Stcnehenge (Saxon Stanhengist, 'the hanging stones'), in Wiltshire, on Salisbury Plain, 9 miles N, of Salisbury and 2 W. of Amesbury, is a circular group of gigantic standing stones, situated in the midst of a number of prehistoric barrows of the bronze age. The circle, which is 97.7 feet in diameter, occupies the central portion of an area of 360 feet in diameter, enclosed within an earthen rampart and ditch. It consists of two concentric circles enclosing two ellipses. The exterior circle, which is composed of pillar-stones of Tertiary sandstone, locally called 'sarsens,' set up at pretty regular intervals of about 4 feet apart, has been surmounted by a continuous line of imposts closely fitted to each other at the extremities, and having mortise-holes in their under sides, which receive tenons on the tops of the pillar-stones. The pillar-stones show generally about 13 feet of height above the ground, and the imposts are about 10 feet long, 3 1/2 feet wide, and 2 feet 8 inches deep. Of this circle seventeen pillar-stones and six imposts retain their original position. About 9 feet within the exterior circle are the remains of a second circle of smaller undressed blocks or boulders of primitive rock, locally known as ' blue stones.' Within this inner circle, and separated from it by about the same distance, is an incomplete ellipse, nearly of horse-shoe form, with the open end facing the north-east, formed of five trilithons or groups of two immense pillar-stones supporting an impost. The central trilithon facing the open end of the ellipse is the largest, the pillar-stones being 22 1/2 feet in height above ground, and the added height of the impost making the whole height of the trilithon 26 1/2 feet. The other four, which stood facing each other, two and two on opposite sides of the ellipse, are somewhat smaller, and only two are now perfect. Within this ellipse is a smaller ellipse of the same form, but composed, like the second circle, of irregularly-shaped ' blue stones' without imposts, varying from 6 to 8 feet in height, and set at intervals of 5 to 6 feet. Though not mentioned by any Roman writer, or noticed by Gildas, Nennius, or Bede, Stonehenge, in the 12th c, is chronicled by Henry of Huntingdon as one of the four wonders of England, the other three being merely natural phenomena. It has been variously attributed to the Phoenicians, the BelgAe, the Druids, the Saxons, and the Danes. It has been called a temple of the sun, and of serpent-worship, a shrine of Buddha, a planetarium, etc. Avebury assigns it to the bronze age, the inner circle of small unwrought 'blue stones' being oldest. One of the uprights was blown down in 1900, and re-erected (in cement) next year. The whole is now fenced in, and looked after, as private property. See Lady Antrobus, Guide to Amesbury and Stonehenge (1901); and Lockyer's articles in Nature (1904).