7th February 1940

Went up to London today to Royal Archaeological Institute meeting to hear Stuart Piggott talk on Stonehenge and similar monuments. He wore his own clothes, although he is a private in the Territorials, and is strictly forbidden to appear without his uniform. Peggy Piggott told me he was very depressed. So we see England's leading palaeontologist acting as office boy to an Anti-Aircraft Battery, which is about what one would expect in England. He gave us a most amusing paper, suggesting that some of these stone monuments were originally covered over with gigantic roofs, similar to certain monuments of the Missouri Indians. These ideas seem to presuppose much greater architectural abilities in the Bronze Age than we had hitherto imagined.

However, it was a most enjoyable paper, and was much appreciated.

The R. Arch: Inst. Council now have tea before the Council meeting, with sugar almost ad lib - from great bowls of it, so I took a few away with me to use in a café, where you only get 3 lumps!

Peggy Piggott was an archaeologist who was then married to Stuart Piggott. Stuart Piggott had undertaken archaeological excavations with Rudsdale in the 1930s. Later in the war Piggott became an air photo interpreter and was posted to India.

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