142 



Stonehenge Notes : The Fragments. 



the accompanying plan. 1 In position it ranges with the other 

 stones forming this ellipse, and it is composed of the same material 

 — diabasic rock. The block is about nine feet from No. 58, and 

 slopes somewhat towards the north-west. It is embedded in a very 

 tough substance, resembling concrete, of which we propose to speak 

 further on. 



The other of these relics is all that remains of one of the small 

 stones of the inner circle. It was found six inches below the turf, 

 on the eastern side of the building, between Nos. 27 and 29, 

 about ten feet from No. 27. It consists of a soft calciferous chloritic 

 schist, foreign to the county of Wilts, and differing entirely from 

 any of the other stones of Stonehenge. Fragments of this stone 

 have been constantly turning up at Stonehenge, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood [notably in Barrow 41 (Hoare's Map), 2 about a mile 

 from Stonehenge], and have been a source of much perplexity to 

 all petrologists ; not belonging on the one hand to any known rock 

 of this part of England, nor, as far as was then known, to Stone- 

 henge itself. The late Mr. Poulett Scrope was the first to find 

 a piece of it, now many years ago. Numerous splinters of it have 

 since been discovered, and it is mentioned by Professor Maskelyne 

 as a compact variety of rock, with a decided slaty cleavage and 

 character. 3 Each specimen found added to the difficulty, but all 

 this has been removed by the opportune discovery of the original 

 stone as above-mentioned. 



It is not surprising that the mere stump only remains, as the 

 stone is so soft as to be easily broken by excursionists, both ante 



1 In the plan of Stonehenge which accompanies this paper the numbering has 

 been simplified, so as to render it more available for general use. Number one 

 commences with the stone on the left of the entrance, passing round the circle 

 of large sarsen stones, with their lintels (marked " L "), thence to the inner circle 

 of small foreign stones, then to the ellipse of the five great trilithons of sarsen, 

 with their imposts (marked " I "), and then to the inner ellipse of (diabase — 

 foreign) obelisks. 



2 Long's " Stonehenge," p. 66. 

 3 Wiltshire Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 159. 



