332 Abury. 



the 'Devil's Coits' only, and we have no one to speak to the fact of 

 there having been other stones in that neighbourhood but Twining, 

 who mentions "other stones lying in the same field." It must, how- 

 ever, be observed that the course of the Beckhampton avenue from 

 Abury is of a more private character than that of the Kennet avenue. 

 It does not adjoin any public road until it approaches Beckhampton, 

 and it passed for the most part over fields, which have been for a 

 long time in cultivation. Scattered stones might therefore have 

 been lying about on the line of it which would not attract the 

 notice of a careless observer, while the great size of the stones called 

 the 'Devil's Coits' would throw smaller ones into the shade. And 

 except in the open fields leading to Beckhampton, it would have 

 been difiicult, one would think, to find any stones remaining; as, 

 unlike the line of the other avenue, this one has a great many 

 cottages and a bridge on its course, which would naturally be con- 

 structed out of so convenient a quarr5^ Many stones, too, besides those 

 brought thither by Farmer Green, must have been used in building 

 at Beckhampton. It is very likely that Stukeley's "original me- 

 moirs which he wrote on the spot very largely," and of which he 

 adds "that it was necessary for him then to do it, in order to get 

 a thorough intelligence of it," (p. 16), may throw further light upon 

 this matter and help to clear up the question, how far his Dracon- 

 tian theory, as applied to Abury, had its origin in facts ; or how far 

 his fancy for that particular theory may have led him to supply from 

 his own imagination the deficiencies in the evidence necessary for its 

 support. It must, at present, be admitted that the evidence for this 

 western avenue is of a much less decisive character than that for the 

 eastern. Different minds will regard it in difierent ways. Some 

 wiU think that it extended no further than the "Cove" or "Long 

 Stones;" some that it ended, like that leading to Kennet, in a 

 circle, or double circle of stones ; whilst others, among whom the 

 favorers of Ophite theories of various kinds will be found, will 

 with Stukeley, (and perhaps truly,) see in its "disjecta membra" 

 the tail of the Great Serpent, forming an avenue of equal length 

 with that which leads to Kennet. 



