First, the rough trimming of the Sarsen, as it lay upon the Down, then its transport to the spot, its final dressing, and the preparation of its foundation, followed by those anxious days during which the builders toiled as they raised it aloft; the feverish haste with which they rammed and packed the loose rubble about its foot, casting in their mauls and implements to wedge and fix it securely on its base: and last of all, the final effort of raising the impost on its wooden bed, rising now on this side, now on that, as the packings were inserted beneath the levered stone. What a contrast to the Stonehenge of to-day--abandoned and silent on the fast vanishing Plain of Salisbury. Yesterday, it was the workplace of a teeming hive of masons, the air filled with the tap of the smaller hammers dressing the stone faces, with the sullen thud of the big maul pounding the face of a newly arrived Sarsen, while the faint muffled "peck" of the deer's horn told of trench workers dressing down a chalk face to receive the thrust of the monolith, while high above the steady tap of the picks and hammers came the sounds of an unknown tongue raised now in command, now in argument, or encouragement as the work went on. WHEN WAS STONEHENGE ERECTED? Until comparatively recent years, the date of Stonehenge was a subject for speculation, and so fascinating did it prove that it attracted the attention of a vast number of minor authorities, who in the face of no definite data on which to base their theses, set the date of Stonehenge at almost any period except that to which it has been proved to belong. Many decided definitely that it was of Roman origin. For the most part, these speculations have not been based upon the tangible evidence of the Stones, the Tools, and the Barrows, but rather upon the records of early historians, whose evidence in those days was probably not a question of first-hand information. After all, the objects actually exhumed from the foundations of the Stones, must of necessity be the evidence of greatest importance. What are these objects? The following is a complete list taken from Mr. Gowland's report. _Excavation I._ (Seven feet deep.)--A Roman coin of Commodus and a penny of George III. at eight inches below the turf. A flint hammer-stone, and a splinter of deer's horn embedded in the chalk, at a depth of two and a half feet (below datum line). _Excavation II._ (Eight feet deep.)--Two, edged hammer-stones of flint, and two rounded ones of the same material, at a depth of three feet (below datum). _Excavation III._ (Eight feet three inches.)--A halfpenny of George I., just below the turf. A Roman coin (sestertius of Antonia) ten inches below the turf, and a pewter farthing of James II. at the same depth. Below this, at a depth varying from two feet to four feet, were twenty-six axes and hammer-stones of flint, two hammer-stones of Sarsen, and a large maul of the same material weighing over sixty-four pounds.