By William Long, Esq., M.A. 337 



of Marlborough, and on the higher hills of Salisbury Plain, and in 

 the blocks of sandstone (Sarsens) which are so numerous on some 

 of our downs. The latter are most interesting, as having supplied 

 the whole of the material of the temple of Avebury and the larger 

 stones of Stonehenge." 



SiLBURY Hill. 



I must proceed to say a few words respecting that remarkable 

 conical and artificial mound, Silbury Hill, which stands due south 

 of the great circle, and midway between the extremities of the 

 avenues. Its name is supposed, by some, to be derived from the 

 Anglo-Saxon words 'Sil' or 'Sel,' great, and 'bury,' mound :^ by 

 others, Silbury is interpreted to mean the * hiU of the sun,' and to 

 have had a similar dedication to that of the hills of Salisbury and 

 Salisbury at Sarum and Bath. This great work is supposed by Mr. 

 Davies ('Celtic Researches') to have been the third of the mighty 

 labours of the Island of Britain, viz., the piling up of the Mount of 

 Assemblies. Upon this subject. Sir R. Hoare says, " In the Welsh 

 Traids, perhaps some allusion may have been made to this stately 

 mount, in the fourteenth Triad." 'The three mighty labours of the 

 Island of Britain : erecting the Stone of Ketti ; constructing the 

 work of Emrys ; and heaping the pile of Cyvrangon.' The Stone 

 of Ketti is, upon good authority, supposed to be a great cromlech, 

 in the district of Gower in Glamorganshire, still retaining the title 



' Aubrey's account of Silbury is as follows. " I retume now to the Mausolea 

 of our owne countrey, and will first set down Silbury Hill in "Wiltshire, a little 

 on tlie right hand of the rode from Marleborough to Bristow, about a mile from 

 Kynet, west. I am son-y that I did not take the circumference of the bottom 

 and top and length of the hill : but I neglected it, because that Sir Jonas Moor, 

 Surveyor of the Ordnance, had measiu-ed it accurately, and also tooke the solid 

 content, which he promised to give me ; but upon his death, that amongst many 

 excellent papers of his, was lost. I remember, he told me, that according to the 

 rate of work for labourers in the Tower at ... . tho floor, it would cost three- 

 score or rather (1 think) fourscore thousand pounds to make such a hill now. 



" No history gives any account of this hill ; the tradition only is, that King 

 Sil or Zol, as the countrey folkc pronounce, was buried here on horseback, and 

 that tho hill was raysed while a posset of milko was seething. The name of 

 this hill, as also of Silchestcr, makes me suspect it to be a Roman name, sc, 

 Silius." — Mon. Hrit., vol. ii. pt. 3, page 6. 



