The Tenth General Meeting. 



Britons as a ' hill altar/ and on that account was so unusually 

 guarded. ' But although Mr. Duke considered this mound as ono 

 of the three temples in the Orrery which were formed of earth, 

 yet there is reason for supposing that it had also its edifice of stone, 

 for in a communication made to the Antiquarian Society by Dr. 

 Thurnam 1 he states that in the year 1860, he ' made an excavation 

 in the long barrow on Walker's Hill, (Alton Down) ; at the base 

 of this mound, near the east end, was an upright of Sarsen, and below 

 the turf, at a little distance on each side, another fallen ortholith 

 was uncovered. Between these, on each side of the remaining 

 upright, was an horizontal walling of oolitic stones, neatly faced 

 on the outside, five or six courses of which remained undisturbed/ 

 A more complete excavation and examination, would probably lead 

 to a more definite determination of the structure, whose ' debris 1 

 are here described : and those who entertain a favourable opinion 

 of Mr. Duke's very remarkable suggestion will perhaps accept the 

 discovery of Dr. Thurnam as confirmatory of the scheme laid 

 down in ' the Druidical Temples of Wiltshire.' It may be added 

 that the two tumuli, without a vallum, which are on the opposite 

 side of the gorge and British trackway, running immediately below 

 Walker's Hill, are considered by Mr. Duke to have ' served the 

 purpose of gnomons, connected with the planetary temple on the 

 opposite headland' — an inference which he conceives to be strength- 

 ened by the modern name of Knaphill given to this site — ' Knap 

 being an evident transition from Kneph or Cneph, the Egyptian 

 or Phoenician name for Mercury.' " 



A rough ride over the down next brought the excursionists to 

 Huish Hill, where Dr. Thurnam, who had caused a tumulus to be 

 opened, gave them some account of the deposit therein discovered. 

 The} 7 then continued the route to Martinsell Hill. After luncheon, 

 the site of a British village was inspected, on the side of the steepest 

 part of the hill facing Savernake Forest. By way of Oare, Wilcot, 

 Woodborough, Mardens and Chirton, examining the churches as 

 well as time would allow, the company reached Devizes again at 

 half-past 8 o'clock. 



1 Archaeologia, vol. xxxviii., p. 410. 



