50 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



ditches. At the bottom it turns off to the right or east with a 

 circular sweep, and then in a straight line goes up the hill between 

 two groups of seven barrows each, called the King's Graves (Stuk. 

 Stoneh., 35, 36) . The other branch points north-west and enters 

 the Cursus. This is half a mile north from Stonehenge, 10,000 feet 

 or two miles long, included by two ditches 350 feet asunder, a bank 

 or long-barrow for the judges seat at the east end : the west end 

 curved and two or three obscure barrows as if to run round (Stuk., 

 41). In the road from Amesbury to Radfin (which last place the 

 Doctor supposes the seat of an Archdruid) are seven barrows to- 

 gether, one great and six little ones, probably a family burial place 

 (Stuk. p. 38). The disposition and form of the barrows on these 

 downs prove them the single sepulchres of kings and great per- 

 sonages buried during a considerable space of time and in peace, and 

 not the tumultuary burials of the slain. The Doctor after wading 

 through an ocean of conjectures with his usual ingenuity, fixes the 

 date of the erection of Stonehenge 460 years before Christ, and the 

 enjoyment of it by the original inhabitants of these parts to about 

 360 years, in which time, reckoning with Sir Isaac Newton 19 years 

 to a reign, there will have been 19 kings in this country, and so 

 many royal barrows the Doctor fancied about this place (Stuk. 65,66) . 



" A very large one called King Barrow near Lord Pembroke's park 

 wall at Wilton he supposes the tomb of CarvilLus one of the four 

 Kings of Kent, who fought with Julius Caesar. On opening some 

 of these barrows they are found to consist of a coat of turf, a layer 

 of chalk two feet thick, then another of fine mould, and under it 

 three feet from the surface a layer of flints two feet thick, and last 

 of all a second layer of mould a foot thick, inclosing human skele- 

 tons or rude unbaked urns containing burnt human bones : some- 

 times spear-heads, glass and amber beads, wood ashes, bones of 

 horses and other beasts, a large poleaxe, a sword, a celt, and even 

 fragments of such stones as compose Stonehenge ; which last par- 

 ticulars Dr. Stukeley supposed characterised one of its builders. 

 The other barrows he assigns to Druids, chiefs, and private persons 

 of all ages and both sexes. 



" The name of Stonehenge is evidently Saxon, q. d. the hanging 



