362 Aburp. 



In the foregoing sketch, I hare endeavoured to give to those 

 who are unacquainted with Abury, an idea of the remarkable works 

 of man which it contained, and which, although little known even 

 in our own country, would have formed, had they remained entire, 

 one of the Wonders of the World. I would urge all who have not 

 done so, to visit them, and they will find that Stukeley said truly, 

 " that the pleasure arising from them is in being on the spot and 

 treading the agreeable downy turf, crowded with those antiquities, 

 where health to the body and amusement to the mind are mingled 

 60 efiectually together." And not only will amusement be afforded 

 to the mind, but the sight of this wonderful ruin will open to the 

 intelligent visitor a mine of profitable subjects for study and inves- 

 tigation. Let him not omit to view the Church, with its Norman 

 doorway and font, and the interesting remnant of the roodloft. 

 The lime-tree avenue at the rear of the picturesque manor-house, 

 should not be neglected ; and I think he will return home with 

 the conviction that it would be difficult to find in England a more 

 interesting spot than the village of Abury. 



One word in conclusion to the landowners and tenants at Abury. 

 I am sure that I am uttering the sentiments, not only of every 

 English, but of every European antiquary, when I entreat them 

 religiously to spare the few stones that remain. Sir Richard Hoare 

 finished his account of Abury (as Stukeley did the 5th chapter of 

 his book,) with the following lines, from one of the Triopian in- 

 scriptions. 



" Ne cuiquam glebam, saxumTe impune movere 

 Ulli sit licitum. Parcarum namque severee 



village of Abury, on the Wiltshire Downs by Sir Richard C. Hoare," Aug. 11, 

 1814. Within the barrow at a foot and a half below the siirface was a perfect 

 skeleton and a clay cup, as described in Hoare's 'Ancient Wilts,' vol. ii. pp. 92, 

 93. The Rev, J. Douglas, author of the "Nenia Britannica," urged Mr. Skin- 

 ner to publish it. A copy of this poem is in the Library of the Koyal Literary 

 and Scientific Institution at Bath ; and in the same MS. volume are copies of a 

 very interesting correspondence between Mr. Skinner and Mr. Douglas on vari- 

 ous antiquarian subjects. The letters in which Mr. Skinner describes the results 

 of his examination of the Mendip barrows and of the Wellow tumulus should, 

 at all events, be printed in the Journal of the Somersetshire Archaeological and 

 Natural History Society, 



