152 



History of the Sarsens. 



and W. Whitaker, p. 51. " Blocks of hard sandstone, conglomerate 

 and grit, which are known by the name of Greywethers, Sarsen 

 Stones, or Druid Stones, are not uncommon in this district. They 

 are frequently made use of to keep vehicles from running against 

 the banks by the roadside, or against the corners of houses. " 

 Holly Wood, N.N.W. of Thateham, and Silchester Common, are 

 localities mentioned ; also as follows : — " There are a couple of 

 Greywethers composed of rounded flint-pebbles and angular flints 

 imbedded in a base of ferruginous grit, by the side of the road from 

 Odiham to Wanborough [Hants], about a couple of hundred yards 

 beyond the four cross-roads/-' (Page 51.) 



"In a field south of North Standen Farm [near Hungerford] 

 there are some large blocks of ' pudding-stone/ which seem to be in 

 place, and are perhaps hardened masses of the ' pebble-beds ' of this 

 formation" [Woolwich-and-Reading Beds]. (Page 26.) 



§ 5. 



Memoirs Geol. Surv., &c. Geology of parts of Middlesex, 

 Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Surrey, Sheet 7, 

 1864, by W. Whitaker, p. 71. " Greywethers and Pudding-stones 

 Mr. Whitaker agrees " with Mr. Prestwich, who has treated of the 

 origin of these blocks in great detail, that in this district they have 

 been derived in great part from the Woolwich-and-Reading Beds 

 although " he has ' ' been led to think that at the western end of the 

 London Basin, where they are present in greater numbers, their 

 origin may be traced to the Bagshot Sands/'' 



Page 72. The " Greywethers are found over the London Clay 

 country, and far from the outcrop of the Reading Beds, which would 

 accord with their derivation from a formation above rather than from 

 one below the London Clay. I am led to think, therefore, that 

 these loose blocks may have come from various beds, and that in 

 this district [Sheet 7 of the Geol. Survey Map] their origin may 

 be traced not only to the Reading Beds, but also to the Basement- 

 bed of the London Clay and to the Bagshot Sands." 



II. — The Guide to the Antiquities of North Wilts. 

 My attention has fortunately been directed to the magnificent 

 volume on British and Roman Antiquities of North Wilts and the 



