ld workman remembered that they had been left on a bare
surface of broken bricks and mortar, close to the foundations of the
kiln; but the whole surrounding surface is now covered with turf and
mould. The two largest of these stones had never since been moved; nor
could this easily have been done, as, when I had them removed, it was
the work of two men with levers. One of these stones, and not the
largest, was 64 inches long, 17 inches broad, and from 9 to 10 inches
in thickness. Its lower surface was somewhat protuberant in the
middle; and this part still rested on broken bricks and mortar,
showing the truth of the old workman's account. Beneath the brick
rubbish the natural sandy soil, full of fragments of sandstone, was
found; and this could have yielded very little, if at all, to the
weight of the stone, as might have been expected if the sub-soil had
been clay. The surface of the field, for a distance of about 9 inches
round the stone, gradually sloped up to it, and close to the stone
stood in most places about 4 inches above the surrounding ground. The
base of the stone was buried from 1 to 2 inches beneath the general
level, and the upper surface projected about 8 inches above this
level, or about 4 inches above the sloping border of turf. After the
removal of the stone it became evident that one of its pointed ends
must at first have stood clear above the ground by some inches, but
its upper surface was now on a level with the surrounding turf. When
the stone was removed, an exact cast of its lower side, forming a
shallow crateriform hollow, was left, the inner surface of which
consisted of fine, black mould, excepting where the more protuberant
parts rested on the brick-rubbish. A transverse section of this stone,
together with its bed, drawn from measurements made after it had been
displaced, is here given on a scale of 1/2 inch to a foot (Fig. 2). The
turf-covered border which sloped up to the stone, consisted of fine
vegetable mould, in one part 7 inches in thickness. This evidently
consisted of worm-castings, several of which had been recently
ejected. The whole stone had sunk in the thirty-five years, as far as
I could judge, about 11/2 inch; and this must have been due to the
brick-rubbish beneath the more protuberant parts having been
undermined by worms. At this rate, the upper surface of the stone, if
it had been left undisturbed, would have sunk to the general level of
the field in 247 years; but befor