Although not shaped in the usual sense of the word, some of the stones at Arbor Low show indications of rough dressing, particularly at the base, which was, no doubt, for the purpose of stability when they were originally set upright. That once they were erect there can be no doubt, for it is essential to a stone circle that they should be so placed. As they lie, it will be noticed that, with very few exceptions, the top of every stone points to the centre of the plateau, whereas the natural fall of the stones would be towards the ditch, on the edge of which they were placed, for their foundations on that side would be the weaker. The obvious explanation must be that they were pulled down by ropes, and as the vallum would impede the process on the outside, it followed that the crowd of haulers necessarily required the full width of the plateau, and so caused the stones to fall inwards, like the radii of a circle. Similarly the central stones were hauled down in a straight line with the entrance to the circle, which thus gave the necessary leverage of length. When and by whom was this done? It is unlikely that the Romans would interfere with customs which in no way clashed with their own. When, however, the first waves of Christianity passed over the land, and Christian stone crosses were erected throughout our county, it is unlikely that the stone monuments of a pagan race would be tolerated amongst them; and in the seventh century an edict of the Church was passed in France exhorting the clergy to stamp out the idolatry of stone-worship. In Northumbria, which country then included the county of Derby, King Edwin, upon his conversion to Christianity in A.D. 627, authorised Paulinus to destroy “the altars and temples, _with the enclosures that were about them_,” at which he had previously worshipped.[31] [31] _Bede_, chap. xiii.