338 Abitry. 



of Maen-Cetti ; and the work of Emrys or Ambrosius has been ap- 

 plied to Stonehenge. Why may not the heaping of the pile of 

 Cyvrangon allude to Silbury ? The three primary circles of Britain 

 have been named Gorsedd Beisgawen, Gorsedd Bryn Gwyddon, 

 and Gorsedd Moel Evwr; upon which Mr. "William Owen, the 

 celebrated Welsh scholar, has sent me the following explanation: 

 " Cludair Cyvrangon and Gorsedd Bryn Gwyddon must have had 

 their appellation, one from the other, as the names imply as much. 

 For Cludair Cyvrangon means the heap of congregations or as- 

 semblies ; not that the assemblies could have been held on Bryn 

 Gwyddon or Silbury Hill, but that they Avere contiguous ; that is, 

 in the circle of Brynn Gwyddon, or the hill of the conspicuous or 

 men of the presence ; so that each of these places took their names 

 respectively from each other ; and it is thus that I identify Bryn 

 Gwyddon and Cludair Cyvrangon in Silbury Hill and Abury.''^ 



Silbury has been raised upon a jutting-out promontory, and the 

 earth and chalk of which it was composed were taken from the ad- 

 joining land. The extent of ground from which the surface was 

 removed for this purpose may be easily traced in the meadow which 

 surrounds the hill. Its construction must have been a Herculean 

 labour even for a large body of men, at a time when the means and 

 appliances for such undertakings were probably very imperfect 

 when compared with those of the present day. Several calculations 

 have been made of the dimensions of the hill, but they vary mate- 

 rially, and it may be doubted whether any, yet made, can be relied 

 on. That given by Sir Richard Hoare makes the circumference of 

 the hill at the base, 2027 feet, the diameter at the top 120 feet, the 

 sloping height 316 feet, and the perpendicular height 170 feet,^ 



' Ancient Wiltshire, vol. ii., p. 83. 

 2 The Pyramid of Mycerinus is 174 feet high : — the tomb of Alyattes near the 

 ruins of Sardis, is more than 200 feet high, and G furlongs in circumference. The 

 tumulus on the crest of Mount Mithridates near Kertch, which is unlike those in 

 the neighbourhood, being walled from top to bottom, like a Cyclopean monument, 

 is 100 feet high and 150 feet in diameter. An account has recently appeared 

 in the newspapers of the removal of a cairn, 250 feet in height, in the Russian 

 province of Ekatarinoslaw. It is supposed to have been one of the burial places 

 of the Scythian Kings, mentioned by Herodotus, and was found to contain 

 numerous ai-ticles of gold, silver, bronze, iron, clay, skeletons of horses, &c. 



