212 



Excavations at Avebury. 



We now left the Cove, and to the S.E., and outside the rick- 

 yard, opened out a recumbent sarsen, which showed its head above 

 the soil, but which Mr. King rightly conjectured to possess a huge 

 body buried beneath. It proved to be of considerable size, about 

 eight feet in length, as near as we were able to judge by digging. 

 This we believe to have been one of the stones of the inner circle 

 surrounding the Cove? From hence returning into the mea- 

 dow hard by, we directed the workmen to dig a hole in a cavity 

 where an upright stone of the northern circle stood, N.N.E. of the 

 Cove. Here too we found a quantity of burnt and blackened 

 chipped sarsens, as also many fragments of old-fashioned flat glass 

 bottles, one nearly entire, of about the date 1700. This latter 

 discovery was by no means remarkable, as an inn formerly occu- 

 pied the spot where the farm house now stands in the yard adjoin- 

 ing, and jovial spirits may have demolished empty bottles a century 

 and a half ago, as they sometimes do now : or Tom Robinson, so 

 well denounced by Stukely as the Herostratus of his day, and 

 whose name is not endeared to the Wiltshire archseologist, may 

 have been a thirsty soul. 



In the same meadow, and at the S.E. portion of it there stands 

 a low embankment, raised some two or three feet above the general 

 level. The object of this embankment is wholly unknown, and 

 with a view to its investigation, we cut right through it from west 

 to east, but we found nothing, with the exception of a portion of 

 stags horn and some fragments of pottery. In the same meadow, 

 due east and a little to the north of this embankment and near the 

 old Down road, we sunk a hole, but without finding anything. 



Excavations at the Southern Circle. 



We now crossed over to the south circle, and found the exact 

 centre, by careful measurement from the still standing stones of the 

 outer circle : since (together with perfectly distinct traces of 

 cavities where others stood) enough of these stones remained to 

 enable us to obtain an accurate segment of the circle. Here then, 

 at a distance of 163 feet from the outside stones of the circle, we 

 sunk a large square hole ; and our measurements had not deceived 



