310 Aburi/. 



boundaries of which, these ruins are comprised, is about a mile from 

 Beckhampton, and as it lies out of the main road from London to 

 Devizes and Bath, it is perhaps not surprising that it did not earlier 

 attract attention. The only mention Leland makes of it is in the 

 following scanty allusion; " Kenct risithe north north-west at 

 Selbiri hiLle botom, wherby hath ben camps and sepultures of men 

 of warre, as at Aibyri a mile of, and in dyvers places of the plaj-ne." 

 Camden seems not to have been aware of its existence ; and Dr. 

 Philemon Holland, his first translator, writes thus of it, " Within 

 one mile of Silbury is Abury, an uplandish village, built in an old 

 camp, as it seemeth, but of no large compass. It is environed with 

 a fair trench, and hath four gates, in two of which stand huge 

 stones as jambs, but so rude that they seem rather natural than 

 artificial; of which there are some others in the said village."^ 



The first person who examined it with attention was John Aubrey, 

 whose memory will long be preserved hj his graphic description of 

 persons and things connected with his native county, Wiltshire. 

 As he was only in his 23rd year when he made his discovery of 

 Abury, and as the work in which he has preserved his early remi- 

 niscences of it (the " Monumenta Britannica " now in the Bodleian 

 Librarj'), though often partially quoted by various writers, has 



1 In the Srd song of his 'Polyolbion' (published in 1612) in which the "Wiltshire 

 rivers are celebrated, Drayton mentions ' Oiildbry,' Saint Ann, Barbury, and 

 Badbury Hills, and Mount Marting-sall ; and feigns an altercation, in language 

 rather of a Billingsgate stamp, between ' Stonendge ' and Wansdyke ; but he 

 makes no allusion either to Abury or Silbuiy Hill. Selden, his annotator, is 

 equally silent respecting them. 



In the notes to the Third Book of Orlando Furioso " in English historical 

 verse by Sir John Harington, of Bath, Knight," London, 1634, is the foUovdng 

 passage; — "But concerning his (Merlin's) life, that there was such a man, a 

 great counsellor to King Arthur, I hold it certaine ; that he had a castle in "WiJt- 

 shii-e called after him Merlinsbury (now Marlborow) it is very likely, the old 

 mines whereof are yet scene in our highwaj- from Bath to London. Also the 

 great stones of unmeasurable bignesse and number that lie scattered about the 

 place have given occasion to some to report, and others to beleeve wondrous stra- 

 tagems wrought by his great skill in magick, as likewise the great stones at 

 Stonage on Salisbury plaine, which the ignorant people beleeve he brought out 

 of Ireland : and indeed the wiser sort can rather marveU at than tell why or 

 how they were set there." It is by no means clear fi'om this that Sir John had 

 seen Abury. 



