By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



179 



were as varied as the races who have adopted this simple mode of 

 commemoration ; the sepulchral chamber having been found at 

 the side of the tumulus, and towards every point of the compass, 

 almost as frequently as in the centre of the mound. 



With so many proofs, facts, and examples before us, and 

 arguing from analogy, I confess that I entertain a very decided 

 opinion that Silbury too was a place of sepulture ; for what exter- 

 nal features had many of these sepulchral tumuli which Silbury 

 has not ? and why may not our mound contain a goodly cromlech, 

 perhaps several, not placed indeed in the centre, but at the side, 

 where they were easily accessible to those who had the clue to 

 their exact position ; but for want of which we might long hunt in 

 vain. I own that I can discover no satisfactory argument against 

 such a supposition. But if it be still contended that the sepulchral 

 theory is " not proven," I ask what more probable solution to the 

 difficulty can be given ? we shall then be either driven to the 

 astronomical or stellar theory, 1 which I for one must look upon as 

 fanciful and cannot at all accept : or we must consider it as a 

 mount of worship and sacrifice, 2 which for the reasons given above 

 I do not think probable : or as a post of observation, or beacon, 3 



1 See " Druidical Temples of Wilts," by the Rev. E. Duke, whose theory of a 

 stationary orrery on our downs on a meridional line, extending North by South 

 sixteen miles, with the planets, seven in number, supposed to revolve round 

 Silbury, deserves credit for its ingenuity, however little it may convince 

 our judgment. [Salisbury Journal, p. 6.] 



2 The author of the " Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered" suggests 

 the possibility of the sacrifices of human victims made by the Druids oa the 

 platform of Silbury, similar to those related by the Spaniards to have been made 

 on the platform of the teocallis when Cortez arrived in Mexico, reminding us 

 that the Druids were much addicted to human sacrifices, and that we have it on 

 Caesar's authority that Britain was the stronghold of Druidism, but I trust that 

 this conjecture (though I feel bound to record it) will find no favour amongst 

 our Wiltshire Antiquaries, (ii., 165). 



3 In his very interesting description of the antient tumular cemetery at 

 Lamel-Hill near York, printed in the Journal of the Archteological Institute for 

 1849, Dr. Thurnam well observes, that not only were mounds raised in early 

 times as exploratory posts or beacons, but that tumuli, really of a sepulchral 

 origin, were also thus applied, (vol. vi., p. 28). And Sir R. C. Hoare in his Ancient 

 Wilts has the following passage :— " A little to the West of Alfred's Tower is a 

 large mound of earth, vulgarly called Jack's Castle, and generally considered 



r2 



