SILBURY HILL 203 



the wliole of its course in a perfectly straight line, 

 swerves slightly from the south base of the hill, 

 evidently to avoid injuring it. A learned antiquary 

 (but the most learned must be reduced to the level 

 of the most ignorant before these mute earthworks) 

 considers that Silbury was raised to commemorate a 

 battle, probably Arthur's second and last battle of 

 Badon Hill. The same authority thinks Avebury to 

 be a burying- place of the dead slain in a great battle, 

 and planned to show the dispositions of the forces 

 eno'ao-ed on either side. 



But Silbury remains inscrutable. It is wholly an 

 artificial hill, somewhat pyramidical in shape, and 

 170 feet in heioht. Its base covers five acres of 

 ground, and was once surrounded by a stone circle, 

 of which scanty traces are now left. The contents 

 of it are estimated at 468,170 cubic yards of earth. 

 Repeated attempts have been made to pluck out the 

 heart of this mystery, but without success. So far 

 back as 1777 it was mined from above by a party of 

 Cornish miners, who worked under the direction of the 

 then Duke of Northumberland and others, but nothing 

 was discovered. Then in 1849 it was tunnelled from 

 the base to the centre, where a space of tw^elve feet in 

 diameter was examined, with the same disappointing 

 result. Antiquaries consequently regard Silbury with 

 hungry and expectant eyes. 



Just beyond this baffling relic stands the Beck- 

 hampton inn, where the " coaches dined " and 

 chanoed teams, and where the Bath Koad divides 

 into the two routes ; the right-hand road going 

 through Calne, Chippenham, and Box ; the other 



