only the circular fanes, the Celtic cromlech. The fane of Avebury, or those portions of it which could be traced when first carefully examined in the seventeenth century, may best be described by commencing at the great circle, the exterior limit of which is an immense earthen mound or rampart. Near the middle of the inner declivity of this rampart is a ledge, and then the slope continues until it becomes the side of a deep fosse that passes immediately within the mound, encircling a space of rich and level ground twenty-eight acres in extent. On the verge of the interior area within the fosse were arranged, at equal distances, a hundred massive stones, and appearances, not sufficiently conclusive however, render it probable that immediately within these was another and similar range of monoliths. It may here be remarked that the fosse being within the rampart, and its ledge far from the summit, prove that this great inclosure was not intended. as a place of defence. The stones on the inner edge of the fosse stood at an average distance of 27 feet from each other, and were in height from 14 to 17 feet. The diameter of the circular area within the fosse is about 1300 feet. On each side of the centre of this space stood double concentric circles formed of the same huge columnar masses as marked the outer circumference. In each of these two inner fanes the exterior circle, about 270 feet in diameter, contained thirty, and the interior, 166 feet in diameter, consisted of twelve stones, all placed about the same distance from each other as in the great circle. In the centre of the circles that 1 1 According to the careful plans in Higgins's Celtic Druids, one of these interior temples is larger than what I have stated. In these plans, from are towards the south-east stood a stone of greater height than the surrounding monoliths, being upwards of 20 feet in height. In the centre of the circles which lie towards the north-west were three stones, each about 20 feet in height. The one in the middle faced nearly north-east, and was flanked by the other two, which projected forward so as to enclose a space in front of the centre stone, and the recess thus formed was occupied by a tabular stone placed level with the surface of the ground. This group seems to have faced in the same direction as the principal group of trilithons at Stonehenge, of which a writer who visited that monument in 1795' says, that standing in front of the central trilithon at Stonehenge, and looking towards the great stone, which stands at a distance of 210 feet, outside and entirely detached from the circle, it will be found that the top of that stone corresponds with a hill over which the sun appears to rise on the longest day of the year. At Avebury the great temple and its inner sanctuaries were reached by two avenues that swept in gently-curved lines towards the south-east and south-west. The average breadth of these approaches, which were defined by great stones, was 45 feet. The avenue to the south-east, upwards of a mile in length, terminated in a double oval, and had two hundred and fifty-eight monoliths. The other avenue, rather longer but less complete, appeared to terminate in a single stone. Near the middle of this approach, in the line of the 3 surveys made in 1812, it would appear that the fosse and rampart is not completely circular, although intended to be so. 1 Wansey. His account was published in 1796. 2 The outer oval consisted of 40, the inner of 18 stones. The length of the outer oval was 155, its breadth 138 feet. It so appeared to Stukeley; but this termination suited his theoryviz. that the plan of Avebury was a |