350 Ahury. 



It seems reasonable to infer that when the line of demarcation was 

 drawn, the Dobuni insisted on the retention of their ancient temple 

 and of their hot baths ; and if this inference be a just one, another 

 and a more important one seems naturally to follow. Assuming 

 that the Belgae were thus excluded from A-vebury, is it not likely 

 that they would provide a "locus consecratus" at some central point 

 within their own border — a place for their judicial assemblies, like 

 the Graulish temple, "in finibus Carnutum, quae regie to tins Galliae 

 media habetur?" May not Stonehenge have been the substitute 

 so provided ?"^ 



It would be wearisome to give an account of all the theories 

 which have been propounded respecting the temple of Abury, and 

 the objects for which it was constructed. I will briefly notice a few 

 which seem most deserving of attention, premising that while I 

 can quite understand the devotion of the enormous amount of hu- 

 man labour, requisite for the removal from a considerable distance 

 and the setting up of the stones of Abury, and for the heaping toge- 

 ther of Silbury Hill, to a religious purpose, I cannot believe that 

 for any object less influential and absorbing, so vast an amount of 

 human power covild ever have been brought to bear. 



Dr. Stukeley makes the foundation of Abury to date from the 

 year of the death of Sarah, Abraham's wife, 1859 B.C. ! He says, 

 "By the best light I can obtain, I judge our Tyrian Hercules made 

 his expedition into the ocean, about the latter end of Abraham's 

 time : and most likely 'tis, that Abury was the first great temple 

 of Britain, and made by the first Phoenician, colonj'- that came hi- 

 ther ; and the}"- made it in this very place on account of the stones 

 of the grey- weathers, so commodious for their purpose."^ The 

 ancient Druids, says Stukeley, were not idolaters, but "in effect 

 Christians."! "This I verily believe to have been a truly patri- 

 archal temple, as the rest likewise, which we have here described ; 

 and where the worship of the true God was performed."^ " The 

 plan on which Abury is built, is that sacred hierogram of the 

 Egyptians, and other ancient nations, the circle, snake and wings. 



1 Archoeological Journal, 1851, p. 152, 

 « Stukeley's Abury, p. 53. ^ lb. p. 102. 



