174 



The Forty-Eighth General Meeting. 



"The most notable event in connection with "Wiltshire archaeology 

 in general during the past year has been the downfall, on the 

 night of the 31st December last, of an upright and lintel of the 

 outer circle at Stonehenge. This lintel was the only one remaining 

 in situ on the west side of the outer circle. The stones that have 

 fallen are numbered 18 and 17 L on Mr. Cunnington's plan 

 (Magazine No. XXI., 1-41) in the Guide to Stonehenge (1884). 

 The lintel 17 L is unfortunately broken into two pieces by its fall 

 on No. 53, one of the stones of the great trilithon which fell on 

 the 6th January, 1797. Sir Edmund Antrobus, the owner of 

 Stonehenge, since his succession to the Amesbury estate in 1899, 

 has been most anxiously considering what steps he should take 

 with the view to the protection and preservation of Stonehenge 

 under the entirely altered condition of the district brought about 

 by the establishment of a great permanent military camp at 

 Bulford and the construction of railways, within a very short 

 distance of the spot where the great temple had stood for centuries 

 so remote from any such associations. Your Committee had been in 

 communication with Sir Edmund Antrobus, but no definite proposal 

 had been arrived at until the end of the year, and it is a singular 

 coincidence that on the 31st of December, only a few hours before 

 the stones fell, Sir Edmund had posted a letter to one of the 

 Secretaries inviting the co-operation and advice of the County 

 Society, in conjunction with that of the Society of Antiquaries and 

 the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Steps were 

 speedily taken to hold a conference at Burlington House. This 

 was attended on our behalf by our President, who took a keen 

 interest and a prominent part in the proceedings ; by Mr. Nevil 

 Story Maskelyne, who, as President of the Society in 1883, had 

 taken an active part in the discussions that were t hen going on 

 about the preservation of Stonehenge, and whose paper on the 

 Petrology of Stonehenge, printed in our -Magazine in 1878, is the 

 mofll important ever written on this branch of the subject; and 

 by tin- t WO Secretaries. The number from each Society was limited 

 to four, and all were ably represented. This was followed within 

 B lew (lavs by another meeting of the same body at Stonehenge, to 



