the Traditions connected tvith it. 



323 



called " Lugbury," near Castle Combe ; that at Lanhill near 

 j Chippenham ; 1 and that called the " Giant's Caves," at Luckington. 

 j Two less distinctive examples, at Leighterton and Lasbury in 

 [ Gloucestershire, 2 are added, and then follows the brief descrip- 

 I tion of " Wayland Smyth." Aubrey's first acquaintance with 

 this monument appears to have been derived from Elias Ashmole, 

 j the Berkshire historian and founder of the Ashmolean Museum. 

 Aubrey's original notice of it is so vague as to be of little value, 

 though sufficient to prove our point. It is as follows : — 



" About a mile from White-Horse-hill (in Berkshire) on the top 

 of the hill are a great many great stones, which were layed there 

 on purpose ; but as tumbled out of a cart : without any order ; but 

 some of them are placed edgewise : they are a good breadth ; and 

 in length about * * * * yards. — From Elias Ashmole, Esq" 



At a later period, Aubrey must have visited the spot himself, and 

 made the ground plan, which, reduced from a sketch inserted in the 

 Monumenta Britannica, is here figured for the first time, from a 

 fac-simile, for the use of which we are obliged to the Rev. Canon 

 Jackson. On this plan, Aubrey tells us that the " Sepulchre is 74 

 paces long, 24 broade," and that the chamber or cave at the south 

 end is " like that by Holy-head," meaning no doubt that of Y Lleche, 

 which he had already described. 3 He adds a note as to the size of 



1 Within the last few years these two mounds have been excavated and the 

 results published in the Wiltshire Archseol. Mag., vol. iii., pp. 67, 164. 



2 Oblong stone barrows, having chambers, cists, or pillar-stones at one end, 

 are common in the oolitic district of Gloucestershire ; where, as in the neigh- 

 bouring part of Wiltshire, they are of course formed of blocks of oolite. Such 

 exist at Boxwell, Avening, Gatcombe and Duntesbourne Abbots, (Archseologia, 

 vol. xvi., p. 361) ; and, as we write, one has been explored, by the Cotswold 

 Club, at Nympsfield, very near that at Uley, referred to at p. 326. In this, 

 likewise, the remains of double cruciform chambers have been found. 



3 The notice of this " sepulchre " in the Monumenta Britannica is as follows :— 

 »' In Anglesey, about a mile from Holy-head, on a hill near the way that leads 

 to Beaumaris are placed certain great rude stones much after the fashion of this 

 draught here (in margin) : * * * *. The cavity is about five foot ; I remember 

 a mountain beast (or two) were at shade within it." Sir Timothy Littleton, one 

 of the judges that went this circuit obtained a further account for Aubrey, 

 from "a resident justice of the peace at Holyhead;" from which it appears 

 that these " great rough stones " were " about 20 in number and between 4 and 

 5 foot high : at the northern end stand two stones on end about two yards high 



