About 1694, _Walter Stretch_, father of one of the present inhabitants, found out the way of demolishing these stones by fire. He exercis’d this at first on one of the stones standing in the street before the inn, belonging to the outer circle of the southern temple. That one stone, containing 20 loads, built the dining-room end of the inn. Since then _Tom Robinson_, another _Herostratus_ of the place, made cruel havock among them. He own’d to us, that two of them cost eight pounds in the execution. Farmer _Green_ ruin’d many of the southern temple to build his houses and walls at _Bekamton_. Since then many others have occasionally practis’d the sacrilegious method, and most of the houses, walls, and outhouses in the town are raised from these materials. Sir _Robert Holford_ resented this destruction of them; and _Reuben Horsall_, parish-clerk, had a due veneration for these sacred remains, and assisted me in the best intelligence he was able to give. Concerning the purport of the disposition and manner of the temple hitherto described, I shall speak more largely in chap. X. toward the end, concluding this with an inscription of the _Triopian_ farm consecrated by _Herodes Atticus_. _Ne cuiquam glebam, saxumve impune movere Ulli sit licitum. Parcarum namque severæ Pœnæ instant: siquis sacra scelus edat in æde. Finitimi agricolæ, & vicini attendite cuncti, Hic fundus sacer est; immotaque jura deorum._ CHAP. VI. _Concerning antiquities found about this place; with a more particular chorography of the country around. Description of the_ roman _road here, via_ Badonica. _A plain demonstration that these works we are writing upon, are older than the_ roman _times. Another like demonstration. Of_ Divitiacus, _of the british_ Belgæ, _who made the wansdike. A Druid axe or celt, found under one of the stones in_ Abury. _Burnt bucks-horns, charcoal, and the like._