By William Long, Esq., M.A. 857 



of whicli the sacred trees were aspersed witli the piacular blood, 

 and came to be celebrated in the most open and champaign places 

 that could be chosen, and where the circles or avenues would stand 

 most conspicuous. These plains had anciently been unadapted to 

 Druidisra, but were peculiarly suited to the construction of sepul- 

 chral tumuli ; by which it is consequently found that the greatest 

 cors (such as the Stonehenge and the Rollrich) are surrounded."^ 



Tlie mediiTeval view of Abury would appear to resemble that 

 adopted by Stukeley, if we may form any opinion upon the subject, 

 from the Xorman Font in A.bury Church, which, writes my friend 

 Mr. Falkner, " is somewhat remarkable, not only as being very 

 ancient, but from having so appropriate an ornament round the 

 outside, which may easily be construed into the triumph of 

 Christianity over the Pagan worship that existed on the spot pre- 

 viously. There is a serpent at the foot of an ecclesiastic who, with 

 his left hand presses a book to his breast, and in his right he holds 

 a spear, the point of which he forces into the serpent's head. It is 

 not the emblem so often found of Michael and the Dragon, but 

 seems to have had a closer and more direct allusion to the serpent 

 temple and its heathen worship that had hitherto prevailed." Mr. 

 Paley, in his 'Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts,' (1844,) gives the 

 following account of this symbol ; " On the east side of the bowl ia 

 the figure of a bishop with mitre and crosier, holding a closed book 

 in his left hand ; on each side of him is a dragon, whose tail flows 

 off into the foliage which surrounds the upper part, a Norman in- 

 tersecting arcade running round the lower part." 



Such are some of the many theories which have been propounded 

 respecting the object of the founders of Abury. " Men of the 

 greatest learning, and most subtle intellect have felt the difficulty, 

 as well as importance of the sub ect : it has been acknowledged by 

 hundreds, who have started, full of energy, in the pursuit of their 



' pp. 108, 109. See a paper oa the ' Cyclops Christiauus,' attributed to the 

 Rev. J IJ. Deane, in the Gcutleman's Magazine, 1849, vol. xxxii, N. S. ; also 

 an article in the Quarterly Review, vol. xci. In the former, the claim of Abury 

 to be considered the circular tt-niple of the Hy]>erboreans named by Hecaticus of 

 Abdera (I)iod. Sic. ii. 47), and even the winged temple of the same mythic peo- 

 ple, the vaoi 6 nlepivos of Eratosthenes, is vindicated. 



