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Me. Samuel Ferguson, Q.C., read the following paper: — 

 On a Passage in the 11 Historia Anglorum" of Henry oe Huntingdon, 



RELATIVE TO StONEHENGE. 



I desire to call the attention of the Academy to a passage in the 

 " Historia Anglorum" of Henry of Huntingdon, descriptive of the ap- 

 pearance of Stonehenge towards the middle of the twelfth century, 

 which does not appear to have been observed on by any of the numerous 

 writers who have treated of that monument. Speaking of the marvels 

 of Britain, he says — " Secundum est apud Stanenges ; ubi lapides mirse 

 magnitudinis in modum portarum elevati sunt, ita ut portae portis su- 

 perpositae videantur, nec potest aliquis excogitare qua arte tanti lapides 

 deo in altum elevati sunt, vel quare ibi constructi sunt ;" that is — 

 " The second marvel is at Stonehenge, where stones of amazing bigness 

 are raised in manner of gateways, so that gateways appear erected 

 over gateways ; nor can any one find out by what contrivance stones 

 so great have been raised to such a height, or for what reason they have 

 beea erected in that place." (" Mon. Hist. Brit." vol. i., p. 649, a). The 

 latter clause of the passage has been relied on by those who discredit 

 the account of the origin of Stonehenge given by Geoffrey of Monmouth 

 and Grirald Cambrensis ; but the statement that the place presented the 

 appearance of gateways erected over gateways has been, so far as I 

 can find, passed by without any comment or explanation ; the only 

 notice seemingly glancing at it being that by Herbert in his " Cyclops 

 Christianus" (p. 160), where, citing the passage with a view to displace 

 the force of its second clause, by showing that Henry afterwards 

 adopted the statements of Geoffrey, he says — " His striking descrip- 

 tion must be that of an eye-witness, but no tradition seems to have then 

 reached his ears." 



The image presented by the expression " portae portis superpositae" 

 would be sufficiently definite, were it not for the employment of the 

 verb videantur, which usually imports something seeming, rather than 

 real ; and probably the passage has been regarded as conveying no more 

 than that the higher portce of the internal trilithons are seen above the in- 

 ■ tercolumniations and continuous imposts of the external circle, like gates 

 rising above gates; but the word " superpositae"* seems irreconcileable 

 with that construction ; and it appears more agreeable to the character 

 of the sentence to refer the element of " seemingness" to the figurative 

 expression, " portae portis;" and to give the verb its literal construc- 

 tion, rendering it, " so that as it were gateways are seen erected over 

 gateways." This construction appears quite in accordance with the 

 usually accepted meaning of the name Stonehenge — i. e. " stone gal- 

 lows" — more especially if the superstructure existed over one trilithon 

 only ; but it is not agreeable to any of the numerous plans or resto- 



* " Superimpositre," Francof. Ed. 1601, p. 299. 



