Mont de la Ville

Mont de la Ville Dolmen, uprooted from Jersey and rebuilt near Henley-on-Thames. Tracked down by JJ Evendon Glyn Daniel, in "Megaliths in History" has the following to say (pp 45-6): "We must mention here the megalithic monument at Park Place near Henley. It is not a mock megalith or folly; it is a genuine antiquity but has no right to be in southern Britain. In August 1785 a Colonel of the St Helier Militia in Jersey was having a piece of land levelled for a parade ground somewhere on the site later occuoied by the Fort Regent. The men digging came across a megalithic monument usually called the "Mont de la Ville". It was offered to the Governor of Jersey, Marshall Conway, by the Vingtaine de la Ville as a gift from the island he had served so well. He hesitated to accept this unusual present especially when he learned he would have to pay for the cost of transporting the megalith. Horace Walpole wrote to him, "Pray do not disappoint me but transport the Cathedral of your island to your domain on our continent." In March 1788 the stones, stowed in a barge, passed up the Thames to Conway's house outside Henley. Horace Walpole took a great interest in! the proceedings and said that the monument had been correctly assembled, but this is doubtful. The monument now stands on a hill overlooking the Thames: it bears a simple inscription: "Cet ancien Temple des Druides decouvert le 12me Aout 1785 sur le Montagne de St Helier dans l'isle de Jersey, a ete presente par les Habitans a son Excellence le General Conway, Leur Gouverneur"