Chapter VIII

Fondness prevailed, mamma gave way,
Kitty, at heart’s desire,
Obtained the chariot for a day
And set the world on fire.

This lady’s luck and happiness appear to vanish in later life, both her sons meeting tragic deaths; the eldest, Viscount Drumlanrig, shooting himself, the second, Lord Charles Douglas, dying of consumption at Amesbury, having just escaped the perils of the great earthquake at Lisbon.

The Duchess died July 19th, 1777, aged 77, and the Duke the following year.

The title of Duke of Queensberry descended to the Duke’s cousin, William, Earl of March and Raglin. In 1778 he succeeded his cousin Charles as 4th Duke of Queensberry, and in 1786 was created a British peer, taking the title of Baron Douglas of Ambresbury. This eccentric nobleman never married, and was commonly known by the nickname of “Old Q.” He died in 1810, the Amesbury estate passing to Archibald, Lord Douglas of Douglas, whose executors sold it in 1824 to Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart., my husband’s great-great-uncle.

No record is to be found of the destruction of the Abbey, Lord Hertford apparently building himself a house in Amesbury. In “Vitruvius Britannicus” there is a picture of a fine mansion in the Palladian style, built for Lord Carleton from designs by Inigo Jones, the architect being Mr. Webb, nephew of Inigo Jones.

The Queensberrys added wings to this house, and caused a beautiful bridge to span the river Avon, which runs through the grounds. A pretty old house stands in the park, near an old entrance: tradition tells us the Duchess of Queensberry used this lodge as a dairy. It possesses two octagon rooms (one over the other), and an underground passage is supposed to connect it with the river. The park is small, but extremely pretty; one enters it through splendid old gates supported by Palladian pillars.

Opposite the dwelling house is a high bank cut into a fantastic shape and known as “The Diamond.” The cave in which the poet Gay loved to write is hollowed in this bank. The wild-bird-frequented Avon {18} runs below, and above it is crowned by a beautiful wood planted over what is called “Vespasian’s Camp.” In this wood are found two avenues of beech-trees, and walking through the old deer park and across the Downs, at a mile and a half’s distance, glorious Stonehenge bursts upon one.

Returning to Amesbury, and following the course of the river in the opposite direction, one comes upon a little house built of flints, with quaint pointed roof and tower, in which the floor of a small upper chamber is found to be movable; outside, over a door, the stone moulding bears this inscription:

“Diana, her hovs—1600.”

Diana certainly possessed a picturesque dwelling, but I can find no clue to her identity. After the death of the last Duke of Queensberry, Amesbury House remained uninhabited for sixty years, except during the tenancy of Sir Elijah Impey, and when some French nuns occupied it for a short period.

My husband’s grandfather, on inheriting Amesbury from his uncle (the first Sir Edmund Antrobus), wished to enlarge and restore the old house, but finding it in too dilapidated a state, decided to pull it down, and in 1838 began to build an entirely new house (closely resembling the old one) of handsome cut stone, with a grand loggia, supported by beautiful pillars and ornamented with carved stonework of fine design. This house is supposed to stand on the site of the old Abbey, and many traces of cells were discovered, underground, when digging foundations. To-day not a single stone of the old Abbey remains above ground to remind us of its former existence and splendour; it having once covered, tradition says, a space of thirteen acres.

* * * * *

NOTE.—Some beautiful coloured tiles decorated with different intricate patterns were dug up near the present house at Amesbury. We suppose them to be from the cells of the old Abbey. Some have designs of the _Fleur-de-lys_ on them.

PRICELESS STONEHENGE—SOME IMPRESSIONS.

(From _Ladies’ Realm_ Magazine.)

THE Great Druidical Temple, or (as some hold) Phœnician Observatory, composed of gigantic, beautifully-coloured, hewn stones, stands in the middle of Salisbury Plain. These stones have been measured, counted, defaced, praised, depreciated, commented upon, by numerous authorities on countless occasions, but (to my knowledge) no account of their poetical and picturesque aspects, at different seasons of the year, has been attempted. I shall feel satisfied if I succeed in conveying feebly in words what David Cox (the artist) did ably in colours, with his glowing brush. I do not propose to enter into any statistics, as to the “Market value of Stonehenge to the nation,” or to tell you the number of miles that lie between it and the town of Salisbury, the goodness or inferiority of the roads to it, the number of visiting tourists, &c.; I only wish to place before you some impressions I have felt of its grandeur and charm, through many seasons, in all sorts of weather, and varying moods.

There is always a constant surprise and delight to me in the manner in which Stonehenge bursts upon one, approach it as one may, from various points across the undulating Plain which surrounds it. Starting upon one’s “Pilgrim’s Path” to visit it, from any side, at first there is nothing to be seen but the crisp crackling grass underfoot, and the white glittering roads; then, as one advances nearer, unexpectedly, dark, mysterious forms seem to start up, which gradually shape themselves into the incompleted circle we call “Stonehenge.”

The late spring, and early summer, are enchanting periods; myriads of starry white flowers, and gorgeous yellow and blue ones, wave together with a glowing harmony of colour, as they are swayed by soft breezes, whilst a “Hallelujah Chorus” of skylarks sing overhead, making the air full of scent and sound. In this setting, the old stones seem all yellow and grey in the brilliant sunshine. Picturesque shepherds, wrapped in their great dark-blue cloaks, appear upon the horizon; tinkling sheep bells are heard, reminding one of the Roman Campagna; evening falling, brings a sense of peace and stillness, chimes from the old Church at Amesbury float across the valley. The light comes and goes, and the world seems far away.

