Stoindumge, on Salisbury Plain. near Ames.
bury, county of \Vilts. Southern England, is one of the most important among the megalithic monuments of the world, sine(' it not only is composed of immense pieces, but combines in itself a number of types. In the centre lies a great slab, 15 feet in length. Just outside of this are two oval rings, the larger one made up of five pairs of trilithons, whis'h increase in height toward the west. The smaller oval. containing nineteen monoliths. is tapering in form; outside these ovals and enclosing them is a circle 01 standing stones. not massive in size: outside of all is the most interesting feature of Stonehenge. a circle till) feet in circumference. made up of immense standing stones, varying in height from iS to 2 feet, some of them six feet in diameter. On the top of them are blocks of similar joining thenr and forming a series of doorway' trilitlions. On the outside of this circle is a ditch and avenue, in which is a cromlech, called the 'Friar's Ileel.'
Not the least interesting feature about these remains is the veneratbm and folk-lore that has gathered around them. No doubt the belief that the ghosts of the dead hover about them aided in the preservation of many of them. Their author ship has puzzled the antiquaries as well as the folk, by whom they were attributed to the Druids, the Celts, and other historic peoples.
Consult : \deadows-'1'aylor, " lkseri pt ions of Cairns. Crouileehs. and IIistvaens," in Trauma- timis of the newer; Irish . I ettlictny 1$112-65 : iietratel. "De la distribution dos dolmens stir la surface de la France2' in Bern• mho, 19f/iglu'. tot, x. I Paris. ; Clarke, "Stow Monuments of the hlg•I in Journal of the .1 n rripologieul I i I ult., iii. (London. 1873) : Broca. "Les blonds 1'1 Mel I I it in Re rue V. f;) Bertholon, "Notice stir trio megalithique en Tunisie.° in Bulletin ile la ( I .you I 88s I herbe, "1 ) d'A.f in Bulletin de ht Sorit'B' il'.1 n hropolngie do Paris. lxix., (Parisi.