At this point the oldest track went across Salisbury Plain towards Stonehenge and so on to Cornwall.
For all reasons an attempt to preserve Stonehenge was desirable; and the owner, Sir Edmund Antrobus I was willing, on certain conditions, as to limitations of access, to co-operate with the Society of Antiquaries, Wiltshire Archaeological Society and Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments in taking such steps as might be necessary to prevent more stones from falling, and even (if possible) to set up some which had fallen.
On the other hand, the Welsh bard Aneurin states that Stonehenge existed before the time of Aurelius, whose title of Ambrosius may, as suggested by Davies, have been derived from Stonehenge.
His principal work, an elaborate account of Stonehenge, appeared in 1740, and he wrote copiously on other supposed Druid remains, becoming familiarly known as the "Arch-Druid."
Stonehenge was first mentioned by Nennius in the 9th century, who asserts that it was erected in commemoration of the 400 nobles who were treacherously slain near the spot by Hengist in 472.
