80 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
cavities in it but for what purpose is unknown as 
nothing was found in them. — there are many 
hundreds of Druidical monuments within two Miles 
around Abury (on Marlborough Downs) and most of 
them very stupenduous, I have seen the Grey withers 
on these Downs, whence a late author asserts the 
stones of stonehenge were got, but with equal propriety 
he might have say’d that the grey withers were 
brought from stone henge for within 50 miles of this 
place there are no quaries of stone of any kind exept 
those in the neighbourhood of Bath 30 miles off and 
that not in the least like those stones that are in such 
prodigious numbers all over these Downs and 
Salisbury plain ... 
the Grey Withers is a Carnedd so Stupenduous as 
to have been taken hitherto for a natural mountain of 
dry Stones. but is evidently thrown together by the 
hands of Men as they all lie on the face of the ground 
in a confused manner like all carneddau, whereas 
roeks Rocks are always found in regular beds. besides 
upon digging into the ground there are no stones of 
any kind whatever to be found. nor any thing but 
marl or chalk. about 1000 acres of land on the Downs 
next Marlborough are covered with these kind of 
stones mostly either in streight or in circular rows. 
and there must have been formerly much more of 
them for all the houses walls &c & even the large 
Town of Marlborough are built with these stones 
broken to pieces. whence such amazing numbers of 
such enormous stones were got, or how brought 
hither, 1s astonishing to think. there is nothing more 
evident to me than that this was the grand seat of the 
Druids before the Roman invasion, if you consider 
the situation of the Country you will find it the most 
convenient of any in Britain, both for the resorting of 
the British provinces, as not being secluded by any 
[?] great rivers, ranges of Mountains arms of the sea 
&c and for the convenience of the Galic Students who 
it is well known came over to Britain to be fully 
instructed in the misteries of Druidism, that the 
Druids might retire to Anglesea on the Roman 
invasion I can readily allow. and might make that 
Island the seat of their learning for some short time. 
this is all I can ever grant. my I heard when at 
Anglesea that M'. Rowlands had never been farther 
than Aberconwy out of Anglesea. this I believe to be 
pretty true, otherwise he would never have laid such 
stress on the exceeding pitiful monuments of that 
Island as proofs of its being the chief seat of 
Druidism. M’. Rowlands was certainly prejudiced in 
favour of Anglesea, if it was really the chief place of 
the Druids, what? in the name of reason was the use 
of these Stupenduous works of theirs on Salisbury 
plains & Marlborough Downs, a single one of them 
being many hundreds of times larger than all their 
remains in Anglesea put together, consider farther 
that in Anglesea the materials were found on the 
spot, but here were brought from the prodiguous 
distance of probably a hundred Miles if not farther 
for with all my enquiries I cannot find any quaries of 
such stones within that distance, but your patience is 
probably tired, and so no more of Druidism. — 
If you will be kind enough to send my Box and 
tools, directed to me at M', Marsh Carver N°. 23, 
Orchard street Bristol, I shall be highly oblidged to 
you. I left the extract from the Six Months Tour thro’ 
England and Wales in your house and and with it a 
little sheet Catalogue of Books, Mostly Architecture, 
of Taylor’s Holborn: I should be glad if you could 
send them with the Box perhaps you could lift the 
cover up a little to put them under, or perhaps fasten 
them under the cord, or put them on the cover and 
tack a sheet of stiff paper over them. I shall soon take 
a trip to Wales and shall then have something to send 
you which, perhaps, you will be glad to have. 
Iam my Dear friend 
your very humble Servant 
and sincire well wisher 
Edward Williams 
Bristol} 
Jan’. 12} 
1777} 
PS. my Sincire respects to Mess". Ceiriog Du, Alwen, 
&c, &c, &c, &c, &c, and likewise to M'. Fenton. 
direct your letter to me at M’. Watkins in Baker’s yard 
Back street Bristol. 
SILBURY 
Tolo’s ‘intelligent shepherd’ was indeed a useful 
informant. The ‘Mountaineous Tumulus’ was 
Silbury Hill, and the excavation mentioned was 
that funded by the Duke of Northumberland, a 
prominent antiquary with local connections, who 
employed a number of miners to excavate the Hill 
at the end of October 1776. ‘The Antiquarians 
promise to themselves wonders from the bowels of 
this mountain!’ exclaimed the Bristol Journal; the 
hole itself was said to be eight feet square (2nd 
November 1776; cited in Field, Brown and 
Thomason 2002, 103). 
In fact, this first known antiquarian 
intervention at Silbury Hill produced nothing but 
‘a thin slip of oak’ (Field, Brown and Thomason 
