Abury and its Literature, by the Rev. Witu1am Bazexey, M.A. 
Read March 24, 1891. 
In accordance with the wish of our President, I have 
endeavoured in the following paper in the first place to describe 
Abury as it appeared to the members of the Cotteswold Field 
Club who visited it last summer; and secondly to epitomize the 
opinions of some eminent writers with regard to the purposes 
for which this and similar ancient monuments were erected. 
A level space of about 28 acres is enclosed by a ditch 28 ft. 
deep [Mr Long says 33ft. deep*] and 9ft. wide at the bottom. 
‘Outside the ditch is a mound or rampart raised from 25 ft. to 
85ft. above the level of the surrounding fields. At Stonehenge 
the mound is inside and the ditch outside. The mound or 
rampart does not abut on the ditch; a belt of the original sur- 
face of the ground, in some places 12ft. wide, has been left 
between the ditch and the foot of the mound, thus forming a 
kind of terrace half-way up the incline. 
The area enclosed by the ditch is not quite circular, being 
1,170 ft. wide from N.W. to S.E., and 1,260 ft. wide from N.E. 
to S.W. 
Scattered in all directions on Abury Field and the Marl- 
borough Downs are countless Sarsen stones, unhewn and of 
varied size and form.t These stones were formerly known as 
“The Grey Wethers,” from their likeness to sheep in the dusk 
of evening. Those which remain in Abury Field are but a scanty 
relic of the menhirs which were seen by John Aubrey 250 years 
* Abury. By W. Long, Esq., M.A., Zhe Wiltshire Archeological and 
Natural History Magazine, Vol. IV., p. 327. 
{ For the origin of these stones, and their name, see History of the 
Sarsens. By Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., Wiltshire Archeological and Natural 
History Magazine, Vol. XXIII., p. 122. 
