very heart of the Downs is the Plain of Salisbury, that broad
stretch which is bounded on the west by the wandering valley of the
river Nadder, and on the east by the trickle of the Bourne, between
which the "Hampshire" Avon divides the area with almost mathematical
accuracy in two equal triangles; and Salisbury lies at the apex of
each.

The pasturage of the Downs, and the rich woodland of these valleys
must have been important factors in those old days, when the builders
of Stonehenge pushed inland from the coast, seeking a spot wherein
they might settle. As a general rule, it may be held with
considerable certainty, not only in Wiltshire, but also in other parts
of England, that our early settlers from the Continent elected to live
on the downland rather than in the valleys. Go where you may over the
Plain, its turfy surface is scored by terraces or "lynchets," telling
the tale of the ancient ploughman's furrows on the slopes, and side by
side with them lie the scars of what were once cattle enclosures,
farms, and stockaded villages. Nor is the explanation far to seek, for
the valleys afforded shelter to the wolves, and were in places
obstructed by undrained marshes, unhealthy and unfitted for the
herdsman and his flocks, and impenetrable as regards roads.

Midway between the valleys of the Nadder and the Avon lies
"Stonehenge," a Megalithic Monument without an equal in this country,
about which the legend of the peasant, as well as the speculation of
the _savant_ have gathered in an ever-increasing volume.

The bibliography of Stonehenge alone comprises nearly a thousand
volumes, and it is hard to pick up an old magazine or periodical which
does not contain some notice of it. County historians, astronomers,
Egyptologists, and antiquaries have argued, as old Omar would say,
"about it and about" until the man of ordinary tastes who chances to
visit the spot and to study the stones, finds himself confronted with
such a mass of evidence, of theory, and of fantastic speculation,
that he sadly turns aside befogged, or maybe fired by the example of
others evolves from his inner consciousness yet another theory of his
own to add to the already plethoric accumulation on the subject. The
object of the following pages is not to propound any new theories, but
rather to reduce the existing knowledge of Stonehenge to a compact
compass, and to make it readily accessible to that vast body of
individuals who take an intelligent