358 Aburt/. 



true history, and have in the end wisely kept silence And 



Stonehenge and Abury continue as before, — apparently incapable 

 of explanation: still inexpressibly, awfully majestic, in the now 

 feebleness, so to say, of their abused remains ; fragments, rather 

 than ruins; shadows of skeletons, rather than presenting to the 

 common observer even a rude outline of their original structure ; 

 exciting a solemn veneration ; raising up question after question, 

 theory upon theory ; and still the same now as yesterday, — falling 

 back into the dark obscurity of a hundred generations."^ 



Ecclesiastical History of Abury in connection with its 



Antiquities. 



For the following notice of the ecclesiastical history of Abury, 

 and its connection with the preservation of the antiquities of the 

 place, I am indebted to Mr. Hunter's paper before referred to.' 

 " Before the Norman Conquest a Christian church was erected, a 

 little without the mound, on the western side. There is nothing 

 to show ivhen it was erected, but it is mentioned as existing in 

 Domesday Book.^ It is worthy of notice that the church was not 

 erected within the enclosure, which would seem to have been its 

 natural position : and perhaps it may be inferred from that circum- 

 stance, that the persons who erected the church did not contemplate 

 the destruction of the fabric of the older temple, and intend to 

 raise the Christian edifice on the ruins of one which had (probably) 

 been used in Pagan superstitions. Some portions of the fabric of 

 the present church appear to have belonged to the original edifice, 

 proving that the present church is on the site originally chosen by 

 Saxon piety. Another circumstance worthy of notice in the Domes- 

 day account of Abury is, that it was Terra Eegis, and that the only 

 land in cultivation about it was two hides attached to the church, 

 which was held by one Rainbold the Priest. He had the church of 

 Pewsey also. But atPewsey we find there was a lay-manor also, while 



' Christian Eemembrancer, vol. xii. 1846. 

 ^ Gentleman's Magazine, Jnlj, 1829. 

 ' In the list of the " King's Lands." " Rainbold a priest holds the church 

 of Avrchcrie, to which belong two hides. It is worth 40 shillings." — Wynd- 

 ham's Wilts Domesday, p. 51. 