[Picture: Stonehenge and a Great Trilithon]

* * * * *

To my mind the magic of Stonehenge is never more powerfully felt than during the wild, tempestuous autumnal gales, that usually sweep across the Plain in October. Great clouds roll above, enfolding the circle in a shadowy purple mantle, sometimes tipped with gold. Thoughts rise up suddenly, of the many tragedies, feasts, sacrifices, mysterious rites that must have been enacted here in far-off bygone days. One wonders if beautiful golden-haired Guinevere passed this way, on her flight to safety, at the Convent at “Ambresbury” (the Land of Ambrosius), or if sad King Arthur tarried there on his lonely homeward journey?

I prefer to picture to myself, Stonehenge, in happy, thoughtless Pagan days, Druid priests and priestesses forming grand processions; crossing the “rushing Avon” and winding up from the valley to Stonehenge, clothed in pure white, and holding gleaming sickles in their hands, chanting hymns on their way to perform the sacred rite of cutting the mistletoe. Perhaps they sang and chanted through the short summer night, waiting for the sun to rise (over the pointed outlying stone) on the day which marks the solar half-year (June 21st), and which bathes the altar-stone in golden light. Probably this was the signal for sacrifice, the death of the victim, and the appeasing of wrathful gods. In mid-winter the stones appear like black masses, in the midst of driving snows. The least interesting time of year, in this enchanted place, is the bright, clear, commonplace summer, when no mysteries abound (except by moonlight). The old gods are sleeping, everything is orderly, agriculture and its implements surround us, and Romance seems dead for the moment. Farewell.

FLORENCE CAROLINE MATHILDE ANTROBUS.

In approaching’ the momentous and deeply interesting subject of Stonehenge, I considered it best and wisest to collect the thoughts and opinions of several learned authors on this subject, and submit them to the reader, who thus will have an opportunity of comparing for himself the truth and merits of the different theories presented to him for judgment.

Various explanations of the name “Stonehenge” have been forthcoming; but the true etymological significance seems to be: A.S. “Stàn,” used as an adjective, and “henge,” from A.S. “hòn” _i.e._, stone hanging-places, from the groups of stones resembling a gallows. This was long ago suggested by Wace, the Anglo-Norman poet, who writes:—

“Stanhengues ont nom en Englois
Pierres pendues en François.”

As to the date of Stonehenge, opinions vary. It is supposed Hecatæus (500 B.C.) mentioned it as the “Round Temple” (Translation of Extract from Diodorus Siculus, about B.C. 8).

Hecatæus, the Milesian, and others, have handed down to us the following story:—“Over against Gaul, in the great ocean stream, is an island not less in extent than Sicily, stretching towards the north. The inhabitants are called Hyperboreans, because their abode is more remote from us than that wind we call Boreas. It is said that the soil is very rich and fruitful, and the climate so favourable that there are two harvests in every year. Their fables say that Latona was born in this island, and on that account they worship Apollo (Apollo would signify the sun to the Latins) before all other divinities, and celebrate his praise in daily hymns, conferring the highest honours upon their bards, as being his priests. There is in this island a magnificent temple to this god, circular in form, and adorned with many splendid offerings. And there is also a city sacred to Apollo, inhabited principally by harpers, who in his temple sing sacred verses to the god, accompanied by the harp, in honour of his deeds.

“The language of the Hyperboreans is peculiar, and they are singularly well affected towards the Greeks, and have been so from the most remote times, especially to those of Athens and Delos. It is even said that some Greeks have travelled thither, and presented offerings at their temple inscribed with Grecian characters. They also say that Abaris in former times went thence to Greece, to renew their ancient friendship with the Delians. It is related, moreover, that in this island the moon appears but a short way from the earth, and to have little hills upon it. Once in nineteen years (and this period is what we call the Great Year) they say that their god visits the island; and from the Vernal Equinox to the rising of the Pleiades, all the night through, expresses his satisfaction at his own exploits by dances and by playing on the harp.

“Both the City and the Temple are presided over by the Boreadœ, the descendants of Boreas, and they hand down the power in regular succession in their family.”

The first author who is considered to make unmistakable mention of Stonehenge is Henry of Huntingdon (twelfth century). In his Chronicle he speaks of it as the second wonder of England, and calls it Stanenges. Geoffrey of Monmouth (1138) wrote of it about the same time; he believed it to have been erected by Aurelius Ambrosius, King of Britain, and called it Hengist’s Stones. Giraldus Cambrensis, a contemporary of Geoffrey, also makes mention of it.

Among more modern authors, may be quoted Sir Philip Sidney’s lines:—

“Near Wilton sweet, huge heaps of stones are found,
But so confused that neither any eye
Can count them first, nor reason try
What force them brought to so unlikely ground.”

Then Wharton’s sonnet:—

“Thou noblest monument of Albion’s isle!
Whether by Merlin’s aid from Scythia’s shore
To Amber’s fatal plain Pendragon bore,
Huge frame of giant hands, the mighty pile,
To entomb his Britain’s slain by Hengist’s guile;
Or Druid priests, sprinkled with human gore,
Taught ’mid thy massy maze their mystic lore;
Or Danish chiefs, enriched with savage spoil,
To victory’s idle vast, an unhewn shrine,
Reared the rude heap; or in thy hallowed round
Repose the kings of Brutus’ genuine line;
Or here those kings in solemn state were crowned
Studious to trace thy wondrous origin,
We muse on many an ancient tale renowned.”

