On a Crapandine Locket 249 



along this route by the agency of water or ice, and appear to con- 

 sist of pimari/ rock, (!) and a sofi oolitic (!) sandstone that crumbles 

 info dust. Finding them so freel}' scattered in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, I infer that those found at Atebury have been lodged there 

 as a freak of nature. Accordingly, I look upon Devil's Bens, serpent 

 avenues, charmed circles, and high altars as just so many myths. 

 That Avebury was entrenched at an early period, and inhabited by 

 primitive Biitons, seems very clear. Their rude imaginations may 

 have prompted them to venerate — yea, to worship — these huge 

 fantastic blocks, weather-worn into all sorts of queer shapes, placed 

 there by a power which they could not divine, and thus found in 

 possession of the land before themselves." 



[The italics in the above quotation are not the author's.] 

 Wiltshiremen generally do not require to be cautioned against 

 such assertions as these, but it is to be regretted that the public 

 should be misled by the statements of a person, who, if he ever 

 visited Abury, must, like the reviewer mentioned above, have done 

 so with his eyes shut. From the date of " A Fool's Bolt soon shott 

 at Stonage," down to the present time, Stonehenge and Abury 

 specially appear to have inspired certain pseudo-antiquaries with 

 an irresistible desire to add to the literary " kitchen-middens." 



®ii a CrayauMue §^oclict foitni iit St. loljn^ 



By Mr. Cunningtox, F.G.S. 



ggll^lSr the year 1838, the Rev. E. J. Phipps, then Rector of 

 1^1 tl -Devizes, made some improvements in the churchj-ard. The 

 footpath which before passed in a very irregular and unseemly 

 manner among the graves, was diverted, and carried under the wall 

 to the east. In making these alterations much of the surface was 

 necessarily disturbed, and amongst the earth taken from an old 



