From two entrances on the southern side of the exterior circle, extend two avenues, each formed by a double line of upright stones, and of more than a mile in length. One of them running in a south-easterly direction, the breadth of Which averages fifty feet, led to an elliptical piece of ground on the top Of it hill called the Ilackpen, enclosed within two hundred upright stones, and surrounded on. all sides with harrows. The south-western avenue, consisting of about two hundred stones, is nearly a mile and a half in length, and ten:dilates in it single stone. It has to he remarked, that both these avenues run in a curved direction, and are hence 1:y some supposed to represent a serpent, thus connecting the religion of the Druids with the early and prevalent supersti tion of serpent-worship ; the western avenue answers to the tai! of the reptile ; the larger circle to the Loeb' ; while the head is represented by the llackpen, a word which, in some Ian gua!‘res, xmiuifnes :open/. The circles of this portion of the structure are concentric, the outer one containing forty stones, having a diameter of one hundred and fifty feet, and the inner, which is composed of eighteen stones, a diameter of fort v•eight feet.
between the two avenues just mentioned, are three mounds, or hills, one of w hieh. situate at the extreme south, and nearly midway between the extremities of the avenues, is remark able as being the largest artificial mound in Europe; it is named Silhury I lilt. The base of this mound covers a space of live acres and thirty-four perches, and its circumference is two thousand and twenty-seven feet, the length of the slope three hundred and sixteen feet, and the diameter of the platform, at its apex, one hundred and twenty feet. Besides this and other erections connected with Minn., arc a variety of Druidical remains scattered in all directions for some distance the great circle.
The number. of stones employed at Abury and Stonehenge, with their distribution, as given by Dr. Stukeley • 'Poland git es the fidlowing account of a remarkable structure of t his kind. In the isle of Lewis," he says. " at the yilla!ve of Classerniss, there is one of these temples very remarkable. The circle consists of twelve obelisks, about seven feet high each, and distant from each other six feet. In the centre stands a stone thirteen feet high, in the perfect shape of the rudder of a ship. Directly south front the circle, there stand tour obelisks running out in a line ; as also another such line due east, and a third to the west, the number and distances of the stones being in these wings the same; so that this temple, the most endre that can be, is :it the same time both round and winged. But to the
north, there reach, by way of avenue, two 'straight ranges of ohelisks, of the same bigness and distances with those of the circle; yet the themselves are eight feet distant, and each consisting of nineteen stones, the thirty-ninth being ClItrance to the avenue." Dr. Borlase mentions three Cir cles of ',tulle in the parish of St. Clare. Cornwall, called the I Tinders, which are separate and distinct from each other, but whose centres are in one straight line.
Amongst some few of the most important circles besides those already mentioned, may be classed that of Stanton Drew. consisting originally of three circles, of the larger of which five stones remain, and of the smaller, it larger num ber; the stones arc iamb inferior in point of size to those already described. IZollrich is another circle of stones near Chipping Not ton, Oxfordshire. the highest of which is not more than five feet above the ground ; they are irre:mlar, and of unequal height. Another is found near Penrith, Cumber land, which consists of' seventy-seven stones, each ten feet in height, and before them, at the entrance, stands It single one by itself, fifteen feet high. :Similar structures are found in other parts of England, Scotland, and the Isles, hut none of them approaching in size those of Abury or Stonehenge.
There exists at Carnac, in Brittany, a monumettt, whielt in size approaches nearer to Abury than any other such work, but which, in its flmn and general character, is perfectly unique ; it is of ruder formation than either Abury or Stone henge, and consists of eleven rows of unwrought pieces of rock or stone, merely set up on end in the earth, without any pieces crossing them at top. These stones are of great thickness, but not exceeding nine or twelve feet in height ; there may be sonic few fifteen feet. The rows are placed front fifteen to eighteen paces front each other, extending in length —taking rather a semicircular direction—above half a mile, on unequal ground, and towards one end upon a hilly site. When the length of these rows is considered, there must have been nearly three hundred stones in each, and there are eleven rows ; this will give some idea of the immensity of the work, and the labour such a construction required. It is said that there are above four thousand stones still remain ing." This account is from Mrs. Studdart's Tour in Normandy and Brittany ; but a French writer gives the size of sonic of the stones at twenty-one and twenty-two feet, and lie especially alludes to one specimen, which was twenty two feet high, twelve broad, and six deep; its weight is given at two hundred and fifty-seven thousand pounds.