To descend to prose. Langtoft, in his Chronicle, says:—“A wander wit of Wiltshire, rambling to Rome, to gaze at antiquities, and there screwing himself into the company of antiquarians, they entreated him to illustrate unto them that famous monument in his country called Stonage. His answer was that he had never seen it. Whereupon they kicked him out of doors, and bade him go home and see Stonage.”

The immortal Pepys says the stones are “as prodigious as any tales I have ever heard of them, and worth going this journey to see.”

The archæologist, Mr. Edmund Story Maskelyne, fixes the date of Stonehenge at 900 or 1000 B.C. I quote what he says from a lecture, read 1897, “On the Age and Purpose of Stonehenge”:—

“It is of consequence that we should recognize that Stonehenge was
built about nine or ten hundred years B.C., and not 700 A.D., as many
writers would have us believe. For instance, Dr. W. M. Flinders
Petrie, in his book, ‘Stonehenge, 1880,’ states his opinion that it
was erected A.D. 700±200, that is, between A.D. 500 and 900. The
date of Stonehenge will be of great interest if there is found at
Avebury remains sufficiently perfect to determine astronomically the
date when that monument was erected. For it cannot be but
interesting to ascertain when the two cults—that of the sun, pure and
simple, as exemplified in the original Temple at Stonehenge; and the
cult of the sun in connexion with the serpent, as exhibited at
Avebury—respectively prevailed in this country.”

Mr. Story Maskelyne’s reasons for his theory that Stonehenge was built by the Phœnicians are as follows:—

“I should like to add some reasons for my belief that Stonehenge was
built by the Phœnicians. In the first place, I cannot think of any
other people that could have either designed or executed such a
monument, which required both science for its conception and skill
for its erection. The Phœnicians, with their perfect familiarity
with masts, and cordage, and pulleys, could easily lift the imposts,
of which the largest—being about 11 ft. long, 4 or 6 wide, and 3 ft.
thick—would weigh less than ten tons; and the Phœnicians must have
known how the Egyptians raised masses of stone many times heavier.

“The trilithon {24} standing clear seems to have had some fascination
for these people. They are found still standing in Tripoli in Libya,
as described in ‘The Hill of the Graces,’ a record of investigation
among the Trilithons and Megalithic sites of Tripoli by Mr. Cowper,
F.S.A., 1897, and specimens exist on the Continent of Europe, in
Normandy and in Brittany. One may be seen in the Island of Ushant,
and another in St. Nazaire on the probable route they adopted for the
passage of tin.

[Picture: Great Circle and Leaning Stone, as it was—now upright]

“Another peculiarity can be seen to this day by any one at Stonehenge
in the large trilithon impost, namely, that the under surfaces of the
imposts which rested on the uprights are smoothly cut and slightly
bevelled, so as to throw the principal weight of the mass of the
impost on its outside edge, thus excluding rain, &c., and this very
contrivance was employed by the Egyptians in the pyramids, and it is
certain that the Phœnicians had free intercourse with Egypt.
Finally, the Phœnicians had founded Cadiz, their Gadir in the
eleventh century B.C., more than two centuries before the date which,
from astronomical considerations, I assign for the building of
Stonehenge. We know that they sailed along the shores of Spain and
Gaul and to the Baltic, and though they preferred coasting as a rule,
the straight cut across from Cherbourg to Poole or Christchurch in
fine weather would not be a long voyage; and as they certainly did
trade with Britain, and it must have been hazardous for British
coracles to sail across the open sea, laden with tin, we may conclude
that Phœnician ships did cross the Channel. We know also that the
Phœnicians made, more or less, homes for themselves wherever they
landed; and it is probable that they did so at Poole or Christchurch,
also that they would build them a temple where they found it
convenient to stay.”

Mr. Story Maskelyne considers the Greeks reformed the Temple later on. “Within 500 years of the latest of the above-mentioned dates the Phœnician or Tyrian Empire had ceased to exist, and her numerous colonies had been absorbed by the nationalities surrounding them. About B.C. 400 the Greeks supplanted the Phœnicians in their trade with Britain, and probably for some time continued to use the same mart and sea route the latter had used—we may assume from Cherbourg to Poole or Christchurch, whence they bore away the tin in their coracles from Cornwall. Now commenced a new era for Stonehenge. It must have been a noted Temple, and I cannot doubt that Hecatæus did allude to it as cited by Strabo, when he wrote, in the sixth century B.C., of the Round Temple to Apollo in the land of the Hyperboreans. Now the festivals of the Greeks were more connected with the months than with the year, and their calendar months were alternate, full and hollow, where the thirty pillars were doubtless used by them for the daily sacrifice in the months of thirty days and the spaces between them, omitting the entrance, for the hollow months, of twenty-nine days. Owing to the precession of the stars, Stonehenge no longer answered some of the purposes for which it has been founded. The Greeks had adopted with ardour the Metonic Cycle discovered by them B.C. 430, and they reformed the old Sun Temple by the addition of the inner horseshoe of blue stones which represented that Cycle, for they were in number nineteen. As to how, or why, the blue stones came to be imported, I imagine they are native to Brittany or Normandy, whence they might easily have been brought as ballast in Greek ships, which took back tin in their stead from Poole or Christchurch, and from the latter port they might easily have been taken in rafts to Amesbury.”

