WTLTBHIBB. 



WILTSHIRE. 



1110 



bm doc up. At Biabopstrow, between Wanninster 

 HrvU-borT, oatheline of the upposed road from 8orblo<lniiuin 

 (Old Swum) to Aqtue Suli. (Bath), the remains of * Roman settlement 

 haw bea found ; an earthern vallum incloses an irregular qnadran- 

 nlar an* of 50 acre*, (till called the Burr : Urge fragment! of Roman 

 pottery bar* been dug up in every part of the incloaurc. At Pittnead, 

 eloM to Btshopstrow ; at Budge, near Froxfield ; at Bromham, near the 

 ait* of the station Verlucjo; and at Uttteooto, near Ramsbury, tesse- 

 UtcJ pavements bare been discovered, but the principal of them were 

 destroyed aoon after they were found. At Rudge a bran cup and 

 one medals were found in a well : the cup was inMribed with the 

 BUM* of several of the lUlioni on the Roman wall in Northumberland. 

 Aa engraving of it U given in Horsley'i ' Britannia Romana,' and in 

 Hoarea 'Ancient Wiluhire.' Many other Roman remains, but not of 

 gtrat importance, bare been fonnd ; some of them, such as stuccoed 

 and painted walla, and hypocausta, were fonnd within the inclosures 

 of what were suppoted to be British settlements. 



Of the antiquities not Roman, the most striking are those of Stone- 

 hmrn and ATEBCBT. There are some traces of a British road, or 

 tract-way, known as the Ridgway, running across Salisbury Plain, 

 bom Heytesbnry, by John a'Qore i Cross, Redhora turnpike (on the 

 road from Salisbury to Devizes), by the village of Charlton-on-the- 

 Avon, across Walker's Hill, by the village of Esst Rennet, over Hackpen 

 Hill and Shclbarrow Hill into Berkshire ; throughout which county it 

 may still be traced. 



Wam>dyke, or Wansditch, U a vast earthen rampart, with a ditch on 

 the north side, which extend*, though not uninterruptedly, through 

 the county. Its length in Wiluhire, from its divergence from the 

 Roman road to the Berkshire border, is about 19 miles, including gaps. 

 The origin of Wansdyke is unknown, but it was probably a boundary 

 between different kingdoms. Aubrey supposed it to have been the 

 ancient boundary of the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. Stukeley 

 supposes it to have been made by the Belgrc, to secure their territories 

 from the Celtae. Sir R, C. Hoare seems to have regarded it as a Belgic 

 work, repaired or reconstructed by the Saxons. Mr. Guest, in a paper 

 read before the Arcliieological Institute, and since published in the 

 Journal of the Institute (viii. 143, &c.), has carefully traced the work 

 and ascertained its present condition : he considers it to have been the 

 boundary between the Belgrn and the Dobuni. 



There are numerous other banks and ditches to be traced on the 

 downs ; some perhaps for boundaries or for defence, like Wansdyke, 

 have one rampart aud a ditch ; whilst others were no doubt roads, and 

 consist of a broad level way between two banks. Old-ditch may be 

 traced on the downs, north of Warminster and Hejtesbury, running 

 eastward by Chittern, or Chiltern-All-Saints, and Tilshead, till it 

 . terminates in another ditch running at right angles to it ; its length 

 is about 11 miles, including gaps or intervals; the transverse ditch, in 

 which it terminates, can be traced for above two miles. 



The most remarkable feature of the topography of Wiltshire is that 

 extraordinary group of stones which has received the name of Stone- 

 henge. It is an assemblage of upright, horizontal, and prostrate stones 

 situated on Salisbury Plain, about 2 miles W. from Atnesbury, and 9 

 miles N. from Salisbury. From its singular character Stoueheuge has 

 attracted more attention than any other relic of primeval antiquity in 

 Great Britain. Many of the stones have been squared, or hewn by 

 art, and the horizontal stones of the outer circle are carefully attached 

 by mrtices to the uprights, which have tenons; whereas nearly 

 all other examples of pre-historic, or, as they are generally called 

 Druidical circles, are composed of rough unhewn upright stones, 

 without impost*. 



