1 18 Silbury. 



So far for its geology. Next with regard to the Etymology of 

 Silbury. Here, as in everything else connected with this mysterious 

 tumulus, there is a great variety of opinion, some inclining to 

 the tradition that a King Sel was buried here, and thence its 

 name; 1 others, that it is " Solis-bury," the mound of the Sun: 2 

 but the most obvious derivation seems to be from the Anglo- 

 Saxon words sel "great, excellent," and bury "mound," just as 

 Silchester undoubtedly derives its name from sel "chief" and ceaster, 

 "city;" 3 and Selwood is described by the Saxon Chronicler Asram as 

 "Magna Silva." And in good truth an enormous mound it is, and 

 correctly stated by Mr. Matcham in his paper on the results of 

 Archaeological investigation in Wiltshire, "the largest tumulus 

 which this quarter of the world presents." 4 It is extraordinary 

 that though its dimensions have been often published, no two 

 measurements have ever yet proved alike : under these circum- 

 stances I hardly dare assert my own accuracy, though from repeated 

 measurements with the spirit level, the quadrant and the tape, I 

 have satisfied myself that I have mastered its dimensions : and I 

 cannot but conjecture that the fact of its circular form giving it 



1 The tradition was that King Sel or Zel was buried there, and that the vast 

 mound was raised while a posset of milk was seething. [Hoare's Ancient 

 Wilts, ii., 80. Abury illustrated, in Wiltshire Magazine, vol. iv., p. 337. II 

 Stukeley's Abury, p. 42.] 



2 Rickman (who disdains the idea of sepulture as connected with Silbury) 

 enters into a long and ingenious argument, to prove that the latter part of the 

 name, though apparently denoting a memorial of interment there, was applied 

 indiscriminately to every tumulus and hillock, natural or artifical, and is in 

 truth the same as berg, a fact which I do not wish to dispute. [Archaeologia, 

 xxviii., p. 415.] 



3 In the county of Westmoreland there is a Raise or large heap of stones, 

 called " Selsit-raise," near Shap : and a How, or heap of earth and stones, near 

 Odindale, called " Sillhow," [Archaeological Journal, No. 69, 1861]. [See 

 Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary in loco.] In like manner Stukeley supposes 

 that the old British or Belgic name of Stone-henge " Choir-gaur," latinized by 

 the monks into "chorea giganteum" signifies " the great Church," or, as we 

 should say, the "Cathedral." [Stonehenge, p. 47.] 



4 [Salisbury Yolume of the proceedings of the Archaeological Institute in 

 1849, p. 5.] The author of the " Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered," 

 calls it, "the largest tumulus in Europe, and one worthy of comparison with 

 those mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, and other ancient writers," [i. 417]. I 

 [Sir R. Hoare's Ancient Wilts, ii., 81.] 



