Beside some _roman_ coins accidentally found in and about _Abury_, I was inform’d of a square bit of iron taken up under one of the great stones, upon pulling it down. I could not learn particularly what it was, tho’ no doubt it belonged to the _British_ founders. They found likewise a brass ax-head, under an ash-tree dug up near the smith’s shop by the church. I understood, by the description they gave of it, it was one of those Druid axes or instruments call’d _Celts_, wherewith they cut the misletoe, fastening it occasionally on the end of the staff, which they commonly carry’d in their hands, one of the _insignia_ of their office, as a pastoral staff of bishops. When the lord _Stowell_, who own’d the manor of _Abury_, levell’d the _vallum_ on that side of the town next the church, where the barn now stands, the workmen came to the original surface of the ground, which was easily discernible by a black _stratum_ of mold upon the chalk. Here they found large quantities of bucks’ horns, bones, oyster-shells, and wood coals. The old man who was employ’d in the work says, there was the quantity of a cart-load of the horns, that they were very rotten, that there were very many burnt bones among them. They were remains of the sacrifices that had been perform’d here; probably before the temple was quite finish’d, and the ditch made. These are all the antiquities I could learn to have been found in and about the town of _Abury_. CHAP. VII. _A description of the great avenue from_ West-Kennet, _a mile off, which is the forepart of the snake proceeding from the circle. Observations on the_ vallum _and ditch. On the proportion between the breadth of the avenue and the side interval of the stones. The avenue broader in that part, which is the belly of the snake, than the neck. Its whole length ten stadia of the ancients; 4000 cubits, an eastern mile. The_ Hakpen _an oriental word, signifying the_ snake’s head. _The temple on_ Overton-hill. _Such another temple described by_ Pausanias _in_ Bœotia, _called the_ snake’s head. The Druids, by throwing outwards the earth dug out of the huge circular ditch environing the town, demonstrated to all comers at first sight, that this was a place of religion, not a camp or castle of defence. They prevented its ever being us’d as such, which must have ruin’d their sacred design. Moreover it adds to the solemnity of the place; it gives an opportunity for a greater number of people to assist at the offices of religion.