at West Kennet, Wiltshire. — 131 
great part of the sacred site of Avebury—has still a charm in its 
wild solitude, disturbed only by the tinkling of the sheep-bell, or 
perhaps the cry of the hounds. Shade, too, is not wanting; for 
on the north side of the barrow, occupying the places once filled 
by the encircling upright stones, are, what are rarely seen on these 
downs, several ash and elm trees of from fifty to seventy years’ 
_ growth. At the foot of the hill, half a mile away to the east, lies 
one of those long combs or valleys where the thickly scattered 
masses of hard silicious grit or sarsen stone, still simulate a flock 
of “ grey wethers,” and which, as Aubrey says, ‘‘one might fancy to 
have been the scene where the giants fought with huge stones, 
against the gods.” From this valley there can he little doubt 
were derived the natural slab-like blocks, of which our “ giant’s 
chamber” and its appendages were formed. 
_ The tumulus, which is one of the longest known, measures 335 
feet in length, 75 feet in width at the east end, and about 8 feet 
in greatest height. (Fig. 1.) It has been surrounded by a complete 
peristalith, which according to John Aubrey, was nearly perfect in 
the 17th century, but of which fragments only now remain. (Fig. 2.) 
Near both the north-east and south-east angles of the tumulus, two 
stones remain standing, and there are two or three others which 
have fallen or been broken away, and are now partially buried in 
the turf. The entire barrow was no doubt originally surrounded 
with a ring of these stones, just as was the great chambered cairn 
of New Grange in Ireland. Some of the chambered long barrows 
_ of the west of England, as those of Stoney Littleton and Uley, 
__ have been enclosed by a dry walling of stone in horizontal courses, 
_ ¢arried to a height of from two to three feet. The surrounding 
ad ew 
a 
wall of the long barrow at West Kennet, as is the case with 
similar tumuli in this district, united both methods, and was 
formed by a combination of ortholithic and horizontal masonry, 

Fig. 3. Peristalith.—Scale, 10 feet to an inch. 
VOL. X.—NO. XXIX. . I 
