The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-01-15 00:00:00

THE AHOLISTONE. DORSETSHIRE.

SiDee I brought under the loth.* of the readers of
"N. and the "Great Smite f Thee' at Thura,a‘Mn.
Ciseshins(sth S. viii. XI), my attenti..,n haa been cAlled to
• relit of • similar description situakd near Poole
Harbour, Direetohire, rolled the " Aseikutone." The
totality m very similar to hi it 1.1 its Cheshire congener,
being on elevate' ground on Studiand Moor, about n oile
from the village of that PAM% commanding a view of
Poole Harbour a n. side and of Kole Bay and the open
net on the other. The ram* crowns the summit of a
rounded eminence, about eighty or ninety feet above
the level of the adjoining laud. At • little distant
It is surrounded on all sides but the east by rising ground,
Owing it .inethins of the amphitheatre form. The
rounded billie a natural prominence, but it has evidently
been shaped l.y human hands into Hew...int eytutuetrical
form.
. . . . . . .

The stone itself is ferruginous sandstoue, belonging to
the strata overlying the Bagehot sand, and is in elm Its
formic that of • truncated cone resting on it. smaller end,
eighteen feet high, about twenty feet in diameter at the
bane and thirty feet at the overhanging summit. It,
present form is doubtless owing to the effects of the
weather on the lower strata, which are softer than the
overhanging cap. It is not improbable that human labour
has been employed in eliaping the stone. There ill a per-
pendicular rent from the summit downward, There are
three shallow hollows on the fist plane at the top.
The situation and diecription of the monument corres-
pond so closely with other Danish remains elsewhere that,
prime facie, there seem stronc grounds for ascribing it to
the sea rovers, if other circumstantial evidence is found
le confirm this Inference.
Pint a• to the name sadsstons or Eggitesswe. Hutchins,
is hie History of Posit, and Warn , in Alaoiont Donk*
concur in denying it from AS. Ailley Thu, however, is
inadmissible. ildig. with its accent.' a and mein:led
Initial, must have been pronounced by our Seem emcee
ton much the name es in modern English, koly. If the
monument is Danish, it must have been. sacrificial aft or
Now Oath. ogle, oft, signify suffering, sacrifice. The
Dame attained no settlements of any permanence in the
month and tent of Enroot. Hence the nomenclature of
the district was not affected by them, at least to nothing
like tho same extent as was the result to the north of the
Trent- The name was most probably applied by the
English hilt thitants after the departure of the Dine,
Although no extensive or permanent settlements were
effected by the Danes, yet their influence on thin coast
was onnsideral.le for • perind of nearly three centuries.
Amer, in his Lifs of Alfred, records the first incursion
of the Danes in • el TIM, when an expedition in three
ships landed in Weymouth Bay and plundered the
neighbourhood. In 833 • much larger force comprising
thirty-eve shim, landed at Chirmouth, and defeated
restart in • pitched battle. In 835 another irruption was
made with the aid of the Wert Welch or Cornishmen,
when they were defeated by "chart In 873 according to
the brass in Witubonte Minstar, Ling Ethelred use
&fettled and slain be the Dane. In 851-7 a groat ship-
wreck of the Danish fleet is recorded at Pence! Point,
fiwanwick Bay. in this immediate neighbourhood.
Early in the tenth century, according to Camden, Limy
Ethnic' the Elder and his brother Etbeletald being at war,
the former fortified the eminence at &wintry, whilst his
brother, who had occupied %flushness, took ref use with
the Dann, who must therefore have had • strong hold on
the country. In 10002 fiweyn, the father of Cabot,
ravaged the country and plundered Dorchester for the
lest time. It is evident. therefore, that tbe connection of
the DUNe with the county of Doren subsisted quite
lonic enough to account for any m,oluiernt of this kind.
Putting together all the eircumitances of the WM, we
are fairly Justified in considering the Aggleatone to he a
Danish sacrificial alter in the days of heathendom This
monument, like the great stone of Thor, from its secluded
situation, remanded for a long time entirely unnoticed.
At the time of Coker's Surety of Dorsaskiro in 1732 it was
quite unknown, but • short time previous to the publioa-
Hon of Hutchins lliegery in 1771 it had attracted the
attention of • gentleman it the neighbourhood, who
brought it under note*.
The county of Dorset possesses& large array of primeval
fortresses and eanheorka Some of times Premed they
Celtic appellation M Dos, Comb. Dye, • hill fort, rate
as Hamel Dun. Egger Dun, Pales Dun. A large number
take the suffix of Bury, am Bedbary, Abbottateery,
Clmlbun. lc. It is probable that these, if not originally
flagon. bad at least been appropriated by the Same
The ~rale of Wareham, there ma be little doubt, le ed
Homes origin, though frequently seedbed to the Seism ,
J. A. Pima. '
leandyknowe, Waymire*, to New fed ()wrist.