The church is situated outside the earthen ring or rampart. It is an ancient building of flint and stone, internally modernised, but retaining a curious Norman font, and an entrance-arch ornamented with a zigzag moulding. Adjoining it is Avebury House, the parsonage.

in the path of one on foot, at least | It occupies an area of 28 acres, once that which he is advised to pursue. partitioned into circular spaces by The distance to Avebury is 6 m. The Druidic stones, now cut into quadtraveller leaves the town by the rants by roads from the four cardinal Calne and Devizes road, and at points, but still girt by the original 1 m. from Marlborough has the en- earthen mound and ditch. It is trance to Clatford Bottom on his rt., circled again at a distance of m. through a gate opposite the farm- by an irregular belt of Celtic barhouse of Clatford; m. up this rows, many of large size and sharp winding vale is the cromlech called symmetrical outline. the Devil's Den, i. e. the Devil's house or cave. It is about 10 ft. high, consisting of a slab stone supported on 2 upright blocks, the remnant of 4 which originally propped the impost, and formed a sort of cave, whence the name. It is considered a Druidic monument, bearing a relation to the neighbouring temple of Avebury, and perhaps marks the burial-place of some once famous priest or chieftain, but more probably it was the sepulchre of a family. Proceeding up the valley the traveller will soon find himself entangled among boulders of sarsen, or silicious sandstone, which extend for upwards of a mile, and present one of the most remarkable geological phenomena in the country. He will thread this labyrinth of grey stones, and, having passed a ride from the Marlborough racecourse, which crosses the vale obliquely, ascend the hill on the 1., and steer direct for Avebury. The vantage ground of this hill will afford him an excellent view not only of the surrounding country, but of the interesting spot he is approaching. He will look upon an extensive basin, begirt by a circle of barrows, and containing in the centre, within a grassy ring or rampart, the remains of the great serpent temple and the modern village of Avebury; and towards the S., upon the culminating ridge of the Marlborough Downs, sweeping from Bowood to Savernake, and scored by a long waved line marking the course of the Belgic boundary, the Wansdyke.

Avebury or Abury is wholly built from the ruins of the ancient temple.

The stranger should obtain a general view of Avebury from the rampart, which is about 50 ft. high from the fosse, and little injured except near the church, where it is levelled. He will be probably much impressed by the singularity of a scene so unlike any other that he can have witnessed the earthen ring, the vast Druidic stones, and Silbury, that wonder of the county, a hill in size, but in shape so strange and artificial. Of the circles which formed the temple the remains now consist of about a dozen stones, scattered at wide intervals through the grassy paddocks, in which they seem strangely out of place. A group of 4 at the entrance from Marlborough are the most remarkable. Upwards of 600 have been destroyed, and their broken fragments now form the roads, the cottages, and the hedges. It may be truly said that even their ruins have perished.

Avebury was first described by Stukeley; and at the time when he commenced his survey, about 1740, its plan could be traced. The area was enclosed by a rampart and ditch, the ditch being inside the rampart. Within the ditch was a circle such as giants might have formed, consisting of 100 rough, enormous stones fixed upright in the ground

the sun.

at intervals of 27 ft. Its diam. was planets had started in the beginning no less than m. In the enclo- of time, and to which they would sure thus formed were 2 double con- return on the completion of the centric circles. The outer circles of cycle of cycles, or magnus annus, each of these consisted of 30 stones, when the world was to end. Under the inner of 12, enclosing in the one this view he considers that the earth, a single block 20 ft. high; in the then regarded as the centre of the other a group of 3 placed in triangu- universe, was represented by Silbury lar order. Such was the temple. Hill; the Sun and Moon by the The avenues which led to it ex- circles of Abury (Abiri, Phoenician tended 2 m. in length, and were each or Hebrew, the Mighty Ones); the formed of 100 stones arranged in Ecliptic by the avenues, or serpent; double lines. The one came from Venus by a stone circle at Winterthe S.W. (Beckhampton), and com- bourne Bassett; Mercury by Walkmenced with a single stone, the er's Hill; Mars by an earthwork other from the S.E. (Overton), where at Marden, in the Vale of Pewsey; it began with a double concentric Jupiter by Casterley camp, on the circle. With the exception of a edge of Salisbury Plain; and, lastly, couple of blocks near Beckhampton, Saturn, by the celebrated monument they are now destroyed. It was of Stonehenge. These works are Stukeley's opinion that they repre- admitted by antiquaries to have been sented the serpent, the symbol of erected for religious purposes. They are also situated on a line running Of the origin of Avebury nothing N. and S., and at distances from each certain is known; but antiquaries other which, if accidental, bear a are agreed that it was of much earlier curious relation to those of the date than that of the trilithons of planets. Our author also remarks, Stonehenge. The rough unhewn that the stones at Abury represented surfaces and primitive arrangement either numerical or astronomical of the stones were proof of high anti- cycles, the former being compounded quity. The structure differed essen- of the mystic four, or tetragramtially from the simple Druid circles maton, sacred as the number of common in Cornwall, but was evi- letters by which the name of the dently designed for religious, or at Supreme Being was expressed in least purposes distinct from those of early languages. Thus the 100 war, by the circumstance of the ditch stones of the bounding ring were 4 being inside the vallum. Stukeley twenty-five times repeated, and the pronounces it a Druid temple-in- 400 of the avenue 100 four times deed, "the great cathedral, the chief repeated; whilst the 30 of the outer metropolitical or patriarchal temple ring of each double circle represented of the island;" while others con- the Lunar cycle, or days of the sider that it might also have been month; and the 12 of the inner used as a place of meeting by na- the cycle or months of the year. tional councils. A bold hypothesis" Thus," says Mr. Duke, "was has been adduced by Mr. Duke, in his 'Druidical Temples of Wiltshire.' He contends that our rude forefathers delineated on the Wiltshire downs a planetarium or stationary orrery, in which the sun and planets were represented on a meridional line from N. to S., a position from which the ancients believed the

