MARLBOROUGH DOWNS 197 



that forest ; the Bath KoacI descending from them 

 like a white ribbon into Marlborough town, whose 

 houses are hid, only the church towers shining white 

 in the sun, against a green background. Ahead rises 

 unenclosed downland, with chalky, flint-strewn road, 

 the unenclosed wastes of green-grey grass, broken 

 here and there with mounds, grass-grown too. 



On the left hand, at the distance of half a mile, 

 perliaps, rises the church of "West Overton, an offence 

 here in its newness, for this road is Koman, these 

 mounds are ancient British graves, and everywhere, 

 look in what direction you will on these bleak and 

 treeless wastes, are the mysterious vestiges of a people 

 who had no arts, no science, no literature, who lived, 

 in fact, a savage nomadic life, but who, for all those 

 disabilities, have left records of their passing that 

 may well remain when the civilization of to-day has 

 perished. On these downs are countless tumuli ; 

 in the hollows are unnumbered thousands of stones, 

 brought no one knows whence, or for what purpose, 

 and the remains of cromlechs may be seen that add 

 to the complex puzzle of the wherefore of it all. 

 West Kennet village stands in the succeeding hollow, 

 like some shamed modern trespasser, amid these pre- 

 historic remains which appear. Sphinx-like, on the sky- 

 line or stand lonely in the folds of the barren hills. 



The district seems to have been a metropolis of 

 the prehistoric dead (if, indeed, all these ruined stone 

 avenues and circles are sepulchral), or some vast 

 open-air cathedral of a forgotten faith ; if they have 

 a religious rather than a mortuary significance. For, 

 but little over a mile distant, are the remains of the 



