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PISS 
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193 
ago; for fire and water, the crowbar and the spade, have never 
ceased destroying, removing, or concealing them. 
Within the area surrounded by the ditch may be seen at the 
present time twenty-nine Sarsen stones, seventeen upright and 
twelve recumbent; but many of these are little more than stumps. 
It was thought a few years ago that these were all that remained 
of three, or, I may say, five circles. But this is fortunately not 
the case ; for although many Sarsens have been broken up and 
removed [the church and the houses of the village, to say 
‘nothing of the walls and highways, are constructed of menhirs] 
eighteen more Sarsen stones have been lately discovered lying 
several feet below the surface.. And in addition to these, the 
able explorers of Abury—the Rev. A. C. Smith and the Rev. 
W.O. Lukis—have found pits containing fragments of destroyed 
Sarsen stones to the number of thirty-three.* Thus the posi- 
. tions of eighty stones are now known. These recent discoveries 
all tend to confirm the surmise of Dr Stukeley, of whom I shall 
say more directly, that there was an outer circle of stones, one 
hundred in number, erected at an average distance of from 
27ft. to 30ft. from the inner edge of the ditch,*and that 
within this outer circle there were two smaller groups: the 
group to the North consisting of an outer circle of thirty, 
an inner circle of twelve, and within this inner circle three 
stones, forming an obtuse-angled triangle, and standing upon 
an are of a circle; the group to the South consisting of two 
similar concentric circles, composed of thirty and twelve stones 
respectively, with a menhir in the centre. 
Mr Lukis has discovered the fact that these inner groups 
were of unequal size, the Northern measuring 270 ft. and the 
Southern 320 ft. in diameter.t 
Two roads, one running S.W. to Beckhampton, and the 
other running S.E. to Kennet, now cross one another within 
* 4 Hundred Square Miles round Abury. By Rev. A. C. Smith, M.A., 
pp. 137-148. 
+ See Report of Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.R.A., on the Prehistoric Monuments of 
Stonehenge and Avebury: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarics, Vol. IX., 
pp. 141-157 and pp. 344-346. 
