A WELSH BARD IN WILTSHIRE: IOLO MORGANWG, SILBURY AND THE SARSENS 87 
come to perceive his own county as the cradle of all 
the civilizing qualities of the bardic tradition. One 
can only regret that more of Iolo’s ideas on the 
composition and origins of Avebury and 
Stonehenge, if they were ever committed to paper in 
the first place, have not survived. Though visionary 
interpretations of those famous sites are not, it is 
true, in short supply, the thoughts of this highly 
original stonemason-scholar would have been well 
worth reading. 
What we have here is valuable nonetheless: on 
the one hand, a clarity of observation which 
provides reliable information on a key early 
intervention at Silbury Hill; and on the other, a 
response to the landscape which reminds us of the 
context of the work of Aubrey and Stukeley. It is 
something of a shock to realise that, in famously 
defining the major monuments around Avebury, 
these pioneers of archaeology actually diminished 
what, to observers from Camden to Iolo, was their 
‘true’, much vaster, scale. 
Notes 
' The most detailed (though unfinished) biography of Iolo 
is in Welsh (Williams, 1956); for good short accounts 
in English see Morgan 1975 and Jenkins 1997. A major 
research project is underway at the University of Wales 
Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in 
Aberystwyth: we are especially grateful to Ffion Jones 
and David Ceri Jones, who are editing Iolo’s 
correspondence, for making their work available. All 
citations from letters and manuscripts carry National 
Library of Wales numbers (hereafter NLW MS), and 
preserve original spellings. 
’ The citation is from the Rev James Douglas, Nenia 
Brittanica (1793); Gough’s notes to his edition of 
Camden’s Britannia, however, gives the finds as ‘a 
rotten post and rusty knife’ (Camden and Gough, 1789 
p. 110). 
> Collapses around this spot also occurred in 1925 and 
1933. The spoil heap left by the miners may have still 
been visible in 1849, and indeed some of it may still 
be present today (Field, Brown and Thomason, op cit 
p 57.] 
‘ There is also another Kingswood in Gloucestershire, 
but it is not on a coalfield. The Kingswood Colliery, 
just east of Bristol and on the London-Bristol road, 
has a strong claim over all these. 
> For the name see Fowler 2000, 22: Fowler also cites the 
alternative names ‘Old London Way’ (1815, p.65) and 
“Green Street’ (early twentieth century, p. 115). The 
hollow ways are a Scheduled Ancient Monument and 
are listed in the Wiltshire SMR (no SU13327091); and 
by the NMR as no. SU17SW95, UID 221801. Many 
possible turnings and footpaths off the turnpike are 
shown on Andrews and Dury (1773). 
° Gibson’s notes in his translation of Camden (Camden 
and Gibson, 1695) go into further detail, suggesting 
(p. 94) that such ‘cement’ was used in ancient Rome 
(as indeed it was throughout the Roman world). 
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