[Picture: The stone and flint implements discovered at Stonehenge during
the excavations in 1902]

[Picture: Hele Stone]

THE DATE OF STONEHENGE.

IN printing this second edition of my little guide-book, I think it will be found interesting and necessary to leave all the former evidence and opinions that I collected as to the date of Stonehenge. Since the excavations in 1901, I think we may consider the age of Stonehenge to be between three and four thousand years. Mr. W. Gowland judges from the implements or tools found, Sir Norman Lockyer and Dr. Penrose from astronomical observations, based on the fact that the avenue (“Viâ Sacra”) to Stonehenge from the east of the ancients was in a line with the Altar Stone, so that the sun, rising on the day of the solar half-year (June 21st) and creeping over the horizon, shed his beams on the Altar Stone, thus marking the solar half-year. Of course, the east of the ancients is not our east, but the difference between the position of the sun _now_ and then to the avenue gives, according to these gentlemen’s calculations, a date of 3700 years old to Stonehenge.

THE FINDS AT STONEHENGE, 1901.

THE implements found during the excavations made for the underpinning of the “Leaning Stone” are thus classified by Mr. W. Gowland:—

(1) Haches roughly chipped, longer and shorter. (2) Axe-hammers. (3) Hammer-stones with blunt edge. The above are of flint. (4) Regular hammer-stones of compact sarsen. (5) Mauls of the same rock, weighing from 37 to 64 lbs. each. There were also found chippings from the monoliths, and, near the surface, coins and animal bones.

Only one trace of copper or bronze occurred other than coins and superficial finds, a mere strain on a block of sarsen. So we may consider Stonehenge to belong to the late Neolithic, or early Bronze Period. These objects have been lent by Sir Edmund Antrobus to the museum at Devizes for a period of six months.

* * * * *

In the January, 1902, number of _Man_, Mr. W. Gowland’s interesting paper will be found, describing the excavations, methods of trimming and erecting the stones practised by the ancients.

As to the kinds of stone actually employed in the building of Stonehenge, the whole of the outer circle and the four stones lying beyond that circle are undoubtedly “Sarsen” (which are the boulder stones left by the ice-sheet of the glacial period on the Wiltshire downs). There are, in the inner circle, four stones which have been called “horn-stone.” The remainder are “diabase,” commonly called “bluestones,” and similar are found in Wales, and in parts of Cumberland and Cornwall, the so-called Altar Stone being a kind of grey sandstone, not sarsen. The large outlying stone, known traditionally as the “Friar’s Heel,” from a legend that when the devil was busy erecting Stonehenge he made the observation that no one would ever know how it was done. This was overheard by a friar lurking near by, and he incautiously replied in the Wiltshire dialect, “That’s more than thee can tell,” and fled for his life; the devil, catching up an odd stone, flung it after the friar, and hit him on the heel. This stone is also named the “Pointer,” because from the middle of the Altar Stone the sun is seen at the summer solstice (21st of June) to rise immediately above it. The Hele Stone is the true name, “Hele” meaning “to hide,” from Heol or Haul of Geol or Jul, all names for the sun, which this stone seems to hide. From the Friar’s Heel it is about 66 yards to a low circular earthen boundary, enclosing the area within which Stonehenge stands. Just within the entrance to this earthen ring lies a large prostrate stone called the “Slaughter Stone,” supposed by some to have been used for the slaughter of victims about to be offered in sacrifice at the altar. The Slaughter Stone (at the end nearest to the Friar’s Heel) bears evidence of tool-marks, there being six small round cavities made in it by blows from a flint tool. On the margin of the earthen ring, one 55 yards on the left, the other 95 yards on the right of the entrance, are two small, unhewn stones.

[Picture: Ground plan as presumed to have been originally. A. Small
Trilithon of Syenite. That it stood here is only conjecture. It now
lies as marked A below]

[Picture: A. Trilithon fell 1797. B. Upright with capstone fell, Dec.
31st, 1900]

[Picture: Great Trilithons (as it was)]

Stonehenge stands about 440 feet above the sea-level. The outer circle measures 308 feet in circumference, and is supposed to have been formed originally of thirty upright stones, seventeen of which are still standing, and the remains of nine others are to be found fallen to the ground. These stones formerly stood 14 feet above the surface of the ground, but now are of different heights. Their breadth and thickness also vary: the former averaging 7 feet, the latter 3½. The stones were fixed in the ground at intervals of 3½ feet, connected at the top by a continuous line of thirty imposts forming a corona or ring of stone at a height of 16 feet above the ground, and were all squared and rough hewn, and cleverly joined together. The uprights were cut with knobs or tenons, which fitted into mortice holes hewn in the undersides of the horizontal stones. About 9 feet within this peristyle was the “inner circle,” composed of diabase obelisks; within this, again, was the “great ellipse,” formed of five, or, as some think, seven trilithons of stones, each group consisting of two blocks placed upright and one crosswise. These structures rose progressively in height from N.E. to S.W., and the loftiest and largest attained an elevation of 25 feet. Lastly, within the trilithons was the “inner ellipse,” consisting of nineteen obelisks of diabase. Within the inner ellipse we find the Altar Stone. At the present moment, there remains of the outer circle or peristyle sixteen uprights and six imposts; of the inner circle, seven only stand upright of the great ellipse—there are still two perfect trilithons and two single uprights. The Duke of Buckingham, in his researches in 1620, is said to have caused the fall of a trilithon. He was at Wilton in the reign of James I., and he “did cause the middle of Stonehenge to be digged, and under this digging was the cause of the falling down or recumbency of the great stone there, twenty-one foote long.” “In the process of digging they found a great many horns of stags and oxen, charcoal batter-dishes (?), heads of arrows, some pieces of armour eaten out with rust, bones rotten, but whether of stagge’s or men they could not tell.”

