as in the striking group of the Lydiards, still bear the names given by the elder race."

The earlier antiquities of Wiltshire may be briefly enumerated under the following heads :

Druidical Temples.-Stonehenge and Avebury.

Sacred Circles, formed by a bank and ditch, the ditch being inside the rampart.

Cromlechs, of which there is a specimen near Marlborough.

British Boundaries, the most remarkable the Wansdyke and Bokerley-ditch, the former still perfect for many miles.

British Roads, principally the Ridge Way, which runs N.E. from Avebury by the camps of Barbury and Liddington. They generally pursue a course along the high land, which the Romans avoided as much as possible.

British Villages, still to be traced on the slopes of Salisbury Plain. There is no doubt that in early times the hills were inhabited in preference to the valleys, which were overgrown with forests, marshy, and insalubrious. They were better adapted for cultivation, as well as for defence. Banks and Ditches, which marked out the lines of communication from village to village.

Barrows, studding all the chalk hills and valleys, and to be classed in four divisions-the Long-barrow, Bowl-barrow, Bell-barrow, and Druidbarrow-the three first so named from their shape, the fourth consisting of one or more tumuli, enclosed within a circular ditch, sometimes 100 ft. in diameter. The Wiltshire barrows, particularly those which surround the temples of Avebury and Stonehenge, rank among the most ancient in England, and are all supposed to date from a time preceding the arrival of the Romans. They are also very remarkable for the variety and symmetry of their forms. Many of these old sepulchres were opened by Sir R. C. Hoare, who, in his 'History of Ancient Wiltshire,' has given us an interesting account of their contents: how in one he found the skeleton of the child clasped in the mother's arms; in another the hunter, with his faithful dog; in a third the maiden still encircled by her little beads and trinkets; in a fourth the warrior in the midst of his weapons, and with the incense and drinking cup by his side. Three modes of interment appear to have been pursued. In the first the skeleton reposes with its head to the N., and its legs drawn up; in the second it is extended at full length; in the third the body has been burnt, and the ashes deposited either in a cist cut in the chalky ground, or within a funeral urn. With these relics of mortality are found the arms and the personal ornaments of the dead-the arrowheads of flint, the rude axes of stone, the beads of glass, jet, or amber, and, occasionally, articles of brass, gold, or iron.

Entrenchments, viz.: 1. rectangular enclosures, probably the rude defences of villages; 2. camps on elevated points, varying in size and construction, and of which Battlesbury and Scratchbury, near Warminster, are remarkable specimens.

Roman Roads.-1. Fosse Way, from Cirencester to Bathford; 2. Ermin Street, from Cirencester to Aldbourn; 3. Julian Street, from Bath to Marlborough; 4. Bath to Old Sarum; 5. Old Sarum to Dorchester; 6. Old Sarum to Uphill, on the Bristol Channel; 7. Old Sarum to Winchester; 8. Old Sarum to Silchester.

Norman Castles, of which there are remains at Ludgershall and Wardour, and the mounds of the keep at Marlborough, Devizes, Sherrington, Castle Combe, and Malmesbury.

To view these ancient relics with the interest they deserve, it will be necessary to know the chief events in the early history of this county. At the time of the invasion of Cæsar, Wiltshire was occupied by the Belgæ, who are supposed to have constructed the Wansdyke for the protection of their territory. This tribe having been conquered by Vespasian, the Romans established themselves at three principal stations, the chief of which was Old Sarum, and through these they carried the roads which are still to be traced on the hills. After the departure of this people came the Saxons, who under Cerdic founded the kingdom of Wessex, and marched into the chalk downs of Marlborough; but Arthur and his chivalry defeated them at Badbury, and it remained for Cynric, the successor of Cerdic, to annex Wiltshire. He captured Old Sarum, and at Barbury completed the conquest. After this event the county enjoyed for a time comparative tranquillity, although occasionally disturbed by the stormy contentions of the Saxons; but these at length were set at rest by Egbert, who subdued his rival the king of Mercia, and united in his own crown all the opposing kingdoms. The next marauders on the scene were the Danes, who repeatedly ravaged Wiltshire, and drove Alfred into the fastnesses of Selwood. From this retreat he emerged to overthrow them at Edington, and to subject them for a time; but their inroads were renewed under Swein and Canute.

The geological structure of Wiltshire is chiefly cretaceous and oolitic, the clays of the Wealden forming but a narrow band around the chalk, and those of the tertiary beds of Southampton being confined to the vales below Salisbury. The London basin ends at Hungerford; but its former extension to the W. appears probable from the numerous blocks of a siliceous grit which are scattered over the downs of this county. These are provincially called sarsen-stones* and grey wethers, the latter from their fancied resemblance to sheep. The cretaceous beds constitute the greater part of S. Wiltshire, forming the central mass of the English chalk, which here attains its greatest elevation, in Inkpen Beacon, a summit 1011 ft. high, rising at the junction of the three counties of Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire. From this nucleus proceed those four great branches, the N. Downs of Surrey, the S. Downs of Sussex, the N. and S. Downs of Dorsetshire, and the range extending by the Chiltern Hills to the coast of Norfolk. The underlying greensand we find exposed in the

"The Saxons applied the term Saracen to pagans or heathens in general; and as most of these stones were congregated together as temples, it naturally came to pass that the whole formation acquired the distinctive appellation of Saracen (or heathen) stones; that is to say, after the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity."-Notes and Queries.

