48 



On British Stone and Earthworks 



while in the centre of the northern inner circle stood three stones, 

 forming' the " Cove )} ; and in the centre of the southern inner circle 

 one stone, known as the " Obelisk." 



These two circular temples are easily passed in review and soon 

 forgotten, but when I remind you that Stukeley affirmed that either 

 of them was four times as large as Stone/ienge, 1 and Aubrey had 

 formally declared that " Abury does so much exceed in greatnesse the 

 so renowned Stoneheng, as a Cathedral does a Parish Church/'' per- 

 haps you can form some idea of the imposing grandeur of Abury. 

 However mutilated, as it has been by ruthless man, enough yet 

 remains to mark what were once its gigantic proportions : and if 

 you stand beneath one of the most massive stones, belonging to the 

 southern temple, calculated to weigh sixty tons; or if you halt 

 within the " Cove/'' at the centre of the northern temple, and look 

 up at the gigantic mass towering above, said to be the largest, as 

 it certainly is the tallest stone at Abury, you cannot fail to be im- 

 pressed with some faint notion of the simple grandeur of this ancient 

 work, and even with a certain amount of awe and astonishment at 

 the mighty prowess shown by those early builders, who could bring, 

 even from the nearest hills, and set in their places such ponderous 

 and unmanageable masses of stone. I need, however, linger no 

 longer upon this temple, but refer you for farther details to the ex- 

 haustive account given in the Society's Magazine 2 by the talented 

 historian of our British temples in this county, Mr. William Long ; 

 and I pass on to 



(£) The Avenues of stones which the early Britons used to erect, 

 as august approaches to their sacred buildings Very much as the 

 early Egyptians placed avenues of sphinxes and obelisks to lead up 

 to their wonderful temples ; so the ancient Britons, contented with 

 more simple materials, sometimes formed avenues of single stones 

 set on edge, which conducted to their great sanctuaries : and here, 

 on the way from Kennet to Abury, are still to be seen the fragments 

 of what was once an avenue leading a full mile from Abury to ji 



1 Abury, page 25. 

 2 Vol iv., pp. 309—363. 



