Abury, A Temple of the British Druids, With Some Others, DescribedStukeley, William
History
Abury, A Temple of the British Druids, With Some Others, Described
Stukeley, William
Avebury (England) -- Antiquities; Druids and Druidism
_Of the arch-druid’s house on_ Temple-downs, _his barrow. Of their
places of judicature, and execution. Another Druid’s house
call’d_ old-Chapel _towards_ Winterburn-basset. _Another under
the_ Hakpen-hill, _over_ Kennet _avenue. Another at_ Bekamton.
_Another under_ Runway-hill. _A_ Kist-vaen _in_ Monkton-fields.
_Another in_ Clatford-bottom _by_ Marlborough. _Some general
reflexions. They must have been a very great and learned
people, that made this work of_ Abury. _The parish of_ Abury
_now comprehends many townships, taken in by the extent of the
snake. A notion of the snake, and its sacred quality retain’d
by the people, reporting no snake will live within this tract.
A conjecture concerning the time of founding this temple, which
carries it up to the time of_ Abraham, _or very near it; deduc’d
from the variation of the compass observ’d there. A mathematical
designation of the termination of_ Bekamton _avenue. The major
part of_ Virgil’s _fifth_ Æneid _is a description of like
anniversary games celebrated here, in old times._
There is still another of these long archdruids’ _tumuli_ at _Abury_,
which leads me to describe a kind of ancient monuments which I meet
with here, and near _Stonehenge_ and elsewhere; which I take to be
houses of the Druids, or their courts of judicature, or both. The
principal of them here, is a remarkable thing, upon the _Hakpen-hill_
east of _Abury_, near a mile, between it and _Rockley_. That part
of the downs thereabouts is called _Temple-downs_, and the thing is
called _old Chapel_. Lord _Winchelsea_, Lord and Lady _Hertford_ and
myself were curious in observing it, _July 6, 1723_. ’Tis a large
square, intrench’d, 110 druid cubits by 130, like a little _Roman_
camp, with one entrance on the south-west side, towards _Abury_: for
it is posited with accuracy, (as all these works are) from north-east
to south-west. The situation of the place is high, and has a descent,
quite round three of its sides; the verge of the descent inclosing it
like a horseshoe. The entrance is on the side next _Abury_, on the
isthmus of the peninsula (as it were,) on the shortest side of the
square, the south-west. It is made of a vallum and ditch; beyond that,
a row of flat stones set quite round and pretty close to one another,
like a wall. Beyond that, another lesser ditch. There are stones too
set on each side the entrance. On the north-west side is a large long
barrow 50 cubits in length, with two great stone works upon it. One
on the end next the great inclos’d place, we have been describing:
another stonework towards the other end; which seems to have been a
semicircular cove, or _demi-ellipsis_ consisting of five great stones;
a _Stonehenge_ cell in miniature, but now in ruins. This probably gave
the name of _old Chapel_ to the place; the barrow likewise has been set
quite round with great stones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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