think Selborough a boundary, as he doth in his Britannia, (§ 10,14). At Avebury (itself) with its many inward circles of stones (§ 14) the solemnities began and concluded. The circular entrenchment so contrived that the vulgar from thence might view the ceremonies without breaking in on those that officiated (§ 14). Hence they marched with ceremony along the double range of stones for a mile in length, even to the eminence overlooking East Kennet; then halted at the two circles of stones one within another, standing not long since entire. Some remains of the greater circle are yet to be seen (§ 11). The inhabitants have tradition this was once

a place of worship, as I verily believe it; the Romans here keeping their Feralia, in memory of their dead friends, they crowned the stones with garlands and made their offerings to the Manes (§ 12). Then followed the Ludi Funebres in the small plain Selboroughhill stands in; whither by turning to the right, the other range of stones that helps form the Cuneus (Cunetium, Kennet § 49, 50) conducted them cross the current to a place by nature so fitted to the purpose, (§ 12). Though the neighbouring 'Backhampton' is but a small village, its name seems to discover somewhat of the extent and use of the Circus (the whole Cunetium, as he terms it, he defines as a Circus Lapideus, of between three and four miles') whether we say that it stood on the back of the Circus, or that they returned this way back in procession (§34). To the oblong part of the Circus this village joins, the Romans, I conceive, gave the name of Discus, in our language a coit, one of the exercises here used. Hence the large stones to the west, the remains of the Discus now standing, are still called the 'Devil's Coits" (Gale's Iter, p. 135). Not that these two stones were ever British Deities, as some learned men have fancied, but a part of the Discus, as other stones lying in the same field do shew, to justify the figure I have assigned the whole" (§ 36).

It is observable, that Twining no where alludes to any stones re

1 He insists on the river Kennet "rising within the work," and so shows it in his plan, though it really rises some miles farther north in the winter bourns, giving their names to the villages so called.

2 The stones called the 'Devil's Arrows' at Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, doubtless derive their name in the same way as these.

maining between West Kennet and the long stones called the 'Devil's Coits,' nor any tradition of such. They may be clearly concluded never to have existed except in his own fancy.

It was reserved for Dr. Stukeley1 to give to the world, in 1743, a detailed account of the plan upon which the temple at Abury was constructed. He spent much time on the spot, surveyed it thoroughly, reckoned the stones which were standing, those which were prostrate, and the hollow places indicating the sites of those which had been destroyed. And this he did not merely within the vallum, but in the avenues and the 'Sanctuary' (as it was called) on Kennet Hill. "When I frequented this place," he says, "as I did for some years together, to take an exact account of it, staying a fortnight at a time, I found out the entire work by degrees. The second time I was here, an avenue was a new amusement. third year another. So that at length I discover'd the mystery of it, properly speaking; which was, that the whole figure represented

The

1 The Rev. Wm. Stukeley, M.D., was born at Holbech in Lincolnshire, Nov. 7th, 1687. He was admitted into Bene't College, Cambridge, Nov. 7th, 1703, and chosen scholar there in April following. He applied himself to the study of medicine and anatomy and took the degree of M.B. in 1709, and of M.D. in 1719. He practised for some time in Boston, in London, and in Grantham. In 1728 he married Miss Frances Williamson of Allington, near Grantham. Suffering much from the gout during the winter months, it was customary with him to take several journeys in the spring, in which he indulged his innate love of antiquities. The fruit of these travels was the fol. 'Itinerarium Curiosum,' Centuria I., London, 1724. The 2nd volume was published in 1776, after his death. In 1729 he was ordained by Archbishop Wake and presented by Lord Chancellor King to the living of All Saints, Stamford. In 1737 he lost his wife, and in 1738 he married the only daughter of Dr. Gale, Dean of York. In 1740 he published his account of Stonehenge, and in 1743 his description of Abury. In 1747 he vacated his preferments in the country, being presented by the Duke of Montagu to the Rectory of St. George's, Queen Square, London. On the 27th of February, 1765, Dr. Stukeley was seized with a paralytic stroke, of which he died on the 3rd of March in his 78th year. He was buried, by his own desire, in the Churchyard of East Ham, in Essex. He left three daughters by his first wife, but had no child by the second. (Vide Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vol. v.) Dr. Stukeley's MSS. were for some time in the possession of the late Mr. Britton, and it is understood that a little before his death, he disposed of them to one of the representatives of the Doctor's family. It is to be hoped that they may be subjected to a careful examination, with a view to the publication of such portions as may still possess an antiquarian value.