By William Long, Esq. 5 



about, and visited. Poets have sung about its mysterious cbaracter 

 and origin, and historians have rehearsed from generation to genera- 

 tion the fabulous narrative set afloat by GreofFrey of Monmouth. 

 Stonehenge has been much indebted to its situation for its celebrity 

 and popularity. Unlike Abury, and Stanton Drew, which are in 

 decidedly out-of-the-way places, Stonehenge has had the advantage 

 of being within a short distance of a cathedral-and-county-town, 

 and it has thus acquired an amount of notoriety,^ which, by comparison 

 with its seniors, is not altogether deserved. 



It is easier to describe Stonehenge than Abury ; for Stonehenge, 

 although a ruin, is a compact one ; whereas Abury is not only of 

 much greater area and circumference, but it was approached by a 

 long stone avenue of more than a mile in length. Although Stone- 

 henge has been much despoiled, it has not been, to anything like the 

 same extent as Abury, regarded as the convenient quarry for the 

 materials of neighbouring buildings. " There is as much of it unde- 

 molished,'^ says Stukeley, " as enables us sufficiently to recover its 

 form, when it was in its most perfect state; there is enough of 

 every part to preserve the idea of the whole.^'' At Abury, on the 

 other hand, the stones comprising the circles and avenue have 

 been continually broken up, even when not wanted for building- 

 purposes, because they encumbered the pastures, or obstructed the 

 plough. Fortunately the village Vandals omitted to fill up the 

 holes in which the stones had stood, so that we are still able to assure 

 ourselves that there were circles within the large outer one, as des- 

 cribed by Aubrey and Stukeley. It is also certain from Aubrey's 

 plan ; from the stones which remain ; and from the stones of whose 

 removal we have reliable mention; that there was a continuous 

 avenue from the large circle to the top of Kennet Hill. There must 

 always, however, be uncertainty about the (so-called) Beckhampton 

 avenue. Good Dr. Stukeley, to whom we owe so much, became 

 unfortunately possessed with the ophite theory, and there is too much 



'Stukeley (p. 10, reprint) speaks of the "infinite number of coaches and 

 horses, that thro' so many centuries have been visiting the place every 

 day." 



