322 



On Wayland*8 Smithy, and on 



the displaced covering stones, is a very acceptable contribution to 

 the iohnography of early British remains. Professor Donaldson's 

 attention was attracted by three stones about fifteen feet to the east 

 of the ruined chamber, which he supposes formed part of " a circular 

 outside ring " or "enclosure;" and accordingly, in his restored 

 plan, he shows a circle of such stones, of a diameter of about 50 feet, 

 with the cruciform chambers in the centre. The notion that 

 " W ayland Smith's Cave" was " enclosed within a circle of stones 

 is one already adopted by Mr. J. Y. Akerman, in his " Observations 

 on this celebrated monument ;" in which he remarks that "traces of 

 this circle are still visible around the cromlech." 1 We owe to 

 a notice by the painstaking, though desultory, John Aubrey, the 

 possibility of correcting this inference, and of showing that the 

 peristalith, or ring of stones, by which the tumulus was certainly 

 surrounded, had an oval or oblong, not a circular, arrangement. 

 This is the disposition of the enclosing stones which obtained in the 

 case of the long-barrow at West Kennet already alluded to, and also 

 in that called the Millbarrow at Monkton, in the same neighbour- 

 hood, and about fifteen miles distant from Wayland Smith's Cave. 

 In both of these mounds, the chambers as well as the enclosing 

 stones were of the Sarsen blocks of the district, similar to those 

 used in the construction of the Berkshire " Cave." 



In the unpublished work of Aubrey, the " Monumenta Britan- 

 nica," the old Wiltshire antiquary, after treating of " Barrows " 

 and " Urnes," has a separate heading of " Sepulchres," which he 

 distinguishes by this name from ordinary barrows or tumuli of earth. 

 He notices and gives sketches of one in Anglesey, (Y Lleche, near 

 Holyhead,) one at Banner's Down near Bath, and of the megalithic 

 chamber near Saumur, in France. His more numerous examples, 

 however, are all from North Wilts; and comprise the long 

 stone barrows at Monkton and West Kennet, referred to above ; 

 another on the down between Marlborough and Hackpen, probably 

 that of which the ruinous remains may be seen near Hockley ; that 



1 Archseologia 1847, vol. xxxii., p. 312. The plan and view of the " Cave," 

 which accompany Mr. Akerman's paper, are from actual admeasurement by Mr. 

 C. "W. Edmonds, who shows a few stones overlooked by Professor Donaldson. 



