196 



appreciation of which it is necessary to go a little into detail, as regards 

 the circumstances of the group formed by this impost, and the remains 

 immediately connected with it. I cannot better describe its general 

 appearance than in the language of Stukeley, premising merely that 

 his " altar" designates a fallen block of longer and more slender pro- 

 portions than the impost containing the mortises, which lies flat on 

 the ground, pressed down by the weight of the fallen impost lying 

 across it near one end, and of the fallen pillar also lying across it near the 

 other. " The trilithon of the upper end of the adytum" says Stukeley, 

 " was an extraordinary beauty. But, alas! through the indiscretion 

 probably of somebody digging there between them and the altar, the 

 noble impost is dislodged from its airy seat, and fallen upon the altar, 

 where its huge bulk lies unfractured. 



' Decidit in solidam, longo post tempore, t err am 

 Pondus, et exhibuit junctam cum viribus artem. t 



Ovid. Met. 



1 1 The two uprights that supported it are the most delicate stones of 

 the whole work. The3^ are, I believe, above thirty foot long, and well 

 chisell'd, finely taper'd, and proportion' d in their dimensions. That 

 southward is broke in two, lying upon the altar. The other still 

 stands entire, but leans on one of the stones of the inward oval. 



' Jam jam lapsura, cadentique 

 Imminet assirnilis. .' " 



The fall of this trilithon took place about 1620. The impost about 

 which this inquiry is chiefly concerned is stated to have originally mea- 

 sured sixteen feet; but owing, no doubt, to the injuries it has sustained 

 by the destructive curiosity of visitors, it is now reduced to fifteen feet 

 some inches or thereabouts, for the corrosion's and irregularities of its 

 surface, and the shattered condition of its ends, render an accurate 

 measurement somewhat difficult, and only to be accomplished by 

 the aid of appliances which would reduce its bevelled and irregular 

 outlines to the square. It lies on edge, presenting the fiat of what 

 was its under surface to the east. This face has suffered compara- 

 tively little ; but time and the weather have made great ravages on 

 the western or upper face. The lower edge on which it rests is straight j 

 the upper edge somewhat convex, indicating that this latter lay to- 

 wards the outside when in situ, for such is the arrangement of the 

 two adjoining trilithons which are still standing. The mortises on the 

 under surface are eight feet six inches apart from inner, and twelve 

 feet two inches apart from outer, edge to edge, and are unequal both 

 in area and depth. That towards the southern end, which formerly 

 locked on the tenon of the leaning pillar, is an oval bowl, twenty-five 

 inches in its greater by seventeen inches in its lesser diameter, and 

 seventeen inches deep ; that towards the northern end, which locked 

 on the tenon of the fallen pillar, is an oval bowl, nineteen inches in its 



