By William Long, Esq., M.A. 325 



and 1819. Mr. Lawrence, the venerable Clerk of Abury, pointed 

 out to me tbeir sites in a garden adjoining his own. 



Of the northern circle three stones (one of them much reduced 

 in size) are now erect and one prostrate. One which was standing 

 when Sir Richard Hoare described Abury has since been broken 

 up. It projected into the road leading to Winterbourne Monkton, 

 as may be seen in Stukeley's large plan; and as the carters were 

 constantly driving against it, it was removed when the road was 

 widened, and its fragments now form the wall which serves for the 

 eastern boundary of the road. 



Within each of these two circles Stukeley thinks there was a con- 

 centric circle of twelve stones. Of that within the northern circle, 

 the last remaining stone when Mr. Crocker's survey for Sir R. 

 Hoare was made in 1812, was removed about thirty years ago, as 

 it unfortunately stood near the entrance to the farmer's rick yard. 

 Of that within the southern circle nothing now remains. 



Within the northern of these circles, in its centre, were three 

 very large stones which formed the Adytum or Cove of the 

 Temple, as Stukeley termed it. "These were plac'd with an 

 obtuse angle towards each other, and as it were, upon an ark of 

 a circle, like the great half-round at the east end of some old 

 Cathedrals."' Of these two remain, standing at an angle of 

 about 110 degrees. The' third, 7 yards in length, fell in 1713, 

 and was broken up. The taller of the two is 17 feet high, 7 feet 

 7 inches wide, and 2 feet 4 inches thick. The other is 14 feet 7 

 inches high, 14 feet 7 inches wide, and 4 feet thick. "The altar 

 properly lay upon the ground before this superb nich. That no 

 doubt was carry'd off long ago, as not being fix'd in the earth."* 

 The late Mr. Brown of Amesbury says, "Before the central one of 

 the three, facing, (like the altar trilithon of Stonehenge) the north 

 eaat, was placed the stone on which the sacrifices were burnt. This 

 I ascertained myself by digging, the place being still apparent 

 where it lay, but now filled up with rubbish."-' In an interesting 

 paper on the state of Abury in 1829, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 



' Stukeley's Abury, p. 23. "The vulgar call tbem 'the Devil's brand irons.' p, 24. 

 ' Do. p. 24. ^Brown's Stonehenge and Abury, 4th edition, p. 34. 