In 1797, on a rapid thaw succeeding a severe frost, another trilithon fell; of the inner ellipse, there are six blocks in their places; and in the centre remains the so-called Altar Stone.

In Sir R. C. Hoare’s “History of Wiltshire,” he mentions that Inigo Jones observed a stone, which is now gone, in the inmost part of the cell, appearing not much above the surface of the earth and lying towards the east, four feet broad and sixteen long, which was his supposed Altar Stone. Also “Philip, Earl of Pembroke (Lord Chamberlayne to King Charles I.), did say ‘that an altar stone was found in the middle of the area here, and that it was carried away to St. James’s.’”

The entrance to Stonehenge faced the N.E., and the road to it, “Viâ Sacra,” or avenue, can be traced by banks of earth.

It is the opinion of competent authorities that many of the stones should be underpinned in the manner of the “Leaning Stone,” as any violent storms, such as periodically sweep across the Plain, might bring them down. The fall of two of the stones from the outer circle (supposed by the superstitious to foretell the Queen’s death) on December 31st, 1900, the last day of the old century, and 103 years after the last stones fell, was caused by a gale from the west.

There are the two opinions as to the right course to pursue regarding Stonehenge—some people considering it would be well to leave it to fall down, so that eventually it would appear like a jumbled heap of ninepins, others (myself among the number) that the necessary steps for its Preservation, _not_ Restoration, should be taken.

FLORENCE C. M. ANTROBUS.

_April_, 1902.

PARTICULARS OF THE STONES.

58 stones of the Sarsen circle: 30 piers, 28 lintels.
26 ,, ,, Bluestone circle (2): this includes 1 impost.
15 ,, ,, Sarsen trilithons: 10 piers, 5 imposts.
19 „ Inner bluestones.
1 Sun stone.
1 Altar stone.
1 Slaughter stone.
1 Stones of the Earth Circle.
123 Total

.

The question arises whether there were formerly other stones belonging to the earth circle. From probing the ground, there is reason to believe that a stone on this bank may once have marked the direction of the axis.

SARSEN CIRCLE.

17 piers _in situ_, 8 prostrate or fragments, 5 missing.

6 lintels _in situ_, 2 fragments, 20 missing.

BLUESTONE CIRCLE.

12 stones or stumps _in situ_, 10 prostrate, 4 missing.

SARSEN TRILITHONS.

5 piers _in situ_, 3 prostrate, 5 missing.

From this list of missing blue stones we may safely deduct two; two pieces of rock are known to be beneath the turf, and there may be others. The most satisfactory derivation of Sarsens or Sassens is from the Anglo-Saxon word for a rock or stone—_ses_, plural _sesen_ or _sesons_. The Inner Circle of blue stones and Inner Horse-shoe are composed of the “Blue Stones,” igneous rocks.

DERIVATION OF AMESBURY.

“On Salisbury Plain stand the ruins of the weird Circle of Revolution, Cor y Coeth in Welsh, the Circle of Dominion, the holy anointed stones of Ambresbiri (_ambree_, anointed; _biri_, Hebrew for holy ones), at once a sanctuary and a sundial (3000 years ago the only clock in Britain), regulated by the sun and moon for days and years. But the beautiful old British names since the sixth century have been blotted out by the terrible title _Stonehenge_ or stone gallows—Stanhengen in Anglo-Saxon. A permanent gallows of stone was used by the Saxons for the execution of criminals, and wishing to aim a death-blow at British power, no surer way was found by the invaders than by hanging British leaders upon the consecrated stones of their revered temple. The road from the village of Amesbury to the Circle is still called Gallow’s Hill.”

_From Mrs. Gordon’s Pamphlet_.

DERIVATION OF DRUID.

An Arabic (and Persian) word meaning Holy Men come from the valley of the Euphrates. Mrs. Gordon considers Merlin (the Bismarck of his age) as the builder of Stonehenge; also that Aurelius Ambrosius, by his own wish, was buried within the Circle of Stonehenge.

DERIVATION OF BARROWS.

Barrow, a Hebrew word for grave Mounds. Literally, the “thrown-up pit of lamentation.”

DERIVATION OF WILTSHIRE.

Wiltshire, in the Saxon Chronicles Wiltunseir, in Doomesday Wiltescire, derives its name from the town of Wilton, from the Wit-saetas (_saetan_ = settlers or inhabitants), the West Saxon tribe who made it their home.

MENTION OF AMESBURY IN MALORY’S “MORTE D’ARTHUR.”

