Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered - Sir Norman Lockyer

Fig. 59.—Photograph of the Ordnance Map.

“In 1594 Camden describes this monument as consisting of nineteen stones, 12 feet from each other, with one much larger than the rest in the centre. It must have been much in the same condition then as now. As he does not say that the monolith enclosed within it was inclined, it is possible that it was upright at that time.

“Dr. Stukeley’s supposition was that it originally stood upright, and that ‘somebody digging by it to find treasure disturbed it.’

“On the north-east side there are two fallen stones which Dr. Borlase, in 1749, imagined to have formed part of a Cromlech. It is more probable that they are the fragments of a second pillar which was placed to the north-east of the centre, and as far from it as the existing one is. There are instances, I believe, of two pillars occupying similar positions within a circle. One of the stones, that marked C in my plan, on the eastern side of the ring, was prostrate in the Doctor’s time.

“At a short distance to the south-east and south-west there are cairns, which have been explored.”

For this monument I have used the 6-inch map, as the circle lies nearly at the centre, and all the outstanding stones are within its limits. The heights of the sky-line were measured by Mr. H. Bolitho at a subsequent visit with a miner’s dial; the resulting declinations have been calculated by Mr. Rolston. A theodolite survey will doubtless revise some of them:—

	Marks.	Az.						Hills.					Dec.					Star.	Date.
1.	F. Stone cross	N.	43	°	15	′	E.	2	°	7	′		+	29	°	26	′	Capella	2250
2.	P. Fine menhir	N.	53		30		E.	1		15				22		58		Solstitial sun	—
3.	B. Blind Fiddler	N.	54		30		E.	1		15				22		24		„	—
4.	Two large menhirs	N.	66		50		E.	1		0				14		55		May sun	—
5.	Stone cross	N.	78		0		E.	1		0		(?)	+	8		8		Pleiades (May)	1480
6.	Stone	S.	66		30		E.	1		0		(?)	-	14		32		November sun	—
7.	Stone	N.	83		30		W.	1		0		(?)	+	4		36		Pleiades (September)	2120