had been the principal centre of Druid activity in Britain, Wood surveyed Stonehenge, which has a diameter of 325 ft at the outer earth bank, and designed the Circus with a 318 ft diameter to mimic this.

Wood died less than three months after the first stone was laid; his son, John Wood, the Younger, completed the project to his father's design. The initial leases for the south west segment were granted in 1755-1767, for