NOTES.

Sale of Stonehenge and the Amesbury Abbey Estate. On the death of Sir Edmund Antrobus a short time after the death of his only son at the front, the Amesbury Abbey Estate passed to Sir Cosmo Antrobus, brother of the late baronet, and by his direction was offered for sale at Salisbury. The catalogue of the sale was as follows: Particulars, Plans, of Sale of the Domain known

6420 acres

as the Amesbury Abbey Estate including Stonehenge by auction at the New Theatre, 21st Sept., 1915.

Salisbury,

Knight, Frank, & Rutley.

Messrs.

Folio, pp. 101. Two very large folding coloured plans in pocket, and key plan reduced from Ordnance on the cover.

The first five pages are taken up with a paper by Lady Antrobus on "Amesbury Abbey," reprinted from Country Life, March 1st, 1902, and as an introduction to Lot 15, "Stonehenge, together with about 30a. 2r. 37p. of the adjoining downland," a couple of pages of description of the monument are reprinted from the Programme of the visit to Stonehenge by the Royal Archæological Institute in the autumn meeting, 1913. It is stated that the net receipts from the 1s. a head gate-money charged for admission amount to about £320 per annum. The catalogue also contained the following conditions :

"Stonehenge is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882, and is accordingly subject to the provisions of the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act, 1913, and a purchaser shall buy with full notice of the effect of this Act. Lot 15 is also sold subject to the following stipulations, namely:

"(1) That the public shall always be allowed to have free access to it on payment of such reasonable sum per head, not exceeding one shilling for each visit, and subject to such reasonable conditions as the owner for the time being may from time to time think fit:

"(2) That it shall so far as possible be maintained in its present condition, and

"(3) That the purchaser shall in his conveyance covenant not to erect or permit to be erected upon any part of the said lot within 400 yards of the milestone marked 'Amesbury 2' on the northern frontage thereof, any building or erection other than a pay box similar to the pay box already standing on the said lot. The conveyance of Lot 15 shall be made in such form and shall contain such covenants and provisions as the vendor shall consider necessary or proper for giving full effect to the foregoing stipulations."

When the intention of selling the property became known, many letters appeared in the press advocating the acquisition of Stonehenge by the Nation. A series of letters on this suggestion and on the future of the monument 'generally appeared in The Salisbury Journal, June

5th, 1915, from the Dean of Salisbury, the Rev. E. H. Goddard, Dr. J. P. Williams-Freeman, Mr. Heywood Sumner, Col. W. Hawley, and Mr. F. Stevens. Our own Society communicated with the National Trust, offering to cooperate with the Trust if the latter found itself able to take any steps to secure the structure for the Nation, and it was understood that the Secretary of the Trust was in communication with the agents of the estate and the auctioneers on the matter. Nothing further transpired, however, and the sale at Salisbury came on Sept. 21st, 1915. There was no bid for the Abbey and Park, but many of the farms were sold, Normanton Farm going to Lord Glenconner for £7,200, Countess Farm to Mr. A. C. Young for £8,900, Ratfyn to the same bidder for £9,500, Red House Farm to a Salisbury Syndicate for £5,600 and West Amesbury to Mr. I. Crook for £4,450. Full accounts of the sale appeared in the Wiltshire Gazette, Sept. 23rd, and Salisbury Journal, Sept. 25th, 1915, the Salisbury Times giving also a portrait of Mr. Chubb, and photos of the High Street, The Old Lock-Up, and Coldharbour, at Amesbury. Lot 15 comprised Stonehenge and the 30 acres of downland adjoining it, now enclosed within the wire fence. Started at £5,000 it advanced slowly by bids of £100 to £6,600, at which price it was knocked down to Mr. C. H. E. Chubb, who, as he stated, had attended the sale without any intention of buying, but seeing that the sale appeared to hang, started bidding, and was more surprised than anyone else when he found himself the owner at the abovementioned price.

The National Trust was not represented at the sale, and Lord Eversley wrote a letter to the Times in the early days of October, explaining why it was not. The Trust had, he says, asked the agents at what price the owner was willing to sell Stonehenge to a public body like the Trust. The reply was £10,000. The Trust regarded this as altogether excessive, and very shortly before the sale wrote to the agents saying so. The auctioneers replied that the reserve price at the auction would be "thousands of pounds below the amount mentioned in our previous letter" (£10,000), and suggesting that the National Trust should be represented at the auction. Unfortunately it was then too late to make arrangements for the finding of the necessary purchase money in time, and the opportunity of securing Stonehenge for the Trust was lost. Lord Eversley states that at the time of the action brought against the late Sir Edmund Antrobus in 1901, 'we' [presumably the National Trust] 'offered to purchase the monument and a few acres of down land surrounding it for the sum of £10,000.' Edmund "did not object to a sale, but he said his price was £50,000. For this sum he had already offered the monument to the Government, and when it was rejected, on the ground that it was altogether exorbitant, he threatened to sell the stones to an American millionaire, who would ship them across the Atlantic. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom the offer and threat were verbally made, very properly replied that if an attempt was made to remove the monument he would send a regiment from the camp on Salisbury Plain to prevent it." [Surely this must have been merely a joke.]

Sir