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c^toinboii nub its ^eigPoutljoair. 



By the Rev. J. E. Jackson, M.A., F.S.A. 



^HE Town of Old Swindon stands upon a hill a little in 

 wM advance of the northern escarpment of the Wiltshire chalk 

 downs. The hill consists of three or four strata, one of them 

 yielding the whitish building and paving stone known in Geology 

 as the Portland rock ; so called because the quarries where that 

 stone is best known are in the Isle of Portland. Swindon is one 

 of the very few places in North Wilts where it is visible, but it 

 probably lies near the surface not far off. It seems to have been 

 known in early times, for a few months ago an ancient vault was 

 laid open in the town, bearing strong marks of Saxon architecture : 

 and the roof of that vault was of Swindon stone. Upon the plains 

 near Swindon are found, of various sizes, many of the grey grit 

 .vtones known by the name of Greywethers. Generally, these are 

 found lying on the surface of the chalk, their original position : 

 but here they have somehow found their way down to the oolitic 

 plains in advance of the chalk hills. It was from stones of this 

 kind that the greater part of our famous Antiquities at Abury and 

 Stonehenge were constructed. Dr. Maton says that a large block 

 of Greywether, 12 feet by 8 feet, is in Burderop Wood, and that 

 with the Grey wethers sometimes are intermingled blocks of siliceous 

 conglomerate, called Hertfordshire pudding-stone. 



About 200 years ago, as we know from an eye-witness, John 

 Aubrey, there was one of these large stones standing up in monu- 

 mental position in a field on Broome Farm, just behind the town ; 

 and in another enclosure near it there was a row of smaller stones. 

 Every one of these has disappeared, but their site was probably on 

 that part of Broome Farm which is, or lately was, called the Long- 

 stone Fields. Broomo Farm itself was anciently the property of 

 the Alien Priory of Martigny in the upper valley of the Rhone. 



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