centre of the building are so arranged, 

 as to mark the rising of the sun at the summer solstice. The priest 

 at the altar, situated in the apsidal end of the horseshoe, or a wor- 

 shipper in the centre of the circle, would see the sun rising out of 

 the Friar's Heel stone. As this arrangement, if a mere coincidence, 

 had a range of probabilities of 1400 to 1 against the Friar's Heel 

 being pitched within the earthworks within a semi-diameter of the 

 correct position, the theory that Stonehenge was a temple for sun- 

 worship, was, in the author's opinion, established by the result of 

 his observations. In this theory Professor Rupert Jones concurred, 

 and in introducing Mr. Fidler's paper on the astronomical value of 

 the stone called the " Friar's Heel," 1 he offered some observations 

 on the approximate coincidence of the number of the stones of the 

 several circles with the divisions of time in the year and smaller 

 seasonal or diurnal periods. He also reasoned on the probability of 

 the structure having been a place of sanctity (in all likelihood 

 devoted to solar worship) whether its sanctity were derived from 

 ancestor-worship, or from having burials accumulated in and about 

 it, as we make our Churches our mausolea. 



Mr. Walter Money, F.S.A., followed with a paper, referring in 

 his introductory remarks to his explorations of Wiltshire barrows, 

 in conjunction with Canon Greenwell. He had very little doubt 

 that Stonehenge belonged to the Bronze Age, a view in which lie 



Professor Rupert Jones adds, "I have no moral doubt thai the 'Friar's 

 Heel' is a corruption of some old British term oL" the stone and its use." 



