An assemblage of upright stones with others placed horizontally on their tops, on Salisbury Plain, England, -- generally supposed to be the remains of an ancient Druidical temple.
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Stonehenge
Encyclopedia Britannica
STONEHENGE, one of the most remarkable examples of the ancient stone circles, is situated in Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, about 7 miles north of Salisbury. It consists of two circles and two ovals with a large stone in the centre. The outer circle, about 300 feet in circumference, is composed of upright stones about 16 feet in height and 18 feet in circumference, with others of similar size placed horizontally on their tops. Originally there were thirty uprights and thirty imposts, but now only seventeen uprights and seven imposts retain their position. The inner circle, which is about 9 feet distant from the outer circle, consisted originally of forty single stones, much smaller in size, and, unlike those of the outer circle, showing no evidence of having been hewn. The larger of the ovals was composed of five pairs of trilithons standing separate from each other, and rising gradually in height from east to west. Only two of these now remain entire; one of the uprights of the grand central trilithon has fallen, and is broken in two pieces; the impost though fallen is entire, and the other impost is 9 feet out of the perpendicular; another trilithon fell outward on the 3d June 1797; and of a third one of the uprights is still standing, the other upright and the impost having in their fall been broken into three pieces. The inner oval consisted originally of nineteen stones, of which there are remains of eleven, tapering in form and taller than those of the inner circle. In the centre of the smaller oval is the supposed altar stone, 15 feet in length. The whole is surrounded by a vallum and ditch about 370 yards in circumference. From the north-east an avenue, marked by a bank and ditch on each side, proceeds for a distance of 594 yards, after which it divides into two ...branches, one going eastwards up a hill between two groups of barrows, and the other north-westwards about 300 yards to the cursus or race-course. The cursus, which is enclosed between two parallel banks and ditches running east and west, is a mile and 176 yards in length, with a breadth of 110 yards. There is a smaller cursus a little to the north. In the avenue there is a cromlech or bowing-stone 16 feet in length, called the Friar’s Heel, and in a line with it, within the area of the work, there is a large prostrate stone on which it is supposed the victims were immolated. Barrows lie around on all sides.
Stonehenge is first mentioned by Nennius, in the 9th century, who asserts that it was erected in commemoration of the 400 nobles who were treacherously slain near the spot by Hengist in 472. A similar account of its origin is given in the triads of the Welsh bards, where its erection is attributed to King Merlin, the successor of Vortigern. Inigo Jones, in his work on Stonehenge, published in 1655, endeavours to prove that it was a temple of the Romans, but later writers of authority are generally agreed that it is of Druidical origin, although there are differences of opinion as to its probable date, some placing it at 100 years before Christ and others in the 5th century. It seems most probable that the inner circle and inner oval, constructed of smaller stones of granite, which must have been brought from a distance, is of earlier origin than the outer circle and oval.
Among numerous writings on Stonehenge may be mentioned Stonehenge and Abury, by Dr william Stukeley, 1740, reprinted in 1840; Davies’s Celtic Researches, 1SO4, and Mythology of the Druids, 1800; Hoare’s Ancient Wiltshire, vol. i., 1812; Browne, An Illustration of Stonehenge and Abury, 1823; the article on Stonehenge in the Quarterly Review for July I860; Long’s Stonehenge and its Barrows, 1876; Gidley, Stonehenge Viewed in the Light of Ancient History and Modem Observation, 1877.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 22, p. 576
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