45 



on % ^T^arikrottglj ^ote/' 



By the Kev. A. C. Smith, M.A, 



[Read before the Society at the Annual Meeting at Marlborough, August 12th, 1879,] 



^HE district which the Society visits this year is (I venture to 

 say) the richest in British remains of any in our county ; 

 and i say this advisedly, not forgetting' Stonehenge and the ac- 

 cumulation of barrows and other earthworks surrounding it : but 

 on the Marlborough Downs we not only possess specimens of almost 

 every variety of British stone and earthworks which have come 

 down to our times ; but, in several instances, such admirable ex- 

 amples as we shall look for in vain thus congregated together in 

 any other spot in our county ; and if not in our county, then not in 

 England generally, for where else shall we look for British remains 

 which can be compared with those which Wiltshire exhibits? 



This is no mere opinion of my own taken up for the occasion : 

 but our great pioneer in the antiquities of our county. Sir Richard 

 Colt Hoare, in his magnificent work on North Wilts, wrote,^ " In 

 no part of Wiltshire are British antiquities more frequent or in- 

 terestiug than in the immediate neighbourhood of Marlborough, a 

 circumstance which may probably arise from its vicinity to the grand 

 sanctuary at Abury " ; and again in the same volume,- " To whatever 

 point we direct our steps in the neighbourhood of Marlborough, 

 we shall find objects, either of British or Roman antiquity, to in- 

 stigate our spirit of research, and to attract our enquiry/^ While 

 in reference to the Roman sera he adds,^ "Marlborough and its 

 neighbourhood are the most interesting places which, as an antiquary. 



1 Page 34. 



2 Page 13. 



3 Page 89. 



