By the Rev. A. C. Smith. M.A. 329 



the downs, and passes within two miles of Yatesbury on the south : 

 and as this was one of the great arteries of the kingdom, connecting 

 the west with all other parts, in the admirable net-work system by 

 which the rulers of the world knew how to ensure communication, 

 when required, with every part of the province, those who lived 

 within easy reach of it must have had some experience of the manners 

 and customs of their civilized rulers. Then, to come to more modern 

 times, the old London and Bath Road ran along the ridge of the 

 hill from Beckhampton towards Calne ; and when, about eighty 

 years ago, it was altered, and brought down to its present position, 

 on a lower level, it only advanced nearer to Yatesbury, and just 

 before the introduction of railroads, to such a prodigious extent had 

 the traffic increased on this road, that a perpetual stream of com- 

 munication was always pouring along between the West of England 

 and the capital ; and a constant succession of stage-coaches, post- 

 chaises, fly-waggons and heavy wains passed day and night, and all; 

 within sight of our village : though it was only now and then, when 

 a more than common snow-drift had blocked the road, and effaced 

 all land-marks, that a coach has been known to flounder so far out 

 of the road as Yatesbury, a circumstance which served the gossips 

 of the village with an anecdote never to be forgotten, and which 

 they are never tired of repeating, and to which I have patiently 

 listened over and over again. 



Antiquities. 



Retired however and secluded though our village in all historical 

 times must have been, it would in very early ages have been by no 

 means unknown, from its proximity to the famous Temple of Abury; 

 and when the multitudes who flocked together and thronged the 

 great bank of the enclosure to witness the spectacles or the rites 

 celebrated within the mystic circle (whatever and whenever those 

 rites or spectacles may have been), it is only reasonable to suppose 

 that the adjacent villages would be frequented by the multitudes on 

 their way to and from, if not during the ceremonies at which they 

 assisted : in short, Yatesbury, some 2000 or 3000 years ago, was 

 not improbably, a kind of ecclesiastical suburb to its noted and 



