130 Examination of a Chambered Long Barrow 
conclusion. Let me advise then, that while we keep our eyes 
open in order to see for ourselves, and investigate the mystery, 
we do not turn scornfully away from propositions which amaze, 
but respectfully listen to the opinions of those who have acted as 
our pioneers on this unknown track, and who have been busy in 
searching for the truth upon a point which even now, at the end 
of twelve long years, comes to us as a startling novelty. 
ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. 
Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 
August, 1865, 
Examination of x Chambered Hong Barrowy, 
at Celest Atennet, Wiltshire, 

SZEASNE of the most remarkable chambered barrows of England 
AN) is that at West Kennet, near the great stone circles of 
Avebury, which was explored for the Wilts Archeological and 
Natural History Society, in the summer of 1859, on the occasion 
of the Meeting at Marlborough. 
This long barrow has suffered much at the hands of the cultivators 
of the soil. Whilst the “‘ Farmer Green” of Stukeley’s days seems 
to have removed nearly all the stones which bounded its base, two 
being all which remain standing ; later tenants, even in the present 
century, have stripped it of its verdant turf, cut a waggon-road 
through its centre, and dug for flints and chalk rubble in its sides, 
by which its form and proportions have been much injured. Inspite — 
of all this, however, the great old mound with its grey, time-stained — 
stones, among which bushes of the blackthorn maintain a stunted — 
growth—commanding as it does a view of Silbury Hill, and of a — 
7A more fully detailed account of this tumulus, will be found in the | 
Archeologia, vol. xxxviii., p. 405; where the notices of it by Aubrey, Stukeley 
Sir Richard Hoare, Dean Merewether, and Mr. W. Long are given. 