The stones are surrounded by a circular vallum, or bank of earth, 

 within a shallow ditch or fosse. Withinstde this bank are three stones, 

 two of which are in an upright position, and the other is prostrate. 

 It lias been conjectured, with some probability, that these originally 

 formed part of a circle. In the centre of the inclosed space is what is 

 usually called the temple itself, which comprised originally an outer 

 circle of 30 upright stones, at nearly equal distances apart, sustaining 

 a* many stones in a horizontal position, forming a continuous impost 

 Kirh of the upright stones had two tenons or projections on the top, 

 which w.-re adapted to fit into and fill up two mortices or hollows in 

 each superincumbent slab. Within this was another, or second circle, 

 consisting of about the same number of perpendicular stones, of much 

 smaller UK, and without imposts. This circle inclosed an elliptical 

 amuigeinrnt of large and small stones ; the former, which were divided 

 into icruii| of three stones each, are called trilithons. There were 

 five tri!itbon, each of which consisted of two upright stones, and an 

 impost, covering or extending to the extreme edges of the standing 

 atones. Before esch trilithon stood three small upright stones; and 

 in the cc ntral sj*oe, or adytum, of the temple (in front of the principal 

 tri'.ithon) was a large flat stone, known as the altar. The dimensions 

 of the stones, and the space occupied by the structure, as nearly as 

 they have be*n ascertained, are diameter of the space inclosed within 

 the vailum or bank, 300 feet; height of the vallum, 16 feet; diameter 

 of the outer circle, 100 feet; diameter of the second circle, 83 feet; 

 height of the stones of outer circle, 14 feet (sides 7 feet by 3 feet); 

 height of trilithons, 1C feet 8 inches, 17 feet 2 inches, 21 feet 6 inches; 

 height of one of the small stones before the same, 7 feet t> inches. 



Viewed at a distance, Stonehenge seems an unimportant object; for 



its real magnitude is hardly conceived in the extensive plain or open 

 country on which it stands, and even when seen close at hand it often 

 fails to satisfy expectation. At first sight it appear* to be little more 

 than a confused heap of upright and fallen stones ; but a steady exa- 

 mination soon renders the nature of the original arrangement of the 

 principal atone? pretty clear, and the greatness of the work irre. 

 impresses itself on the mind. The stones are mostly much weather- 

 worn, and covered with moss and lichens. Some of the upright stones 

 have large portions entirely eaten away, and some of the fallen ones 

 are much broken ; but many are still square aud sharp at the angles, 

 and the tenons and mortices remain in perfect preservation. Six of 

 the impost stones of the outer circle remain in their original p 

 and two of those of the trilithons of the inner circle. The rour 

 are fallen. 



The surrounding plain is covered with a profusion of tumuli or 

 barrows and earthworks, unparalleled in any spot of similar extent in 

 England. Many of the barrows were opened by Sir Richard C. Hoare 

 and bis indefatigable coadjutor Mr. Cunnington, and were found to 

 contain, in some instances, cists or chests, filled with burnt bones, and 

 in others entire skeletons, with various relics of British and in a few 

 cases of Roman art. The avenue by which the work is approached 

 from the north-cast, is a narrow strip of raised ground, bounded on 

 each side by a slight bank of earth, and extending in a straight lino 

 from the entrance, through the vallum to the distance of 594 yards, at 

 which spot it divides into two branches, one of which continues south- 

 ward, and is seen between two rows of barrows, while the other pro- 

 ceeds northward, and approaches within a few yards of the cur-tis. 

