Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
For their effect they depend
wholly on their mass, and that is so great as to produce an impression
of power and grandeur which few of the more elaborate works of men's
hands can rival.
[Illustration: 15. Plan of Avebury Circle and Kennet Avenue, from Sir
R. Colt Hoare.]
From the outer vallum a stone avenue extended in a perfectly straight
line for about 1430 yards, in a south-easterly direction. The centre
was apparently drawn from the centre of the great 1200 feet circle,
not from those of the smaller ones. This is called the Kennet
Avenue, from its pointing towards the village of that name. I am
extremely sceptical with regard to the existence of another, called
the Beckhampton Avenue, on which Dr. Stukeley lays so much stress.
Aubrey did not see it, though he saw the Long Stone Cove, the "Devil's
Quoits," as he called them; and Stukeley is obliged to admit that in
his day not one stone was standing.[78] It seems that here, as, indeed,
everywhere over this country, a number of Sarsen stones were lying
about, and his fertile imagination manufactured them into the body of a
snake. None, however, are shown in Sir R. Colt Hoare's survey, and none
exist now; and beyond the Cove even Stukeley admits that he drew the
serpent's tail only because a serpent must have a termination of that
sort. There were no stones to mark its form any more then than now. The
first objection that appears against admitting the existence of the
very hypothetical avenue is, that no curved avenue of any sort is known
to exist anywhere, or attached to any monuments. All the curves of the
Kennet avenue are the Doctor's own, introduced by him to connect the
straight-lined avenues which were drawn from the circle at Avebury, and
that on Hakpen Hill. There are none at Stanton Drew, or other places
where he audaciously drew them. Near the church there are, or were,
two stones placed in the opening like that called the Friar's Heel,
and the prostrate stone at Stonehenge, but these are all that probably
ever existed of the Beckhampton Avenue. The question is not, however,
important. As there were two circles inside the Avebury vallum, there
may have been two avenues. All that is here contended for is, that
there is no proof of the existence of the second. A dolmen, called the
Long Stone Cove, existed near where Stukeley draws its sinuous line,
but there is nothing to show that it ever formed any part of such an
alignment; and around it there were some standing stones, or rather,
even in Stukeley's time, stones which apparently had stood, but there
is nothing to show whether forming part of a circle, or as detached
menhirs, or as parts of an avenue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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