formed a standing almanac, enabling the priest to reckon the passing day, and to observe the religious festivals as they arose in the perpetual and ever-flowing course of time." For a full account of Avebury, and a complete epitome of all that is at present known on the subject, the reader is referred to a paper by Mr. Long,

Silbury Hill rises from the valley of the Kennet, about a mile S.S.E. of Avebury church. It is truly, as its Saxon name expresses, a "mar-transferred to one of the many barvellous hill," so exact are its geome- rows which surround it :trical proportions, so huge its size. In shape a cone flattened at the top, it covers upwards of 5 acres, its contents being estimated at 13,558,809 cubic ft. Its sides slope

about 2 m. N. of Wilton; the 4th was the Wansdyke, which at this day may be traced through Wiltshire for 19 m., including gaps; but it is supposed to have formerly extended from the Thames to the Severn. The part of it which remains consists of a huge rampart and ditch, the ditch on the northern side, and runs in a waved line along the summit of the hills, which being unenclosed and solitary contribute much to the effect of this rude bulwark of a race so long passed away. "Offa's Dyke in Wales and the Wansdyke in England," says Sir R. C. Hoare," are the most conspicuous examples of the ancient territorial boundaries.” person walking from Marlborough to Devizes can pursue a delightful route along this dyke. He will proceed by the Calne road as far as Fyfield (some 2 m.), there turn to the 1. (by the Fighting Cocks) to Lockeridge, situated in a bottom among boulders of sandstone, and thence direct his way to the summit of the downs. He will reach the dyke about 1 m. E. of St. Ann's Hill, and from that

A

enclosing 2 tumuli; Walker's Hill, conspicuous by its long barrow or altar; and beyond Walker's HillSt. Ann's, which rises 5 m. W. of Martensell. It is the highest point of the Marlborough Downs, and known throughout Wilts and the neighbouring counties as the site of Tan Hill Fair, held annually for pleasure and business on the 6th of Aug. "The corruption of St. Ann's Hill to Tan Hill," says Mr. Duke, "is curious, but obviously thus St. Ann's Hill, S'tan Hill, Tan Hill." There, is, however, another derivation of the name, from the Celtic Tanaris, the god of thunder, to whom there might have been a temple on the hill. "It is well-known," says Bowles, in his Life of Ken," that Pope Gregory gave directions to his missionaries not to change the places of assembly where Pagan rites were celebrated, but to dedicate them afresh to Christian saints, and turn the Pagan into Christian rites. Hence the hill of Tanaris became that of St. Ann, and Cad-a-Ryne, the fortification above the water, St. Catherine." On the projecting but-point can follow it N.W. unchecked tress of St. Ann's rests the old camp of Rybury, formed by a single bank and ditch, and evidently the work of a primitive people; and along the summit of the hill runs that interesting relic of antiquity,

by hedge or other impediment, to Shepherd's Shore, on the Devizes and Swindon road, or farther to the heights N. of Roundaway Down, scene of the rout of Waller in 1644. He will then quit it and turn S. over The Wansdyke, which is still to be Roundaway to Devizes. This route seen in its pristine state on the along the Wansdyke will give the downs between Walker's Hill (W. traveller an insight into the characof Martensell) and Heddington. It ter of the Marlborough Downs. He is generally considered to have been will walk along the crest of the the boundary of the Belga, who dwelt dominant ridge, with a glorious prosto the S. and the W. of it, and who pect continually in view; and as probably constructed it as a defence his course lies westward, the setting against the Britons or the Romans. sun, gilding the long perspective of Dr. Stukeley mentions 4 great the dyke, will charm him on his ditches as marking the advance of way. He will be much impressed this people from the S. The 1st by the strange form of Silbury rising extended through Dorsetshire from in the distant vale, and his curiosity Shaftesbury to Wimborne; the 2nd, may be excited by certain rectancalled the Bokerley Ditch, skirted gular enclosures on the northern side the N. side of Cranbourne Chace; of the dyke. These are formed by the 3rd traversed Salisbury Plain, a low earthen rampart and ditch,