52 



ON THE 



Jpetjjofr of fpo&ittg Colossal Atones, 



yxutmh fog some of tlje mm afc&anair WuHan of gntipttg. 



By the Rey. A. C. Smith. 



Read before the Society during the Annual Meeting at Salisbury, Sept. 13th, 1805. 



J?gjflp PRESUME that among the many strangers who annually 

 JJ) visit Stonehenge, after the first mental conjecture as to its 

 date, and the people who erected that imposing structure, the 

 question which next suggests itself to the mind of each is, how 

 did the builders of those times (whoever they were, and whenever 

 they lived) transport and then erect such huge and massive stones ? 



Now this is a question which nobody can satisfactorily answer, 

 for we have nothing to guide us to any certainty on the point : 

 and however ingenious and plausible the theories which from time 

 to time have been adduced, they can at most lay claim to pro- 

 bability, but can by no means be pushed beyond the limits of 

 conjecture. 



Under these circumstances it is well to make a wide cast among 

 the nations of ancient time, and if we can leave anything definite 

 of the practice in this particular of other people in those distant 

 ages, such practice may perhaps serve as a clue to guide us to the 

 true solution of the question which occupies our attention here, 

 and at any rate is an enquiry full of interest, as we ponder over 

 the vast and bulky masses which somehoio were raised by a primitive 

 people to the position they have held for so many ages. 



Now it so happens that within the last few years, the researches 

 which have been carried on among the most civilized of the ancient 

 nations (I mean the Assyrians and the Egyptians), have revealed 

 the method which both those nations employed for transporting 

 the colossal figures in which those people delighted. Mr. Layard 

 and Sir Henry Rawlinson in Assyria, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson 



