On The Mysteries Of The Early Ages As Co...

original designs , it is best to refer to " The Britannia , ' of Campden , a work finished in 1607 , and which details what existed in England at that period . About half-way between Calne and Marlborough , in Wiltshire , is an immense mount , artificially thrown up on the left of the road , called Silbury , stated ( page 111 ) to be ci the largest and most uniform barrow in the county , and perhaps in all England . " About half a mile from Silbury , towards the north , is

" Anbury ( now Avebury ) , a monument more considerable in itself than known to the world . It is environed with an extraordinary rampart , and within it is a graff ( or ditch ) , of a depth and breadth proportionable , It could not be designed for a fortification because then the graff would have been on the outside . It has been surrounded all along the edge of it with large stones , pitched on end , most of tbem now taken away , but some marks remaining , give one the liberty to guess they stood quite round .

" From this place ( Avebury ) to West Kennet is a walk , that has been enclosed on each side with large stones ; only one side , at present , wants a great many , but the other is almost if not quite entire ; above which place , on the brow of the hill , is another monument , encompassed with a circular trench , and a double circle of stones , four or five feet high : the most of them are now fallen down . The diameter of the outer circle , forty yards ; and of the inner , fifteen . Between West Ken net and this place is a walk , much like from Anbury thither , at least a quarter of a mile in length . "

Here then was a walk , marked by rows of stones on each side , half a mile in length , intended probably for some procession , perhaps that which took place at the conclusion of the ceremony of initiation . Many other structures are found in various parts of "Wales , on which different opinions have been formed . One of them is thus described in " The Britannia : "—

"We here ( m the Isle of Anglesey ) find a remarkable cromlech , which several suppose the burial-place of some of the most eminent Druids . These ( as there are several others in the island ) are composed of three or four rude stones or more , pitched on end , as supporters or pillars , and a vast stone of several tons , laid on them as a covering . The word ' krum / signifying ' crooked or bunch-backed / and ' llech ' any flat stone . "

As this name is generally given to all Druidical monuments supposed to be sepulchral , we would wish to draw a distinction in reference to other sorts of buildings ( if such a term maybe so applied ) , the use of which has not been ascertained , and which , it is fair to conclude , must have been erected for other purposes . " Amongst these hills [ Denbighshire , p . 682 ] is a place called Kerrig-y-Druidion or Druid-stones . The most remarkable stone monuments now remaining in

this parish , are two of that kind we call kistien-maen , or stone-chests . I mean those two solitary prisons , which are generally supposed to have been used in the time of the Druids . They are placed about a furlong from each other , and are such huts , that each prison can well contain a single person . One of them is known by no particular title , but that of Kist-vaen or Stone-chest , which is common to them both , because they are somewhat of the form of large chests ,

from which they chiefly differ in their opening or entrance , They stand north and south , and are each composed of seven stones ; of these , four , being six feet long and about a yard in breadth , are so placed as to resemble the square tunnel of a chimney ; a fifth stone is placed at the south end thereof , firmly to secure that entrance ; at the north end is the entrance , where the sixth stone is the lid , and especial guard of this close confinement . But in regard it was necessary to