“And thus upon a night there came a vision unto Sir Launcelot, and charged him, in remission of all his sins, to haste him towards Almesbury. ‘And by that time thou come, there thou shalt find Queen Guenever dead; and therefore take thy fellows with thee, and also purvey thee a horse bier, and bring you the corpse of her, and bury it by her lord and husband.’ Then Sir Launcelot took his seven fellows with him, and on foot they went from Glastonbury, which is little more than thirty miles. And when Sir Launcelot was come to Almesbury, within the nunnery, Queen Guenever died but half an hour before.”

Timbs, in his “Abbeys and Castles in England,” says: “At Amesbury, says Bishop Tanner, quoting from Geoffrey of Monmouth, there is said to have been an ancient British monastery for 300 monks, founded, as some say, by the famous Prince Ambrosius who lived at the time of the Saxon invasion, and who was therein buried, destroyed by that cruel pagan, Gurmendus, who overran all this country in the sixth century.” This alludes to a monastery prior to the one founded by Elfrida, with which I begin my account of Amesbury Abbey.

THE AVENUE OR VIÂ SACRA

is orientated to the midsummer sunrise, and points 50° east of north point. It leads uninterruptedly to the circular space formed by the earth circle in which Stonehenge stands, the enclosing bank being discontinued in this direction. It is noteworthy that the sun stone, as well as the slaughter stone, are not placed in the centre of the avenue or approach, but lie towards the eastern side of it. The avenue is made by two parallel lines confining ditches, the earth having been thrown inwards so as to slightly raise the roadway. These ditches, though shallow, are distinct. The avenue thus formed descends the gradual incline of the Down, until at about one thousand five hundred feet from the sun stone the ditches become indistinguishable. Here the descent is more rapid and leads to a gentle valley in the Down, where the avenue divided into two branches. It is now impossible to trace this point of division with any certainty.

THE CURSUS AVENUE.

This is now completely obliterated.

THE LONG AVENUE.

The branch which turned to the right, forming the eastern slope of the valley, went over its crest and continued in a straight line in the direction of some high land to the north of Vespasian’s Camp. The plough at work year after year has completely effaced all traces of this avenue, and we have to rely on Dr. Stukeley’s account written 150 years ago.

THE PARALLEL BANK.

At 1200 feet from the sun stone “the approach” is intersected at an angle approximating roughly to a right angle by parallel banks about two feet in height and forty feet apart; the roadway thus formed continues about 600 feet to left and right; to the east it is continued by a causeway across the valley already spoken of, and it is used by carts passing that way, required in the cultivation of fields to the west of the avenue.

THE CURSUS.

_Discovered by Dr. Stukeley_, 1723.

This great enclosure lies to the north of Stonehenge, and veers 6° from due east and west. Like the avenue it is formed by banks thrown up from an outer ditch. It is 9000 feet in length, with a width of 350 feet at its centre, but towards its extremities it narrows. To the west, the southern boundary is irregular. The northern ditch, on the contrary, makes a fairly straight line. Its eastern end is headed by a long mound now difficult to trace. Near its western extremity, and within the enclosure, are two small tumuli irregularly placed. The greater part of this earthwork being on the uncultivated Down is fairly well defined, especially to the west; to the east it has been obliterated by the plough.

THE LESSER CURSUS.

To the north-west of the Great Cursus and over 7000 feet distant from Stonehenge, is an earthwork apparently the beginning of a second cursus. It is ill defined, and at 1200 feet from its enclosed end the ditches cease. It appears to be an abandoned scheme for an enclosure similar to the Cursus.

From “Stonehenge,” Mr. Edgar Barclay. At page 66 he says:—“The Cursus is irregular in shape, nevertheless there remains a very strong probability that it is an adjunct of Stonehenge, and was designed with it, and is not an independent earthwork as Sir R. Colt Hoare maintains.”

From Mr. J. F. Hewitt’s “Ruling Races of Pre-historic Times”:—“A hippodrome can still be traced about half a mile north of the Temple, with which it is connected by an avenue about forty cubits wide. This is divided into two branches, about 1700 feet from the Temple, the eastern hand going eastward to Radfin, a ford on the Avon, and the western curving round to the ancient chariot-course. It was here the seasonal games took place, said by Macrobius to have been celebrated by the Druids, when sacrifices were offered to the gods. This ancient _campus martius_, running east and west, is about 10,000 feet or 6000 Druidical cubits long, and 350 feet or 200 Druidical cubits wide, and on the east side is a long bank, extending nearly its whole length, which must have served as a place for spectators; while on the west side is a curve to allow for the turning of the competing chariots. There can be no doubt whatever that this racecourse represents the ancient site of the national games; instituted by the Sons of the Horse, which are said in Greek tradition to have been founded by Akastus, king of Iolcus, after he had driven out Jason and Medea the sorceress.”

EARTHWORKS ON SALISBURY PLAIN.

Tumuli, or Barrows, are the most simple kind of sepulchral monument; they consist of a mound of earth or stones raised over the dead.

Sir Richard Colt Hoare thus classifies them in his “History of Wiltshire”:—

1. The Long Barrow. Differing considerably in their construction.

2. The Bowl Barrow. The most ordinary shape.

3. The Bell Barrow. This, from the elegance of its form, seems a refinement on the Bowl Barrow. They abound near Stonehenge.

4. Druid Barrow (1st class). I consider these tumuli were appropriated to the female tribes. The outward vallum with the ditch within is beautifully moulded, and in most instances found to contain small cups, small lance heads, amber, jet, and glass beads.

