STOLBERG, CHRISTIAN, COUNT, German poet of the Goettingen school, to which Buerger and Voss belonged, born in Hamburg; was with his brother a friend of Goethe’s, and held a civil appointment in Holstein (1748-1821).

STOLBERG, FRIEDRICH LEOPOLD, COUNT OF, German poet, born in Holstein, brother of preceding; held State appointments in Denmark; joined the Romish Church, and showed a religious and ascetic temper (1750-1819).

STOLE, a long scarf worn by bishops and priests in the administration of the sacraments of the Church, and sometimes when preaching, as well as in symbol of authority.

STONE AGE, the name given to that period in the history of civilisation when the weapons of war and the chase and the implements of industry were made of stone, prior to employment for these purposes of bronze, characteristic of the age succeeding.

STONE CIRCLES, circles of STANDING STONES (q. v.) found in various parts of Great Britain, North Europe generally, and also, but of more recent origin, in North India; were certainly, in the most of cases, set up to mark the circular boundary of a place of burial; erroneously ascribed to the Druids; from the character of numerous cinerary urns exhumed, seem to have belonged to the bronze age in Great Britain; most interesting are those of Stennis, in Orkney, with a circumference of 340 ft., Avebury, in Wiltshire, and STONEHENGE (q. v.).

STONEHAVEN (4), fishing port and county town of Kincardineshire, situated at the entrance of Carron Water (dividing the town) into South Bay, 16 m.  SSW. of Aberdeen; has a small harbour, and is chiefly engaged in herring and haddock fishing.

STONEHENGE, the greatest and best preserved of the STONE CIRCLES (q. v.) of Britain, situated in Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, 7 m.  N. of Salisbury; “consists of two concentric circles, enclosing two ellipses”; the diameter of the space enclosed is 100 ft.; the stones are from 13 ft. to 28 ft. high; is generally regarded as an exceptional development of the ordinary stone circle, but the special purpose of its unusual construction is still a matter of uncertainty.

STONYHURST, a celebrated Roman Catholic college in East Lancashire, 10 m.  N. of Blackburn; established in 1794 by certain Jesuit fathers who, after the suppression of their seminary at St. Omer, in France, by the Bourbons, took up their residence at Bruges and then at Liege, but fled thence to England during the Revolution, and accepted the shelter offered them at Stonyhurst by Mr. Weld of Lulworth; there are about 300 students, and upwards of 30 masters; a preparatory school has been established at Hodder, a mile distant; in 1840 was affiliated to the University of London, for the degrees of which its students are chiefly trained; retains in its various institutions many marks of its French origin.

STOOL OF REPENTANCE, in Scotland in former times an elevated seat in a church on which for offences against morality people did penance and suffered rebuke.