328 Aburi/. 



a war of extermination was waged against them ; and when the 

 stubborn blocks refused to succumb to fire and the hammer, they 

 were buried in pits dug about them ; " Two of them lie six feet 

 under groimd in the premises of Mr. Butler of Kennet, and over 

 another the Bath road passes."' The work of destruction has been 

 so successfully carried out that only 19 stones, or their stumps, are 

 now visible between West Kennet and Abury ; four in the bank on 

 the left hand side of the road from Marlborough as it enters Kennet, 

 and which can only be seen by going into the adjoining field;- two 

 on the Abury side of Kennet, between which the road passes ; eleven 

 in the field on the left of the road ; one on the brow of the hill by 

 the road side ; and one close to the turnpike gate outside the val- 

 lum. Measuring the breadth of the avenue in several places, where 

 Stukeley "had an opportunity of two opposite stones being left, he 

 found a difierence; and the like by measuring the interval of stones 

 sideways; j-et there was the same proportion preserved between 

 breadth and interval, which he found to be as 2 to 3. So that by 

 Abiu'y town in a part that represented the belly of the snake, the 

 breadth of the avenue was 3i cubits (5 6 5 feet) and the intervals of 

 the stones sides 50 cubits (86J feet,) the proportion of 2 to 3."^ 



Upon the ground plan on the opposite page, the distances between 

 the eleven stones, above mentioned, are laid down. The only stone 

 now standing is 8 feet 9 inches high, 9 feet 9 inches wide, and 3 feet 

 thick. The stone nearer Kennet, but on the same side of the road 

 from Abury, is 7 feet high, 3 feet 6 inches thick, and 5 feet wide. 

 Mr. Shepherd of Abury, who took these measurements for me, in- 

 formed me that he well remembered the removal, about 35 j'^ears 

 ago, of three stones near this last, all on the right hand side of 

 the road from Abury. The horses used to shy at them in the dusk 

 of the evening, and bolt down the bank on the other side of the 



' The Rev. J. B. Deane's ""Worship of the Serpent traced throughout the 

 World," p. 381, 1833. 



^ These four stones lie about 30 paces apart. That these were the original, 

 or nearly the original distances, seems confirmed by Stukelcy's 20th plate. 



^ Stukeley, p. 29. In the Charter of Athelstane quoted hereafter, will be 

 ioxmi the earliest notice (probably) of this avenue, or indeed of any part of 

 Abury. 



