MORE ANCIENT THAN THE ROMAN ROAD. 55 



Mr. Fergusson admits, in the passage just quoted, that 

 the pieces of the road, on the two sides of Silbury Hill, are 

 not in the same straight line, so that by his own showing 

 there must have been a bend somewhere. On the whole, 

 therefore, I quite agree with old Stukeley, that the Roman 

 road curved abruptly southwards, to avoid Silbury Hill, and 

 that " this shows Silbury Hill was ancienter than the 

 Roman road."* 



How much more ancient, it is impossible to say. Stukeley 

 thinks it was founded in 1859 B.C., the year of the death of 

 Sarah, Abraham's wife. It is wiser to confess our ignorance, 

 than to waste valuable time in useless guesses. Still, as the 

 stones of Stonehenge are roughly hewn, and as this is not 

 the case with any of those at Abury, it seems reasonable 

 to conclude, with Sir R. C. Hoare, and other able archaeolo- 

 gists, that Abury was the older of the two ; and those who 

 are disposed to agree with me, in referring Stonehenge to the 

 later part of the Bronze age, will perhaps also do so in attri- 

 buting Abury to the commencement, or at least the earlier 

 portion, of the same period, for, though far from impossible, 

 it is hardly probable, that so great a work should belong to 

 the Stone age.f 



* Mr. Blandford, who superintended in selecting some competent archseolo- 

 the opening of the Hill in 1849, came gist, who might be appointed Con- 

 also to the same conclusion. servator of the National Antiquities ; 



f It is impossible to mention Abury, whose duty it would be to preserve, as 



without regretting that so magnificent far as possible, from wanton injury, 



a national monument should have been the graves of our ancestors, and other 



destroyed, for a paltry profit of a few interesting memorials of the past ; to 



pounds. As population increases, and make careful drawings of all those 



land grows more valuable, these ancient which have not yet been figured, and 



monuments become more and more to report, from time to time, as to their 



liable to mutilation or destruction. condition. At a very trifling expense 



"We cannot afford them the protec- the Danish Government have bought 



tion of our museums, nor, perhaps, for the nation a large number of tumuli, 



would it be desirable to do so, but it and have thus preserved many national 



is well worthy of consideration whether monuments which would otherwise have 



Government would not act wisely been destroyed. 



