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. 1 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 Mod, Mute, or Moat Hills." 1 Article on AVEBURY AND STONEHENGE. 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 2 1 The beautiful maps in Sir R. Colt henge.-Ancient Wiltshire, pp. 113, Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire show the immense number of barrows existing 170. even in this century around Stone- 2 Or in Higgins's Celtic Druids. ancient Avebury-in its day, perhaps, not only the great temple of a nation, but also the centre and radiating point of a religion. All around Stonehenge, as at Avebury, the country was studded with sepulchral tumuli. But at the former there was no mount like Silbury Hill, nor miles of stone avenues like those that extended from Overton and Beckhampton to Avebury. The bulk of the stone masses at Avebury greatly exceeded that of the columns at Stonehenge; the largest in the former is said to have been 37 feet in length, the longest at Stonehenge is 27 feet. The number of stones the position of which could be determined at Avebury was six hundred and fifty, the number at Stonehenge one hundred and forty. The diameter of the outer circle of stones at Avebury is 1200 feet, with the ditch and vallum 1450; that at Stonehenge 106 feet. With regard to the fosse and earthen rampart that surround both Avebury and Stonehenge the contrast is still greater. In the former the ridge of the rampart is of great 1 thickness; even now it rises with a very steep slope, which in some places measures between 70 and 80 feet from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the mound. 1 To which must be added seventy or eighty for stones lately discovered, as now it is proved that Silbury At Stonehenge had a surrounding circle of stones. -See the chapter on Mod or "Moat Hills." |