20 



The Eleventh General Meeting. 



took into consideration that the Celtic tribes were sprung from 

 Oriental origin, it was clear that Stonehcnge was a Gilgal, and 

 was erected for the purpose of celebrating holy rites, a place where 

 the army met, and where the chieftains were buried. They might, 

 therefore, call it a burial place, or a House of Commons. 



Mr. Zillwood, of Salisbury, made some original remarks, which j 

 were received with considerable attention. He begged to call the 

 attention of those present to a stone in the temple, about which a 

 great deal had been said, and various theories advanced as to its 

 original position, and its uses. He alluded to the stone now 

 lying partially underneath the fallen stone of the inner circle, and 

 which had on its upper side two mortise holes, similar to those in 

 the upper stones of the trilithons. He thought that this stone 

 could not have been one of the corona of the outer circle, as it 

 was of a different kind of stone from those which composed the 

 corona, and besides it was too short, and the holes were too close 

 together for such a purpose. He knew it had been suggested that 

 this stone formed the top stone of one of two small trilithons, 

 which were supposed to stand within the inner circle, and between 

 it and the large trilithon composing the cell ; but if they looked 

 they would perceive that such could not be the case, as there was 

 not sufficient room for it. He agreed with Inigo Jones (who 

 visited this temple), when he said there were only six trilithons in 

 the cell, although he altered their position to favour his own hypo- 

 thesis of its being a Roman temple and erected on the bases of 

 four triangles. Although Jones was wrong as to the position, he 

 believed he was right as to the number. He thought that this 

 stone was one of the small trilithons which stood opposite the 

 highest trilithon, and just within the inner circle at the entrance, 

 and that before it lay the altar-stone, or stone of observation, which 

 Aubrey states was removed from the inside of the temple to St. 

 James's. He (Mr. Zillwood) might be asked what had been the 

 use of this stone. He thought this small trilithon, with the stone 

 lying before it, which was taken away, was used for a similar pur- 

 pose, as was the large trilithon with the stone lying before it. He 

 conceived that as the Arch-Druid stood on the stone tying before 

 the high trilithon to observe the sun rise at the Summer Solstice, 



