Excavations at Avebury. 



215 



the surface, were of comparatively recent date : glass and pottery 

 too, near the surface, told their tale of modern times ; but 

 the fragments of pottery which we brought to light from 

 our deeper cuttings were invariably of the British type. Thus 

 we flatter ourselves that our exertions have not been thrown 

 away : we trust we have once for all disposed of the novel theory 

 as to the great charnel house of the ancient Britons ; while on the 

 other hand we have unmistakeably proved the sites of several of 

 the most important stones long since broken up, and carried away : 

 and we have probed the great surrounding embankment to its very 

 core, laying bare the original surface, and closely examining all 

 the materials of which it is composed. 



We also found three stones not mentioned by recent writers. 

 Ten yards to the east of the standing stone, nearest on the left 

 hand side of the south entrance to Avebury, is a stone, which is 

 not laid down in Hoare's map. The dry summer of 1864, and the 

 heat of some part of 1865, had killed the turf over the stone, and 

 it now shows above the surface. Twenty yards in a north westerly 

 direction from the next standing stone, (" m " in the map) another 

 stone may be found under the turf, and ten yards again from this 

 is yet another. 



It is most probable that others may in a similar manner, lie con- 

 cealed beneath the turf in other parts of the temple. They should 

 be sought for, and laid doivn on the map. 



It is a somewhat curious coincidence that scarcely had our 

 explorations at Avebury been brought to a close, and before it had 

 been possible to prepare any record of them, a brisk correspondence 

 took place in the pages of the Athenaeum (though it did not meet 

 my eye at the time), between Mr. Fergusson and Sir John Lubbock ? 

 Professor Tyndal and others, on the object of Avebury and on the 

 Roman road and its connection with Silbury, wherein Mr. 

 Fergusson in his first letter dated December 23rd, 1865, repeats 

 his opinion " that Avebury was a burial place, and that Silbury 

 Hill was situated on the Boman road, and was therefore post 

 Roman ; " and he continnes, " one great object I have in view is 



