130 



Examination of a Chambered Long Barrow 



conclusion. Let me advise then, that while wo keep our eyes ! 

 open in order to see for ourselves, and investigate the mystery, j 

 we do not turn scornfully away from propositions which amaze, j 

 but respectfully listen to the opinions of those who have acted as 

 our pioneers on this unknown track, and who have been busy in 

 searching for the truth upon a point which even now, at the end 

 of twelve long years, comes to us as a startling novelty. 



Alfred Charles Smith. 



Yatesbury Rectory, Oalne, 

 August, 1865. 



famtnation of a Cjjmlrmb Jong Jlwrofo, 

 at Mt$t Jtwtiwt WMsftxt. 



^P^NE of the most remarkable chambered barrows of England 

 w^||| is that at West Kennet, near the great stone circles of 

 Avebury, which was explored for the Wilts Archaeological and 

 Natural History Society, in the summer of 1859, on the occasion 

 of the Meeting at Marlborough. 1 



This long barrow has suffered much at the hands of the cultivators 

 of the soil. Whilst the " Farmer Green " of Stukeley's days seems 

 to have removed nearly all the stones which bounded its base, two 

 being all which remain standing ; later tenants, even in the present 

 century, have stripped it of its verdant turf, cut a waggon-road 

 through its centre, and dug for flints and chalk rubble in its sides, 

 by which its form and proportions have been much injured. In spite 

 of all this, however, the great old mound with its grey, time-stained 

 stones, among which bushes of the blackthorn maintain a stunted 

 growth — commanding as it does a view of Silbury Hill, and of a 



1 A more fully detailed account of this tumulus, will be found in the 

 Archseologia, vol. xxxviii., p. 405 ; where the notices of it by Aubrey, Stukeley 

 Sir Richard Hoare, Dean Merewether, and Mr. W. Long are given. 



