By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



183 



ency to guide us, which lead us back towards the maze of antiquity, 

 and enable us to refer its origin to a very remote period. In the 

 first place I am strongly of opinion that Stukeley 1 and Sir Richard 

 Hoare 2 were correct in their assertion that the Roman road was 

 turned from its usually straight course a little to the South of 

 Silbury, to avoid passing through it ; and though Rickman 3 

 denies that it was so turned, and Mr. W. Long 4 entertains the same 

 opinion, yet I would ask with the late Dean of Hereford 5 that people 

 should stand at the hillock or grave where the present Bath road 

 crosses the Roman road half-a-mile West of Beckhampton, and 

 judge for themselves, whether or no the latter does not deflect to 

 the right to avoid Silbury, and whether, if it had not done so, it 

 would not have cut the hill at one third of its base. 6 I have very 

 carefully examined the ground, and followed the road over and 

 over again at all seasons of the year, but more especially in winter, 

 at the beginning of a thaw, when the snow which is melted from 

 the surrounding fields, clings somewhat longer to the old road, and 

 marks its course most unmistakeably. And I have the strong 

 corroborative testimony of Mr. Pinniger, through whose land at 

 Beckhampton the road runs, and who, living on the spot, has con- 

 tinual opportunities of observation at all seasons, and who will bear 

 me out in my assertion, that the crops of corn ripening somewhat 

 earlier on the track of the Roman road than in the surrounding 

 fields, mark its course just before harvest very clearly. Now at 

 both these seasons we can trace the old road much nearer to 

 Silbury than at any other time of the year, and the testimony of 

 all those who have had their attention called to it agrees in affirming 

 that even East of Beckhampton the road runs straight for 

 Silbury, but afterwards turns Southward to avoid it. In reply to 



1 Abury, p. 43. 

 2 Ancient Wilts, ii., 70. 

 3 Archseologia, vol. xxviii., p. 401, 402, 409. 

 4 Wiltshire Magazine, iv., 340—341. 

 5 Salisbury Journal of the Archseol. Institute, p. 81. 

 6 Idem, p. 92. The author of the " Lost Solar System of the Ancients dis- 

 covered," also declares that the Roman road diverges South to avoid Silbury 

 Hill, and then continues its direct course, (i., 417). 



