WILTSHIEE. 135 



a seat of the Earl of Pembroke, famed for its marbles and Vandycks. Wardour 

 Castle, a venerable pile in a finely wooded park, rises on the Upper Xadder, and is 

 rich in art treasures. 



Warminster is the most important town in the valley of the Wiley, and its 

 neio-hbourhood abounds in entrenchments attributed to the ancient Britons. But 

 far more interesting than either of the places named are the circles of stones to the 

 west of the ancient town of Ameshury, on the Upper Avon, and in the very centre 

 of the plain of Salisbury. These " hanging stones," formerly known also under 

 the name of "dancing giants,"* were originally arranged in two circles and two 

 ellipses, having an altar for their common centre, but now present the appearance 

 of a confused pile of enormous rocks. Most of these stones are such as occur on 

 the plain, but some of the smaller ones appear to be erratic boulders, probably 

 conveyed hither from Devonshire. Roman and British pottery have been found in 

 the neighbourhood, which abounds in barrows, or sepulchral tumuli, but these 

 remains have not hitherto shed any light upon the origin of Stonehenge.f 



Northern Wiltshire lies within the basins of the Bristol Avon and Thames. 



Devizes is the principal town of the fertile 



1 i>-r) I,-!, iJi-i Fig. 75. — Stonehenge. 

 vale 01 Fewsey, which extends between 



the downs of South and North Wiltshire, - ^ ^ T=r^:z=. . 



and is traversed by a canal connecting the '^ ^^^= ~^ 



Thames (Kennet) with the Bristol Avon. "^^^^^ "~^K 



west of Devizes, has iron foundries. 



The Bristol Avon traverses the manufacturing district of the county, which 

 shares in the clothing industry of Western England, the principal seats of which 

 are gathered round the Cotswold Hills. Malmeshunj, a decayed town on the 

 Upper Avon, with a fine abbey church, does not participate in the prosperity of 

 the towns on the lower course of the river. Chippenham, in some respects the 

 most important amongst these latter, is celebrated for its cheese and corn markets, 

 and successfully carries on the manufacture of cloth, agricultural machinery, 

 and condensed milk. The bridge which here spans the Avon is a venerable 

 structure, built probably in the latter part of the twelfth century, Calne, a 

 town famous for its bacon, lies to the east. The Lansdowne column crowns a lofty 

 promontory of chalk in its neighbourhood. It stands within the area of Oldbury 

 Castle, an entrenchment to which the Danes are supposed to have retired after their 

 defeat by Alfred in the battle of Ethandune. A huge White Horse, 157 feet in 

 length, and visible at a distance of 30 miles, was cut into the chalky ground, in 

 1780, by an enthusiastic physician of Calne, to commemorate this victory. Laycock 



* Thomas Wright, " The Celt, the lloman, and the S.ixon." 

 t Kich. Colt Hoare, " History of Wiltshire." 



