“On Salisbury Plain stand the ruins of the weird Circle of Revolution, Cor y Coeth in Welsh, the Circle of Dominion, the holy anointed stones of Ambresbiri (_ambree_, anointed; _biri_, Hebrew for holy ones), at once a sanctuary and a sundial (3000 years ago the only clock in Britain), regulated by the sun and moon for days and years. But the beautiful old British names since the sixth century have been blotted out by the terrible title _Stonehenge_ or stone gallows—Stanhengen in Anglo-Saxon. A permanent gallows of stone was used by the Saxons for the execution of criminals, and wishing to aim a death-blow at British power, no surer way was found by the invaders than by hanging British leaders upon the consecrated stones of their revered temple. The road from the village of Amesbury to the Circle is still called Gallow’s Hill.” _From Mrs. Gordon’s Pamphlet_. DERIVATION OF DRUID. An Arabic (and Persian) word meaning Holy Men come from the valley of the Euphrates. Mrs. Gordon considers Merlin (the Bismarck of his age) as the builder of Stonehenge; also that Aurelius Ambrosius, by his own wish, was buried within the Circle of Stonehenge. DERIVATION OF BARROWS. Barrow, a Hebrew word for grave Mounds. Literally, the “thrown-up pit of lamentation.” DERIVATION OF WILTSHIRE. Wiltshire, in the Saxon Chronicles Wiltunseir, in Doomesday Wiltescire, derives its name from the town of Wilton, from the Wit-saetas (_saetan_ = settlers or inhabitants), the West Saxon tribe who made it their home. MENTION OF AMESBURY IN MALORY’S “MORTE D’ARTHUR.” “And thus upon a night there came a vision unto Sir Launcelot, and charged him, in remission of all his sins, to haste him towards Almesbury. ‘And by that time thou come, there thou shalt find Queen Guenever dead; and therefore take thy fellows with thee, and also purvey thee a horse bier, and bring you the corpse of her, and bury it by her lord and husband.’ Then Sir Launcelot took his seven fellows with him, and on foot they went from Glastonbury, which is little more than thirty miles. And when Sir Launcelot was come to Almesbury, within the nunnery, Queen Guenever died but half an hour before.” Timbs, in his “Abbeys and Castles in England,” says: “At Amesbury, says Bishop Tanner, quoting from Geoffrey of Monmouth, there is said to have been an ancient British monastery for 300 monks, founded, as some say, by the famous Prince Ambrosius who lived at the time of the Saxon invasion, and who was therein buried, destroyed by that cruel pagan, Gurmendus, who overran all this country in the sixth century.” This alludes to a monastery prior to the one founded by Elfrida, with which I begin my account of Amesbury Abbey. THE AVENUE OR VIÂ SACRA