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DESCRIPTIONS OP CRANIA.
remains of the Roman causeway are to be traced on the down, about a quarter of a mile to the
east of West Kennet, and a few yards to the north of the road now in use. This is on the highest
point of an elevated ridge of the downs called Overton Hill, a Kttle beyond the seventy-ninth
milestone from London. The view from this spot, where our harrows are situated, just without
the Hniits of the parish of Ahm-y, looking to the west, is one of singular interest *.
new from the Barrows and British Trackway on Overton Down, showing Silbury Hill, the milage of West Kennet,
and, in the foreground, a restoration of the Bauble Circle and Avenue of Stones leading to the Great Temple at Abury.
Here, in the undulated plain below, through which flows the infant stream of the Kennet, was
the celebrated loms consecratua of the Britons, of an antiquity doubtless much greater than can be
claimed for Stonehenge, and on a much larger scale. At our feet in the valley, lies the village
of "West Kennet: to the far right the tower of the church at Abury rises almost from the site of
the earthen vallum surroundiug the once gigantic megaUthic circles at that place. Diverging
from the south of the great circle, were the two circuitous avenues of large stones, placed at equal
distances, forming what Aubreyt called " solemn walks," each a mile and a half in length; the
one stretching to the south-west beyond the village of Beckhampton, the other to the south-east,
thi-ough "West Kennet to Overton Hill, whence our view is taken, where it terminated, or rather
began, in a double circle of stones, a great part of which remained as late as 1723 J. It was then
popularly called the " Sanctuai-y." In the foreground of our view we have restored, from the
descriptions of Aubrey and Stukeley, this double sacred ch-cle (or rather oval); the outer one of
forty stones, with a diameter of 150 feet. The stones of the inner circle were eighteen (perhaps
nineteen) in number, and like the others had an elevation of four or five feet, a height less than
half that of the stones in the great central circles at Abury itself. In 1743, Dr. Stukeley
pubhshed his description of Abury, and drew attention to the circumstance, that in the long
ciu-ved avenues was preserved the figure of a serpent, the head of which was represented by the
double cii-cle on Overton Hill. In this serpent, passing through the great circle at Abury, he
* Our view is taken from nearly the same point as that by
Stukeley. "Abury," 1743, p. 40. plate 21. By an error of
the artist, a single row of stones appears in place of a double
avenue.
t .\ubrey, "Monumenta Britannica," a manuscript work
written about 1663, and now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
The description of Abury, from the first part of this
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work of Aubrey's, called "Templa Druidum," is copied by
Sir R. C. Hoare, Ancient Wilts, 1821, vol. ii. p. 57. A valuable
digest of all that is known of Abury, from the pages of
Aubrey, Stukeley, Hoare and others, has been lately contributed
to the Wiltshire " Archjeological and Natural History
Magazine," (vol. iv.) by William Long, Esq., of Bath.
t Stukeley, "Abury," p. 31. plate 20, 21.
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ANCIENT BRITISH—KENNET, NORTH "WILTS.
traced a symbol of deity,—an ophite hierogram—and gave to the whole the name of a Braeontimm,
or serpentine temple. That we have the figure of a serpent in the avenues, is hardly to be
doubted; whatever may be thought of many of Stukeley's opinions in connexion with this
remarkable monument. There is much reason to believe that the British Druids symbolized
their astronomical knowledge and beUefs in the structure of their temples; and we may perhaps
accede to the suggestion that the serpentine avenues were intended as a representation of the
nor^ern portion of the echptic; and that the temples on its course, which were probably
dedicated to a solar worship, symboHzed the sun in its supposed circuit round the earth, wliich
was represented by Silbury Hill*. This artificial conical mound, the largest in the British
Islands, having an elevation of 170 feet, is seen in the centre of our view, being situated midway
between the termination of the Kennet and Beckhampton avenues. It is placed exactly
on the meridian line due south from Abury; and, whatever its intention, it is scarcely to be
doubted that it formed an integi-al part of this remarkable consecrated sitef, the claim of which
to be regarded as the temple of the Hyperboreans, described by Hecataius, cannot be overlooked
Ground-plan of the Temple at Abury, with its hco Avenues, the " Sanctuary" on the hill above West Kennet Silbury
Bill, the British Trackway, Roman Road, Barrows, <f-e.-(Reduced from Hoare, vol. ii. plate 10.)
The elevated ridge of down forming Overton Hill extends northwards and to the east, for
many miles to the borders of Berkshii'e. The highest part of the ridge is three or four miles to
the north of Overton Hill, and it is to this and the more northern part of the range, near
Barbury " Castle," that the name of Hakpen Hill properly belongs. This seems proved by the
name appearmg in the valley below; as Hakpen House, Hakpen Barn, &c. Dr. Stukeley extended
the name so as to embrace Overton Hill J, and explains it as signifying the serpent's head
* Rev. E. Duke, "Druidical Temples of the County of
Wilts," 1846, pp. 35, 41, 66. G. Matcham, Esq., "Proceedings
of the Archaeological Institute at Salisbury iu 1849,"
p. 8. We may admit so much of Mr. Duke's views, without
giving our assent to the great, though unsatisfactory, scheme
of an immense planetarium, which he traces on the downs of
Wiltshire, and in which he brings together ancient remains
that can neither be regarded as of the same character, nor even
as contemporary. In proof of the designation of the ecliptic
by the ancients, under the simihtude of a serpent, Mr. Duke
quotes Macrobius, " nam solis meatus, licet ab Echpticil linca
nunquam recedat, iter suum velut flexnm Dracouis in-
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volvit," &c. (Saturnal, lib. i. c. 17.) Euripides, as quoted by
Macrobius, u. s. calls the sun " a fiery serpent."
t This is the more probable, since it has been ascertained by
excavations that Silbury has no pretensions to be regarded as a
sepulchral mound. Proceedings of the Archreologicallnstitute
at Sahsbury in 1849, pp. 73, 297.
t "Abury," pp. 19, 32. It is not necessary to accuse
Stukeley of "dehberate fraud," "lies and forgery," as is done
by Herbert, in his "Cyclops Christianus," 1849, pp. 32, 107,
108. Sir R. C. Hoare, iu his maps and plans of this district
—misled by Stukeley—inadvertently errs in placing Hakpeu
further to the south than any previous chorographer. The
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