By William Long, Esq., M.A. 319 



The Beckhampton avenue escaped Aubrey's notice ; and it does 

 not appear that he regarded Silbury Hill as in any way connected 

 with the ' antiquitie ' to which it is so near. 



Pep3''s passed through Abury in 1688, and thus describes what 

 he saw here and at Overton Hill. " In the afternoon came to 

 Abury, whei'e seeing great stones like those of Stonehenge standing 

 up, I stopped, and took a countryman of that town, and he carried 

 me and showed me a place trenched in like Old Sarum almost, with 

 great stones pitched in it, some bigger than those at Stonelienge in 

 figure, to my great admiration: and he told me that most people 

 of learning coming by do come and view them, and that the King 

 (Charles II.) did so: and the mount cast hard by is called Silbury, 

 from one King Seall buried there, as tradition says. I gave this 

 man one shilling. So took coach again, seeing one place with great 

 high stones pitched round, which I believe was once a particular 

 building in some measure like that of Stonehenge. But about a 

 mile off, it was prodigious to see how full the downes are of great 

 stones ; and all along the valley, stones of considerable bigness, most 

 of them certainly growing out of the ground : which makes me 

 think the less of the wonder of Stonehenge, for hence they might 

 undoubtedly supply themselves with stones as well as those at 

 Abury."! 



Mr. Thomas Twining published in 1728 a work, entitled "Ave- 

 bury in Wiltshire, the remains of a Pioman Work erected by Vespa- 

 sian and Julius Agricola during their several commands in Brittany, 

 a short essay humbly dedicated to the Right Hon'''' The Earl of 

 Winchiisea." In this treatise, he stated his belief that Abury was 



near, Abury, the derivation would have been palpable. But unluckily it does 

 neither. The occurrence of the perplexing letter v in the name, perpetuated one 

 after another by the "ignorant scribes" denounced by the Antiquary, is pro- 

 bably to be attributed to the original spelling in Domesday Book, Avrebcrie, 

 where the copyist was left in a pleasing uncertainty as to whether he sliould con- 

 sider the second letter, u or v. With respect to the derivation, Ahiri, sug- 

 gested by one or two who conceived the Temple to have been connected with the 

 worship of the Cabiri or Abiri ("the Three mighty ones"), it is a theory that 

 haa had very few advocates, and is not likely to have many more. 



Uev. J. E. Jackson. 

 ' Popys'B Diary, vol. iii. p. 466, 1854. 



