STONEHENGE MARVEL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 8 December 1927, Page 8

STONEHENGE MARVEL

BRITAIN'S OLDEST MYSTETRY. THREATENED EXTINCTION. Britainjs most imposing megalithic structure is threatened. A real estate company contemplates building a garden city on one side of Stonehenge, but it seems likely that the project will fail, since a powerful committee, headed by the Prime Ministers has launched an appeal for funds in order to buy 1500 acres of adjacent land. “The solitude of Stonehenge,” reads the appeal, “should be restored and precaution taken to ensure that posterity will see it against the sky in the lonely majesty before which our ancestors have stood in awe throughout all recorded history.” Stonehenge has been compared with the Pyramids in importance and antiquity, but it is only since 1918 that this wonderful old ruin has belonged to the nation. For centuries it was held by the Antrobus family, but when Sir Edmund died in 1915 purchase was made by Mr (now Sir Cecil) Chubb, who later made his gift to the nation. Some years before his death Sir Edward Antrobus offered to sell Stonehenge, ...; his

price was so high that it was feared an American millionaire might effect the sale and remove the monoliths wholesale. Happily this danger was averted. Was Stonehenge a Druidical shrine, a Roman temple, a centre of Sun Worship, or a place of execution for wrongdoers? For generations savants have speculated on the origin and meaning of the gigantic prehistoric stones, some of them weighing 20 tons.

STRANGELY WEIRD AND IMPOSING. The ruin is situated near the crown of a gentle slope, and its appearance is strangely weird and imposing. There is a greater outer circle of monoliths of sandiiths of sandstone, ranging from 13 to 23 feet in height, and upon the tops of these are other stones, known as imposts, forming rude arches. These are the Hanging Stones, whence the place took its name. Originally this circle numbered 30 stones, but only 17, with six imposts, now remain in position. The second circle is about 9ft. in> side the outer, and the rocks of this are known ns “blue stones,” or “foreign stones.” since their like has been found nowhere else on Salisbury Plain. Fallen monoliths litter the interior, the greatest being a tabloid rock, known as the altar or slaughtering stone. Some distance outside is the “Hele Stone,” or “Friar's Heel.” On the longest day of the year the sun rises immediately over this stone, as viewed front the centre of the circle, nnd so the theory of the sun temple has arisen. The stones have been ascribed to Phoenicians and Danes, while some scientists place their erection back to the Bronze Age. It has been called a place of serpent worship, a temple of Buddha, a plentarium, a gallows on which defeated British leaders were hanged, a meeting place of armies, and a calendar in stone. For centuries it was asserted that Stonehenge was built by Druids, but the latest findings of science trace it back to 1680 or 1700 B.C. The discovery of the play of the sun on the Friar’s Heel on the date of the summer solstice was of immense value in settlirfg the question of antiquity. Recently, owing to aerial photography, an archaeologist put forward the theory that it was a combined temple, fair ground, market, and racecourse.