MONUMENTS OF THE STONE AND BRONZE AGES. 627 



Plain is the perfect and well-known monument of Stonehenge, with 

 over three hundred tumuli within a radius of three miles. A few 

 miles further north is the great temple of Avebury, which Sir John 

 Lubbock calls the greatest of all so-called Druidical monuments, and 

 which he says, quoting from Aubrey, ' did as much exceed Stonehenge 

 as a cathedral does a parish church.' Here, originally, were 650 great 

 standing stones, although at present not more than 20 have been left 

 in place, while near by, belonging to the great monument of Avebury. 



Avebury Circle, Wiltshire. 



is Silbury Hill, 130 feet high and covering five and one half acres, the 

 largest artificial mound in Europe. 



The monuments of Europe have been divided into nine classes, if 

 we follow the classification given in Brittany. 



1. Menhirs, meaning, in Breton, ' long stones,' single untrimmed 

 stones placed upright. 



2. Alignments, groups of menhirs placed in one or several lines. 



3. Lechs, menhirs which have been trimmed, having generally en- 

 graved crosses upon their sides, and which are so comparatively recent 

 as. to be hardly worthy of consideration as compared with the other 

 prehistoric monuments. 



4. Cromlechs, meaning ' circle places,' groups of menhirs arranged 

 to form circles; although in England this term is erroneously used to 

 denote a dolmen or other stone monument. 



