Second Day, Wednesday, August Wth. 115 



to Mrs. Kemble and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kemble for the trouble 

 they had so willingly undertaken on their behalf : and called for 

 three cheers for them, which were heartily given. To this Mr. 

 Kemble replied in suitable words ; and then all began to climb the 

 steep sides of the down to Barbury Castle ; amidst whose ramparts, 

 lofty banks, and deep ditches they spent a considerable time ; and 

 not the least interesting object of examination was a sand-pit, or 

 " pocket of sand/' which was pronounced to be the material from 

 which the sarsens, so well known to all Wiltshiremen, were formed. 

 On leaving Barbury the party drove straight back, through 

 Wroughton, to Swindon. 



At the Conversazione, held in the Town Hall at 8 o'clock, Canon 

 Jackson read, in the happy manner peculiar to himself, a very in- 

 teresting paper entitled " A few Notes about Wootton Bassett and 

 other places around Swindon/'' 



At the close of the paper, the reading of which had been fre- 

 quently applauded, Mr. William Morkis, rising to the call of the 

 President, said :— On Tuesday much had been said about the necessity 

 for steps being taken to preserve their national monuments, and the 

 danger in which Stonehenge now stood was particularly pointed out, 

 There was a remark in Canon Jackson's paper which bore this out 

 very fully. The Meeting had heard that Aubrey had referred in 

 his Wiltshire Collections to a Druidish temple standing at Broome ; 

 one of the stones, called Longstone, standing 10ft. high. Canon 

 Jackson, in his Aubrey, had the remark : " Of the great stones 

 mentioned by Aubrey none are now remaining." In his capacity 

 as the editor of a local newspaper a correspondent had addressed a 

 letter to him, some five-and-twenty years ago, asking if any 

 explanation could be given of the disappearance of these stones. 

 At that time he (Mr. Morris) could give no explanation, but 

 it led to his making enquiries about these stones, and which 

 resulted in his discovering that they w T ent to Cricklade to make 

 and mend streets and footpaths with. The facts appeared to be 

 these: a former inhabitant of that ancient borough had a par- 

 ticular weakness for good roads and footways, and when he 

 died he left so large an amount of land, the proceeds of which 



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