346 Abury. 



observed it also. The circle was then in a meado'v^, which waa 

 broken up a few years afterwards, and two of the stones removed. 

 The circle was 282| yards from the nearest part of the avenue. I 

 could not have been mistaken as to the fact of a circle being there, 

 and considered the discovery of sufficient importance to write to 

 the Rev. E. Dake on the subject, who was not aware of what I told 

 him, nor could he explain the matter at all, — only suggesting that 

 the stones might have been set round a large tumulus, — ^but the 

 ground was quite flat within the circle, which was about 120 feet 

 in diameter." 



"In a lane leading from Kennet to Marlborough," says Aubrey, 

 "are eight huge large stones in a circle, which never could be by 

 chance, and besides they are rudely hewen." (Plate iii. fig .2.) It was 

 probably this circle which Stukeley has described in his 'Itinera- 

 rium Curiosum' (part I. page 132). " Over against Clatford at a 

 flexure of the river, we meet with several very great stones, about 

 a dozen in number, which probably was a Celtic temple, and stood 

 in a circle ; this form in a great measure they still preserve." 



In Sir Richard Hoare's second volume of 'Ancient Wiltshire,' 

 in Dean Mere wether's paper in the Salisbury volume of the Archaeo- 

 logical Institute, and in the 'Crania Britannica,' by Mr. Davis and Dr. 

 Thurnam, may be fomid very interesting accounts of the examination 

 of barrows in the vicinity of Abury. Sir Richard Hoare thus 

 describes the conclusion he arrived at, from the investigations car- 

 ried on under his superintendence: "The result of these under- 

 ground researches will prove to us the very high antiquity of the 

 tumuli raised on this conspicuous eminence (Overton Hill) ; and at 

 the same time the poverty of those Britons over whoso ashes thc^e 

 sepulchral mounds were elevated. We find no costly ornaments 

 of jet, amber, or gold, but very simple articles of brass and vessels 

 of the coarsest pottery. Cremation seems to have prevailed, except 

 in one instance, where the post of honour, adjoining the sacred 

 circle, might possiblj^ have been reserved for the chieftain of the 

 clan that inhabited these downs."^ Again, " In my late researches 



' Ancient Wiltshire, ii. p. 91. This barrow is no doubt the more southerly of 

 the two shown, in Aubrey's sketch (plate iii. fig 1). The other, as Dr. Stukeley 



