AVEBURY AND SILBURY. 235 inonoliths that marked the north side, stood three stones, each 16 feet in height, disposed in the same relative position to each other as those already described as occupying the centre of those inner circles from which this avenue proceeds. This group of three stones in the approach is known to the people of the neighbouring villages by the name of "the Devil's Coits." "Coit and Coits," a term so often applied to this and similar kinds of Celtic monuments, may possibly be derived from the Celtic word Coit in the ancient Cornish language, and Coet in the Breton, which signifies a wood or grove; as it was in groves that our heathen ancestors celebrated their rites and erected their altars. 2 Nearly in the middle, supposing a line drawn from the outer extremities of the two avenues, stands Silbury Hill, a beautiful green conical mount 125 feet in height. The diameter of this artificial hill, which is formed entirely of earth, is 100 feet at the summit and 500 feet at the base, round which it has lately (in 1849) been discovered there was a circle of rude stones 3 or 4 feet in thickness, and placed at intervals of about feet. By a shaft sunk from the summit in 1777, and more important excavations made by the Archæological Institute huge delineation of a serpent. The same theory has been adopted by other writers, and is also applied by them to the great primitive remains on the plains of Carnac in Brittany. Nothing at Avebury or Carnac conveyed to my mind any circumstance favouring this theory; neither do the arguments adduced in proof of it incline me to believe that the serpent was intended to be represented by the Cyclopean works either at Avebury or Carnac. 1 This recess, and similar ones in other places, are sometimes called coves, which word may possibly be derived from the Gaelic Cobhan, a chest, a cave. 2 Dr. Stukeley calls the height 170 feet. in 1849, nothing was discovered indicative of the purpose for which this hill was raised. It was clearly not sepulchral; and although it may have been used for religious rites, there is much more reason to infer that it was principally employed as a place for the assembly of councils and courts of justice, called Mod in Celtic, and Mote or Mute Hills in Anglo-Saxon. These mounds, so common both in South and North Britain, are considered in a separate article, and here it is sufficient to notice two examples, one at each of the ancient seats of royalty in England and Scotland-viz. the "Mota de Windsor" and the "Mute-hill of Scone." The object in particularly referring to this artificial mount of Silbury, and showing its connection with the Avebury temples, will appear when describing other artificial mounts of small size found contiguous to the lesser circular stone fanes. Stones sculptured with the Caledonian hieroglyphics being found in connection with the fanes and moat-hills is also an important fact in regard to these mysterious sculptures. Outside the great rampart of Avebury, on the north-east side, was a circular area defined by the same rude masses of stone as in the circles of the great temple, and within the limits of this outer enclosure was a dolmen. This monument, however, although an appendage, would not appear to have formed a portion of the original fane. Avebury lies low and level, surrounded on all sides by receding hills of gentle declivity, altogether forming an amphitheatre from whence a whole nation might witness the smoke 1 Article on Mod, Mute, or Moat Hills." AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 1 237 of sacrifices ascending from the thickly-clustered columns of rock included within the great rampart. The surrounding ridges of Avebury, far as the eye can reach (it is the same also at Stonehenge1 and at Carnac in Brittany) are covered with sepulchral tumuli, many of which are of great size. This is a proof that those who could command men and labour could not all, or many of them, obtain admission for the remains of deceased relatives into the fanes of their deities. For whom that posthumous honour was reserved can only be a matter of conjecture. No better way appears for giving an adequate idea of the extent of Avebury, and the labour employed in its construction, than by comparing it with that much more generally known monument of antiquity, Stonehenge. On passing thence to Avebury, and tracing its long approaches and beautiful mount of Silbury-notwithstanding the fascination of the remains on the plain of Salisbury—one is not inclined to dispute the truth of the remark made by Aubrey, and quoted by Sir Richard Colt Hoare-viz., "Avebury does as much exceed in greatness the so-renowned Stonehenge as cathedral doeth a parish church." This remark, however, was made upwards of two hundred years ago; and now, unless the visitor prepares himself by previous examinations of the plans and descriptions of Stukeley and Hoare," he might fail to comprehend the full extent and rude magnificence of 1 The beautiful maps in Sir R. Colt Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire show the immense number of barrows existing even in this century around Stone henge. Ancient Wiltshire, pp. 113, 170. 2 Or in Higgins's Celtic Druids. Another stood in the churchyard of the parish of Daviot, and near it was found a stone with Caledonian hieroglyphics. In the churchyard of Kinellar once stood a circular fane and a stone on which is graven the crescent emblem. It was discovered in the foundation of the old church of that parish. In the foundation of the old church of Tyrie, in or near the churchyard walls of Dyce, Inverury, Kintore, and the ancient abbey of Deer were found stones sculptured with hieroglyphics. In the parish of Deer there were many circular fanes, the most entire of which is described in the last century as "having the altar-stone placed as usual on the south side, and lying east and west. It is fourteen and a half feet long, five and a half broad, and four and a half deep. The gross weight would exceed twenty-one tons." In some of these, as in many other cases, the connection of the sculptured stones with the circular fanes and other primitive monuments is conspicuous; and the examples are too numerous to warrant any doubt of their contiguity being intentional. The next argument in proof that the circular areas were anciently occupied, if not originally formed, as places of worship, is derived from the names of places and expressions, both in the Celtic and in the Anglo-Saxon languages. For the purpose of making more intelligible the following remarks it is necessary to premise that in the Gaelic language Clach signifies a stone, and Clachan, stones, 1 On a rising ground near the church of Daviot are the remains of a cromlech, in the circumference of which lies the stone presumed to have been for sacrifice. At this place there were a church-as Clachan-Michel, formerly other primitive monuments, of which only a few monoliths now remain. 2 Shaw's History of Moray, p. 230. |