Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his workStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his work
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
In reflecting upon these matters as I travelled along, it seemed to
me not much to be doubted, that, as Stonehenge is an improvement upon
Abury, so Abury is executed upon a grander plan, taken from this, or
some such like. I can scarce think there ever was an avenue to this
work, nor any ditch about it. It is true, there is a ditch, or mote,
now round the north side along the river: but I believe it was only
a fish-pond, or canal, made for the use of the manor-house, or the
nunnery, in whose demesnes soever it were; and it is plain there is
no sign of a ditch on the south side, where most occasion, because
the river on the other side produces the use and effect of it: and if
those stones called Hautvile’s Coyts were not set there for direction
of the old Britons which way to come in this woody country, or where
a ford of the river was, why might they not be stones dropped by the
way in journeying to the temple? and they are of the same dimensions
with that on the back of the cove. I am very apt to think there was
another work, a cove at least, in a triangle with the other and the
lunar circle; and the rather, because the manor-house and offices being
built upon its situation, it were easy for them to throw it down under
some foundation: and then the _area_, or whole content of the oval
knoll, would be filled up handsomely, and with great regularity. And
indeed I am shocked at the number of the works at present, being four;
whereas that of five seems much more eligible in this case, both as
an odd number, and an harmonic: for I doubt not but the Druids, the
contrivers of these structures, had a good notion of music, as I could
evidence in some observations I have made in the very matters before
us; but I fear to be thought whimsical in a thing of this nature, and
in a subject so wholly new. It is certain Pythagoras, the Arch-druid,
as I venture to call him, completed this art. Now, what can be plainer
than the conformity between this work and Abury? the same situation,
near the spring of a river, upon a knoll in a large valley, guarded
from severity of weather by environing hills: here is the cove of
three stones; the circle of twelve; that of thirty stones, all set at
the same intervals of thirty foot: here are the concentric circles.
But then Abury is a vastly more extensive and magnificent design; the
stones of much larger dimensions, and much more numerous. Here are
two circles, the one of twelve, the other of thirty stones; but at
Abury they have repeated them, and doubled them, by setting one within
the other: the quincuple circle they have infinitely exceeded by the
prodigious circular portico of a hundred stones on a side; then by the
mighty ditch and _vallum_ encompassing it; by two avenues three miles
in length, each of a hundred stones on a side: by the temple on Overton
hill, by Silbury hill, and other matters, they have so far exceeded
their copy, that in the total they have outdone themselves, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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