5. Druid Barrow (2nd class). In external form these resemble the preceding, but their circumference is not so large. The tumulus within rises to a point from the edge of the vallum.

6. Pond Barrow. They differ totally from all others, and resemble an excavation made for a pond. I can form no conjecture as to their use.

7. Twin Barrow. They are not very common, and, by being enclosed in a circle, seem to denote the interment of relations.

8. Cone Barrow. The only one I have seen is at Everley. The tumulus rises immediately from the ditch, and the apex is higher and more pointed.

9. Broad Barrow. Resembles the Bowl Barrow, but is higher and flatter at the top.

Mr. Edgar Barclay, in “Stonehenge,” says:—“The presence of barrows (near Stonehenge) would enable marriages to be celebrated on the spot. A feast at the family tomb was an opportunity for a young woman about to marry to be formally introduced to the domestic worship of the family she was about to enter. That feasts did occur at Stonehenge Barrows we have proofs. We find also that Irish Fairs in honour of the Sun God were held in proximity to extensive burial-places. The arrangement of the avenues, the placing of the cursus, the placing of the sun stone and slaughter stone, the break in the lintel circle, &c.: these characteristics point out to us the probable procedures at times of festival. The midsummer festival solemnized the holy espousals of the Sun God with the land.”

In “The Ruling Races of Pre-historic Times,” Mr. Hewitt says:—“The deer worshippers were the mixed race formed from the union of the sons of the mother-tree, the mother-bear and wolf, the lordly boar and the prolific sow, the mother-cow, the mother-mountain, and father firestone, the people who looked on the Sun God of the equinoxes and solstices as the god who made their crops to grow and who ripened their barley, the seed of life (_zi_), the Zeus of the Greeks, which gave its name to the Deus of the Latins and the Theos of the Greeks, the Manx god Ji. This father sun god was the god on the grey white horse, the clouds, the white horse in Zend mythology of Tishtrya, the star of the summer solstice which succeeded the golden horned bull of the bull race, as the adversary and conqueror of the black horse, and the black bull or dragon, the cloud which will not give up its rain, which was in Northern mythology the winter frost giant. It was this white horse—the sun god of the limestone, flint, and chalk country—which was the god of Stonehenge, the temple whose ruins still remain to set before us, with absolute certainty of the correctness of the deduction in its main details, the complete ritual of this primæval worship.”

_Note_.—The white sun horse is still worshipped and fed daily at Kobe, in Japan.

The worshippers of the sun god who built this temple are proved to have belonged to the Bronze age by the number of round barrow tombs within twelve miles of it; and Stukeley (A.D. 1723) counted one hundred and twenty-eight as visible from a hill close by.

VESPASIAN’S CAMP.

A name given by Dr. Stukeley to the (probably) British earthworks, locally known as “the Ramparts,” which crown a hill in the demesne of Amesbury Abbey. Its ancient lines of defence, enclosing thirty-nine acres and boldly scarped towards the west, environ the summit in the form of a scalene triangle. This hill is densely wooded, containing two beautiful avenues of beech-trees, and as it descends to the Avon, is cut into a fanciful shape, supposed to resemble a diamond. I have described this in “Amesbury Abbey.”

WEST AMESBURY HOUSE.

A pretty old house on the road-side, belonging to Sir Edmund Antrobus, built of stone and flint. The interior has been much altered and spoilt. Traces of a monastic building exist in the beams supporting the roof, and in a church doorway at the top of the staircase. These date from the fifteenth century. Aubrey informs us that this house and property, along with Stonehenge, once formed the dowry of the wife of Lord Ferrers of Chartley. The village of West Amesbury possesses some picturesque thatched cottages, and on an outside wall of one is a rude sketch of fighting cocks and their backers.

WILSFORD HOUSE.

A house on the banks of the Avon, built by the late Mr. Loder, of Salisbury, two miles from Amesbury. It is of the modern “villa” description. In 1898 Mr. Young purchased it from Sir E. Loder, and re-sold it to Mr. Edward Tennant in 1900. None of the places described along the Avon Valley are open to the public, but they can be seen from the high road.

[Picture: Lake House]

LAKE HOUSE,

situated on the banks of the Avon, is in the parish of Wilsford, and about three miles south of Amesbury. The exact date of its foundation is uncertain. Its main features are Elizabethan, but an old letter in the possession of the family clearly suggests an earlier date. “As to ye date of ye house,” says the correspondent, “I do not remember anything in that beautifully written deed to which you refer that would bear on it. Great weight would belong to any opinion expressed by ye late J. H. Parker, and you told me that you thought it might be as early as Edward VI. or earlier, and probably Parker judged only by what he saw, and ye architectural features that remain have in them nothing distinctive in comparison with those what have vanished.” Lake House is one of the most beautiful in this neighbourhood, and is built of the usual stone and flint; it possesses yew hedges and delightful old-fashioned gardens sloping to the river. It was purchased in 1591 by George Duke, and it remained in the Duke family till 1897, when (just in time to save the old house from utter ruin) it was bought by Mr. J. N. Lovibond, and most beautifully restored by the architect, Mr. Detmar Blow, according to the views of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. There are barrows in the park at Lake, and many curious objects, such as amber necklaces, &c., were discovered in them about fifty years ago during excavations made by the late Mr. Duke. Some of the things then found are in the British Museum. A cottage industry is now carried on in the village of Lake: a sort of rough tweed in pretty colours being made in hand looms by the women. This tweed is called “Stonehenge” cloth, and is not expensive.

