197 
the form of a serpent, and his supposition that the spectators 
_ stood on the terrace or sat on the mound, and beheld from 
thence the sacred rites performed by the priests within the 
great circle. 
5 In 1872 Ferguson published his well-known work entitled 
“Rude Stone Monuments,” in the third chapter of which he 
_ treats of “Avebury and Stonehenge.” This author favours the 
_ opinions of those who have considered Abury to be a burial 
_ place, and quotes a charter of King Athelstan, dated 939, in 
which the boundaries are given of the manor of Overton— 
_ “Then by Collas barrow, as far.as the broad road to Hackpen, 
_ thence Northward up along the Stone Row, thence to the bury- 
ing places.”* There is no doubt that the “Stone Row” refers 
to the Kennet avenue, and “the burying places” to the great 
enclosure of Abury. We may certainly gather from this passage 
that a.p. 939, as in Leland’s time, 600 years later, Abury was 
traditionally a burial place. 
Ferguson also quotes, in favour of this opinion, a statement 
of Dr Stukeley’s, that when the vallum or rampart near the 
_ Church was levelled by Lord Stowell at the beginning of last 
_ century large quantities of bones were found. Dr Stukeley, 
_ however, adds: ‘‘They were the remains of sacrifices.”” Another 
fact is in favour of Ferguson’s opinion: outside the concentric 
_ circles on Overton Hill were discovered, in 1678, a vast number 
of skeletons lying close together, skull touching skull, with 
_ their feet towards the so-called Temple. Dr Toope, of Marl- 
_ borough, who records this discovery, says: “I really believe 
_ the whole plaine on that even ground is full of dead bodies.” 
a But, in opposition to Ferguson’s theory, when the enclosed 
_ area of Abury was carefully excavated by the Rey. A. C. Smith 
_ and the Rey. W. C. Lukis, in 1881, not a human bone was dis- 
covered. 
Ferguson ridicules the idea of Abury being a Temple, as it 
is, he says, utterly unlike any known Temple in the whole 
* Codex Ae. Sax., v., pp. 238, No. 1120. 