 The cursus is a curious and interesting appendage to Stonehenge, if it 

 can be properly so considered. It is a flat tract of land, bounded by 

 two parallel banks and ditcbes, and is situated about half a mile X. !'. 

 from Stonehenge : it measures 1 mile, 5 furlongs, 176 yards in length, 

 and 110 yards in breadth. Its direction is from east to west, and at 

 the eastern extremity is a mound of earth resembling a long barrow, 

 which stretches entirely across it, Hoare, who supposes the cursus to 

 be a British circus, thinks this bank was where the priucipal spectators 

 of the race were seated. The western extremity is destitute of any 

 such mound, but there are two barrows irregularly placed near this 

 end within the area of the cursus, a part of which appears also to be 

 cut off by a slight bank. From the near resemblance of the cu i 

 the genuine circus of the Romans, it is reasonable to suppose that, if 

 not formed by the Romans, it was made iu imitation of tlu'ir chariot- 

 course, and by a people familiar with their manners and customs. In 

 Hoare' s 'Ancient Wiltshire' is a map showing the surface of the 

 plain around Stonehenge to the extent of about five miles from east 

 to west by three miles from north to south. In this area there are at 

 least 300 barrows or tumuli of various sizes aud shapes. 



The object for which Stouehenge was constructed, and the dato of 

 its erection, have engaged both the research and the imagination of 

 antiquaries, but no definite conclusion has been arrived at. In 1846, 

 the Rv. E. Duke, in his ' Druidical Temples of the County of ' 

 extending the suggestions of some previous writers, made an elaborate 

 attempt to show that Stonehenge was a temple of Saturn, and a mem- 

 ber of a vast planetarium, representing, iu conjunction with Avebury 

 and the barrows and other primeval remains on Salisbury Plain, the 

 solar system, aud extending over a wide extent of country, " on a 

 meridian 32 miles iu leugth." The stones of the inner circle of Stone- 

 henge, he thinks, were brought from Egypt for the purpose of being 

 erected here ! Rickman, the celebrated writer on gothic architecture, 

 published a paper in the ' Arcbasologia ' (vol. xxviii.), iu which he 

 argues that Stonehenge was formed in the 4th century of the Christian 

 era, or before the final departure of the Romans from Britain. Mr. A. 

 Herbert has, in a work entitled ' Cyclops Christiauus,' developed 

 at great length aud supported with much curious learning, a novel 

 theory that Stonehenge was erected early in the 5th century of the 

 Christian era by a neo-Druidic sect, who Bought to preserve or i 

 the old Druidic faith under Christian forms, and raised Stonehenge as 

 in some measure a substitute for the ancient Druidie groves. 



It is perhaps scarcely to be expected that anything better than a 

 very vogue conjecture can now be formed as to the time when this 

 work was constructed, or the purpose for which it was raised. That 

 it was erected by a Celtic tribe, and not by Romans or Saxons, is sup- 

 ported by all analogy, and appears to be admitted by most antiquaries. 

 It is evident from the vast number of tumuli which cover the plain, 

 and the traces of primitive viUages which Hoare found within 

 miles of Stonehenge, that hero was the residence and the cemetery of 

 an extensive tribe. The tumuli which have been opened in the 

 bourhood are all of an ante-Roman date ; but it is remarkable that in 

 the only recorded excavations made within the area of Stoneheuge 

 Roman pottery was each time found. Sir R. C. Hoare found, on 

 excavating within the inner circle, "several fragments of Roman as 

 well as of coarse British pottery, parts of the heads and horns ol 

 and other animals, and a large barbed arrow-head of iron. Dr. Stuke- 

 ley says that he dug close to the altar, and that at the depth of one 

 foot ho came to the solid chalk. Mr. Cunniugton also dug about the 

 same place to the depth of nearly six feet, and found the chalk had 

 been moved to that depth; and at about the depth of threo feet ho 

 found some Roman pottery, and at the dwpth of six feet some pieces 

 of sarsen stones, throo fragment* of half-baked pottery, and some 



