STONEHENGE, ston'hZnj, a notable ex ample of the ancient stone circles, situated in Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, about seven miles north of Salisbury and within two miles of the town of Amesbury. The structure con sists of two concentric circles of upright stones surrounding two concentric the whole surrounded by a double earth wall and ditch, about 370 yards in circumference. There is an entrance at the northeast which proceeds in the form of an avenue, guarded on each side by a wall and a ditch, for a distance of 594 yards, after which it divides, one branch going east ward up a hill, between two groups of burial mounds or barrows, and the other branch lead ing northwest to the cursus or race-course, about 300 yards distant. The outer earth-wall is 15 feet high, the ditch 30 feet wide and the avenue at the entrance 15 feet wide. The outer circle is about 105 feet in diameter and con sisted when complete of 60 stones, 30 uprights and 30 horizontal imposts between them. The upright stones are about 16 feet high and six or seven feet thick. Of the original 60 there re main 32 stones, being 17 uprights in position, seven prostrate and eight imposts. At the ave nue entrance there are 11 uprights remaining with five imposts. The uprights of the outer circle were placed about four feet apart, with the imposts fitted to them continuously at their top, each upright bearing a vertical peg at each side, into which fitted a mortise in the end of the horizontal impost. The imposts are on an average about 10 feet long, three and one-half feet wide and two feet eight inches deep. There is a space between the outer and the inner circles of from eight to nine feet forming a walk 300 feet in circumference. The num ber of uprights composing the inner circle has been stated variously, the different figures ranging from 40 to 60; there were no imposts in the inner circle and the height of the stones, judging from the 11 still standing, seems to have been about six feet. This circle, like the first, has an opening to the northeast, opposite the entrance. But unlike the outer circle, it is composed, not of hewn sandstone, but of smaller rocks, seemingly boulders brought from a distance. Within the inner circle and about the same distance from it as the outer circle stands the first oval, an incomplete oval,_in the shape of a huge horse-shoe with its open end facing the entrance at the northeast. The first oval consists of five groups or trilithons, each trilithon being composed of two uprights with an impost at the top completely covering their upper edges. The five trilithons are thus
independent and not connected by continuous imposts. Their size gradually rises from east to west, the largest being the grand central trilithon in the closed end of the ellipse' and the smallest, about 16 feet high, those nearest the entrance. The height of the central trili thon, with impost, is 28 feet, the pillar stones being about 23 feet above ground, and the impost about four feet thick. Other dimensions of this trilithon are: Length of impost, 15 feet; breadth, four and one-half feet; breadth of uprights, seven and one-half feet; thickness, four feet. The other four trilithons stood two and two facing each other. Only two of these five groups are now perfect. One of the pillars of the central trilithon, fallen, is broken into three pieces; the impost though fallen is intact, and the remaining upright is nine feet out of the perpendicular. Of the two trilithons of the west side the one nearer the centre fell outward, entire, in 1797; though prostrate the stones are intact. The other trilithon on the west broke up at an earlier date; one of its pillar stones remains standing— the other and the impost lie at its foot, broken. The trilithons of this, the outer ellipse, are of hewn sandstone like the stones in the exterior circle. Within this outer ellipse is a smaller one of the same shape, with the opening facing the northeast, but, like the inner circle, com posed not of tool-dressed sandstone, but of blue stone boulders, and, also like the inner circle, without imposts. The stones employed in the smaller ellipse are on an average about a foot to a foot and a half taller than those in the smaller circle; they are set at intervals of about five to six feet. Within the inner oval, at its upper end, in front of the central trilithon, is a slab of coarse-blue marble, 16 feet long. four feet broad and a) inches thick. This is commonly spoken of as the altar stone. The cursus at the end of the western branch of the avenue of approach is a stretch of flat land, about one and three-fourths miles long and 110 yards across. It is bounded by parallel banks and ditches and is rectangular in shape, with a flat mound stretching across its eastern end. There is a smaller cursus a little to the north and barrows lie all around. Within the avenue of approach there is a large upright which has been niclmamed the Friar's Heel. It is 16 feet high and is supposed to be a bowing stone.