at West Kennet, Wiltshire. 131 



great part of the sacred site of Avebury — has still a charm in its 

 wild solitude, disturbed only by the tinkling of the sheep-bell, or 

 perhaps the cry of the hounds. Shade, too, is not wanting ; for 

 on the north side of the barrow, occupying the places once filled 

 by the encircling upright stones, are, what are rarely seen on these 

 downs, several ash and elm trees of from fifty to seventy years' 

 growth. At the foot of the hill, half a mile away to the east, lies 

 one of those long combs or valle}'s where the thickly scattered 

 masses of hard silicious grit or sarsen stone, still simulate a flock 

 of " grey wethers," and which, as Aubrey says, "one might fancy to 

 have been the scene where the giants fought with huge stones 

 against the gods." From this valley there can be little doubt 

 were derived the natural slab-like blocks, of which our " giant's 

 chamber " and its appendages were formed. 



The tumulus, which is one of the longest known, measures 335 

 feet in length, 75 feet in width at the east end, and about 8 feet 

 in greatest height. (Fig. 1.) It has been surrounded by a complete 

 peristalith, which according to John Aubrey, was nearly perfect in 

 the 17th century, but of which fragments only now remain. (Fig. 2.) 

 Near both the north-east and south-east angles of the tumulus, two 

 stones remain standing, and there are two or three others which, 

 have fallen or been broken away, and are now partially buried in 

 the turf. The entire barrow was no doubt originally surrounded 

 with a ring of these stones, just as was the great chambered cairn 

 of New Grange in Ireland. Some of the chambered long barrows 

 of the west of England, as those of Stoney Littleton and Uley, 

 have been enclosed by a dry walling of stone in horizontal courses, 

 carried to a height of from two to three feet. The surrounding 

 wall of the long barrow at West Kennet, as is the case with 

 similar tumuli in this district, united both methods, and was 

 formed by a combination of ortholithic and horizontal masonry, 



Fig. 3. Peristalith.— Scale, 10 feet to an inch. 

 VOL. X. — NO. XXIX. 