deep valleys of the chalk, for instance in that of Pewsey, which separates the downs of Marlborough and Salisbury Plain, and also in a ridge skirting the escarpment of the chalk and in some places attaining a considerable elevation, as about Devizes, Warminster, and Stourhead, where the greensand eminence of Alfred's Tower rises 800 ft. above the sea. Below the greensand lies the Wealden clay, which comes to the surface in a narrow tract around the chalk hills, and below the Wealden the oolite, which forms the N. and extreme W. of the county, the beds succeeding one another in the following order :-1. Portland stone, which is quarried at Swindon, Tisbury, and Fonthill; 2. Kimeridge clay, ranging from Swindon to the W. of Devizes; 3. Coral rag, an ancient reef, extending in low hills from Highworth to Bromham; 4. Calcareous grit, chiefly composed of siliceous sand; 5. Oxford clay, a level district rich in cephalopoda and abounding in mineral springs; 6. Kelloways rock, a mass of fossil mollusks, named from its predominance at Kelloways, near Chippenham; 7. Cornbrash, a rubbly limestone used for building at Malmesbury; 8. Forest marble, yielding coarse tiles and flagstones, and beautifully preserving the ripple-marks of waves and the foot-prints of crustaceans; 9. Bradford clay, full of organic remains; and 10. The great oolite, forming lofty hills about Bath and the Box tunnel.

The most interesting points of the county may be indicated as follows:

Near Hungerford

Marlborough

Salisbury

Warminster

Chippenham
Corsham

Malmesbury

Littlecot Park; Inkpen Beacon, the highest chalk
down in England.

Savernake Forest and Tottenham Park; Avebury;
Silbury Hill; Wansdyke.

Cathedral; Stonehenge; Wilton House (pictures
and marbles); Longford Castle (pictures); Font-
hill; Wardour Castle (pictures).

Longleat (pictures); Stourhead (pictures); Scratchbury; Battlesbury.

Bowood (pictures); Laycock Abbey.

Corsham Court (pictures).

Abbey Church; Charlton Park (pictures).

Strangers travelling in Wiltshire will remark among its characteristics the stalwart proportions of the people; their courteous demeanour; their broad dialect in some districts-as about Marlborough and Calne; the excellence of their bacon, and acidity of their beer; the open character of the country, and, in general, the absence of trees; the purity and bracing qualities of the air; the number and immensity of old earthworks; the picturesqueness of the cottages and farm-buildings; and last but not least, the comfort of the inns. Descended from a race of shepherds, the inhabitants retain much of the simplicity of the pastoral character, a fact denoted by their proverb, Wiltshire moonrakers. This is said to have originated in the exertions of a rustic, who, upon seeing the figure of the moon in a pond, attempted to rake it out.

ROUTES.

The names of places are printed in italics only in those routes where the places are

PAGE ROUTE

ROUTE 1.

SWINDON TO BATH, BY WOOTTON
BASSETT, CHIPPENHAM (MALMES-
BURY), CORSHAM, AND Box.

(Great Western Railway.)
After an uninterrupted ascent by
easy gradients from London, the
railway enters Wiltshire in the Vale
of White Horse, and at 4 m. from
the border reaches

stood within the compass of a shilling, and weighed 3 drachms.

The locomotives in use upon the Great Western differ from those generally employed, chiefly in the dimensions of their wheels and framing, which are adapted to the broad gauge, and in the short stroke of their pistons as compared with the diameter of their driving-wheels, an arrangement intended to allow of a 77 Swindon Junction Stat., the sum-high rate of speed without an unmit of the line, 270 ft. above the favourable increase in the motion of London terminus, and 292 ft. above the parts of the machinery upon each that at Bristol, and from which a other. All the engines run upon 6 branch extends on rt. to Cirences- wheels. In the passenger-engines the ter 18 m., to Gloucester 37 m., and driving-wheels are 8 ft. in diameter; to Cheltenham 44 m. Here are the length of stroke is 24 in., and Refreshment-rooms, the " half-way the diameter of the cylinder 18 in. house," where every train stops The boiler contains 305 tubes. Each 10 minutes, corresponding in this of these engines, when upon the line, respect with the Wolverton Station and properly supplied with fuel and on the London and Birmingham water, weighs about 35 tons, and is Railway. These rooms are deco- calculated to exert a power equal to rated in arabesque, and form on the 743 horses. The tender following upper story an hotel, which com- each engine runs also upon 6 wheels, municates with the opposite station and is constructed to contain about by a covered gallery. 1600 gallons of water and 1 ton 10 cwt. of coke, and when thus loaded weighs 17 tons. The express-trains travel at the rate of 55 33 m. per

them 42; the ordinary mail trains at an average speed of 29 m. per hour. The time lost by stops, including pulling up and getting into speed, is estimated at 7 minutes each stop.

Swindon is the great central establishment of the company, and on the N. side of the line, at some distance W. of the passenger-station, is the en-hour excluding stoppages, including gine depôt, capable of accommodating 100 engines. The shed is 490 by 72 ft., and will hold upon its 4 lines of rails 48 engines and tenders, of which a certain number are always kept ready for action; for here every train changes its locomotive. The engine-house is 290 by 140 ft., and divided into compartments, in which the iron monsters stand like horses in the stalls of a stable. The centre is occupied by a travelling platform 50 ft. wide. N. of this building is the erecting-house, in which the parts of the machinery are put together. A number of mechanics are here employed, and of their skill a curious specimen was exhibited in Hyde Park, 1851; it was a working model of a pair of non-condensing steam-engines, which

A considerable town has arisen about the station. The Railway Company and private speculators have built upwards of 300 neat substantial cottages, which are principally inha bited by the men employed with the engines-a superior class, both in intelligence and conduct. A library, reading-room, and mechanics' institute have been established for this community.

A large church has been erected at a cost of 6000l., and a parsonage and school-house at an expense of 17007. A piece of ground has also been laid out as a park. To this judicious