GREAT DURNFORD CHURCH.

Leaving Amesbury, and following the eastern banks of the Avon, we come to Great Durnford. Its name is derived from the British word “dur,” signifying water. The church is most picturesque, and is built of stone and flint, with very rich Norman north and south doorways and chancel arch. The font is Norman, with an interesting arcade. The pulpit is of oak and dated 1619, and has a very old velvet cover with 1657 worked on it. Built into the wall of the church is a stone coffin containing a skeleton, supposed to be that of the founder. Traces of two doors leading to the rood loft can still be seen, and in one window are the remains of some very old glass. Inside the south door are several curious crosses, supposed to be dedication crosses. In the chancel is a leper’s window. The altar rails are of oak, and date back to the sixteenth century. The pattern on the walls is the same as that found some years ago under the plaster and whitewash. There is a curious brass to the memory of Edward Young, his wife, and fourteen children, dated 1670. In the chancel, chained to an ancient desk, is a copy of Jewel’s “Apologie of the Church of England,” ordered by Convocation after the Reformation, 1571.

GREAT DURNFORD HOUSE

was once a seat of the Hungerfords. Evelyn notes in his Diary, July, 1654:—“We dined at a ferme of my Uncle Hungerford’s called Darneforde magna, situate in a valley under the plaine, most sweetly watered, abounding in troutes, catched by speares in the night when they come attracted by a light set in ye sterne of a boate.”

It is in the French château style on a small scale, and has lovely old-fashioned gardens, quite unspoiled, with some rare trees growing in them. At the end of the last garden flows the Avon, and picturesque Durnford Church stands close by. In 1869 Mr. Pinckney bought the house and some of the estate from the Earl of Malmesbury.

OGBURY CAMP.

On the eastern side of the Avon is a very ancient earthen work called Ogbury Camp. Sir Richard Colt Hoare thus describes it:—“On this hill we recognize the very early and simple handiwork of the Britons, unaltered by their successors and conquerors, the Romans and Saxons. Here we see a large tract of sixty-two acres enclosed within a single rampart, and without any fosse to strengthen it against the attacks of an enemy, and we perceive within the area the evident marks of enclosures, and only one entrance to the east. On the northern side the ramparts followed the windings of the hill, and are interrupted by the plantations of Lord Malmesbury’s demesne. The area contains sixty-two acres and a quarter. The circuit of the outer ditch is one mile, one furlong and fifty-five yards, and the depth of the vallum is thirty-three feet. On the south-east and west sides the ramparts are very much mutilated. I cannot consider Ogbury as a camp or work of defence against an invading enemy, but rather as an asylum or place of refuge, whither the Britons, in times of danger, retired with their families and herds of cattle. On digging within this area we could not find any marks of ancient residence, but on some high ground adjoining the extraordinary verdure of the turf induced us to dig into the soil, where we immediately found numerous bones of animals with fragments of the rudest British pottery.”

[Picture: Heale House]

HEALE HOUSE, MIDDLE WOODFORD.

_The Residence of the Honourable Louis Greville_; _bought by him from Sir
E. Loder_, 1894.

This house, beautifully built of small red bricks, has stone-coped windows in the Dutch style of architecture introduced into this country by William III., and is quite unlike the usual stone and flint “chequered” houses of the neighbourhood. You enter the grounds through old wrought-iron gates and down an avenue of elm-trees. The river Avon flows through the garden. This property formerly belonged to the Errington and Hyde families. Inside the house little remains of the old decorations but some carved woodwork. A cupboard in a bedroom is shown as the hiding-place of Charles II. after the battle of Worcester. He is said to have visited Stonehenge from Heale, and there met friends who were to conduct him to the coast of Sussex prior to his escape from England. He is supposed to have proved to his own satisfaction the fallacy of the notion of the impossibility of counting the stones composing Stonehenge.

“In 1721 Robert Hyde bequeathed Heale to his sister, Mrs. Levinz, widow of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, and she, by will, devised the estates to her son-in-law, Michael Frampton of Oxford, and he, in his turn, left them to his nephews, Thomas Bull, rector of Porton, and Edward and Simon Polhill and their heirs in succession, in default thereof to William Bowles; in seventeen years after the death of the testator, Canon Bowles was in full possession of the property.” Several members of the Bowles family lie buried in Salisbury Cathedral. Heale Hill is remarkable for a circle on the summit and traces of a British village on the south slope.

[Picture: Little Durnford]

LITTLE DURNFORD HOUSE.

Built of stone and flint, successively the property of the families of Pregers, Wodhull, and Tropnell, afterwards Yonge or Young. In 1795 it was sold to Edward Hinxman, whose descendants sold it in 1897 to Mr. Devenish (the present owner). The Avon, flowing through the grounds, has been artificially widened in one place, forming a miniature lake in front of the house.

ENVOI.

With much regret I find myself at the end of my little book, which, I hope, will help to describe a beautiful and interesting country. It has been compiled from various learned sources, and only a small portion of it can claim to be original. I shall consider myself fortunate if the traveller finds _any_ pleasure in reading what has given me great pleasure to write.

FLORENCE CAROLINE MATHILDE ANTROBUS.

_June_, 1900.