322 Abury. 



maining between West Kennet and the long stones called tlie 

 * Devil's Coits,' nor any tradition of such. They may be clearly 

 concluded never to have existed except in his own fancy. 



It was reserved for Dr. Stukeley^ to give to the world, in 1743, 

 a detailed account of the plan upon which the temple at Abury 

 was constructed. He spent much time on the spot, surveyed 

 it thoroughly, reckoned the stones which were standing, those which 

 were prostrate, and the hollow places indicating the sites of those 

 which had been destroyed. And this he did not merely within the 

 vallum, but in the avenues and the ' Sanctuary ' (as it was called) on 

 Kennet Hill. " When I frequented this place," he says, " as I did 

 for some years together, to take an exact account of it, stajdng a 

 fortnight at a time, I found out the entire work by degrees. The 

 second time I was here, an avenue was a new amusement. The 

 third year another. So that at length I discover'd the mystery of 

 it, properly speaking ; which was, that the whole figure represented 



* The Rev. Wm. Stukeley, M.D., was bom at Holbech in Lincolnshii-e, Nov. 

 7tli, 1687. He was admitted into Bene't College, Cambridge, Nov. 7th, 1703, 

 and chosen scholar there in April following. He applied himself to the study 

 of medicine and anatomy and took the degree of M.B. in 1709, and of M.D. in 

 1719. He practised for some time in Boston, in London, and in Grantham. In 

 1728 he married Miss Frances Williamson of Allington, near Grantham. Suf- 

 fering much from the gout during the winter months, it was customary with 

 him to take several journeys in the spring, in which he indulged his innate love 

 of antiquities. The fruit of these travels was the fol. ' Itinerarium Cui'iosum,' 

 Centuria I., London, 1724. The 2nd volume was published in 1776, after his 

 death. In 1729 he was ordained by Archbishop AVake and presented by Lord Chan- 

 cellor King to the living of All Saints, Stamford. In 1737 he lost his wife, 

 and in 1738 he married the only daughter of Dr. Gale, Dean of York. In 

 1740 he published his account of Stonehenge, and in 1743 his description of 

 Abury. In 1747 he vacated his preferments in the country, being presented by 

 the Duke of Montagii to the Rectory of St. George's, Queen Square, London. 

 On the 27th of February, 1765, Dr. Stukeley was seized with a paralytic stroke, 

 of which he died on the 3rd of March in his 78th year. He was buried, by his 

 own desire, in the Churchyard of East Ham, in Essex. He left three daughters 

 by his first wife, but had no child by the second. ( Vide Nichols's Lit. Anecd. 

 vol. V.) Dr. Stukeley' s MSS. were for some time in the possession of the late 

 Mr. Britton, and it is understood that a little before his death, he disposed of 

 them to one of the representatives of the Doctor's family. It is to be hoped that 

 they may be subjected to a careful examination, with a view to the publication 

 of such portions as may still possess an antiquarian value. 



