Chap. I].

DRUIDICAL
AND CELTIC
i'l.'i'm/t^
West KeiUK't, as one avenue
;
and the other, the tail, in the direction of Beekliampton.
Dr. Stukely makes the number of stones, 652 in all, as under :

StOIU-S.
The great circle . . 100
Outer circle north ofthe centre 30
Inner ditto . . .12
Outer circle, south . . 30
Inner ditto . . .12
Cove and altar stone, north circle 4
Central pillar and altar, soutli
circle . .2
Kennet avenue . . 200
lieckhampton avenue . 200
Outer circle of Hackpen . -J"
Inner ditto . . .18
Stones.
Long stone. Cove jambs . 3
A stone he calls the ring stone . 1
Closing stone of the tail . I
Total . 662
Of these, only seventy-six stones remained in the Kennet avenue in 1722. The large
circle was enclosed by a trencli or vallum upwards of 50 ft. in deptli and between CO and
I
70 ft. in width, leaving entrances
tsri
i
^o
'
open where the avenues intersected
g3
^^^
;
^^
^^ y
it. The colossal mound, called
\ W
' '
63
'Sj
e
f Q
I
I
<f
\
%
%'
"
Silhury hill," close to the Bath
road, was probably connected in
f^
"
i
"
^
/'
'^ some way with the circle we have
"C
\
%'
A
described, from the circumstance of
the Roman road to Bath, made long
afterwards, being diverted to avoid
it. Dr. Owen thinks that the Abury
circle was one of three primary cir-
cles in Great Britain, and that Sil-
bury hill was the pile of Cyvrangon
(heaping) characterised in the 'i4th
Welsh triad; but the conjecture
affords us no assistance in determin-
ing the people by whom the monu-
ment was raised. If it be in its
arrangement intended to represent
a serpent, it becomes immediately
^^
*5j
33
I
csa
^^
^^
connected with ojihiolatry, or ser-
^^
;
<^
-._ pent worship, a sin which beset the
/-''
^^
1^
I
^^
^^
",
Israelites, and which woidd stamp
!
^^
"\
it as proceeding from the central
K N
stamen of the hypothesis on which
Fit;. .5. piAN or sr(>.vEHKN..E.
Mr. Higgins sets out. See Observ-
ations on Dracontia, by the Rev. John Bathurst Deane, Archaul. vol. xxv.
"
.^oliam Pitanen a Iseva parte relinquit,
F.ictaque de saxi) longi sinnilacra Draconis,"

Ovid, Met. vii. 357.

which is a picturesque description of Abury.
18. Stonehenge, on Salisbuiy Plain, about seven miles from Salisbury and two miles
^^
&
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^
W