THE 



WILT SHIRE MAGA ZmE. 



*' MULTOaUM MANIB0S GRANDE LEVATTTE ONUS." — Ovtd. 



VESTIGES OF THE 



Carliest lufjaMtauts ol Wiltshire/ 



By the Eev. A. C. Smith. 



Read before the Society during the Annual Meeting at Devizes, August 19th, 1863. 



" Hark, the wild tale of true Cimmerian horde." * 



5N" dealing with a question, confessedly involved in mystery, 

 I must ask the indulgence of the members of this Society, 

 while I grope ray way in the dark ; and with but a very feeble ray 

 of light to guide me, content myself with putting before them a 

 dim outline seen through the haze of distant ages. The details are 

 all involved in obscurity, for the background is shrouded in im- 

 penetrable gloom : 2 still, like the well-known pictures of our 

 famous Turner, while to the careless and superficial observer, all is 

 mist and confusion, to him who carefully and diligently scrutinizes, 

 and with earnest gaze peers into the mist, figures more or less 

 distinct loom out of the darkness, till what appeared almost a blank 

 before gradually assumes shape and colour, and at length presents 

 no ill-defined picture before him. 



Now in seeking materials for the history of past ages, the histo- 

 rian will generally be satisfied to cull his information from the 

 written records of contemporary or subsequent times; but in dealing, 



1 While treating of the first inhabitants of Wiltshire, I beg once for all to 

 disclaim all intention of meddling with the question now so eagerly discussed by 

 geologists, on the Antiquity of Man, and to decline giving any opinion on a 

 subject, wherein I am wholly incompetent to judge. 



• Bodc's Ballads from Herodotus, p. 7. 



2 "Cimmerian darkness." Homer's Odyssey, xi., 13 — 22. 

 VOL. IX. — NO. XXVI. I 



