108 The Thirty -third General Meeting. 



archreology and antiquities, and as the monument was in Wiltshire 

 it was considered that the Wiltshire Archaeological Society was 

 responsible for the condition in which it was. In drawing up their 

 report they were greatly aided by Mr. Cunnington's carefully- 

 prepared plan in his small book, which was an admirable companion 

 for the visitor to Stonehenge, and in which plan every single stone was 

 lettered and numbered. He thought hardly sufficient had been said in 

 the report about the depredations of the rabbits, for he was astonished 

 to see what an enormous amount of mischief rabbits could do. Round 

 the actual stones some efforts had been made, by digging them out 

 and stopping up their holes, to prevent the mischief, but in the 

 immediate contiguity of Stonehenge there were a number of barrows, 

 and some of them had been literally turned inside out by rabbits, they 

 were honeycombed through and through, and their contents scattered 

 around, till they looked more like heaps of chalk and flint than old 

 barrows covered with the ancient and pristine turf of the district. 

 Something had been done he knew to protect Stonehenge. There 

 was a caretaker, but there was very little evidence of any care being 

 taken. There was an innumerable quantity of broken bottles there, 

 and many of the stones had been made a " cock-shy " of by those 

 pic-nicing there. There was also any amount of straw blowing 

 about, owing to horses being tethered and littered among the stones, 

 which was very unsightly. Nearly all this would be done away 

 with by a sunk fence at a considerable distance round. It would 

 cost money, but Stonehenge was a relic worth taking every possible care 

 of. At any rate, if their report was adopted, he thought they would 

 have done as much as they could do at the present time to meet the 

 charges made against the Society, and against the county generally. 



Mr. W. Cunnington testified to the enormously increased numbers 

 of people who visited Stonehenge as compared with former times, 

 so that the mischief was continuing and increasing. The injuries, 

 however slight, are irreparable, and they are constantly accumulating. 

 On the longest day hundreds always came to witness the sunrise from 

 the altar stone, though it was impossible for more than a very few 

 persons to see it from that point, and the majority spent a miserable 

 night, as he could say from experience. Much damage was done by 



