AVEBURY, or ABURY, a small village of Eng land, in the county of Wilts, is remarkable for the remains of a druidical temple, which has engaged the researches, and puzzled the conjectures, of our most learned antiquaries. It is situated about five miles west of Marlborough, and nineteen north of Stone henge, and it claims our attention as being one of the most stupendous monuments of British antiquity which the island affords. From the tradition of -the 1Velch birds we learn, that Avebury was one of the three primary Gorieddazi or supreme scats of Britain; and the great national temple, or circle of convention 'of the 'ancientBritons. Here they assembled from all quarters of the island at their solemn festivals, 'which were held at the solstices and the equinoxes ; and hither, it is supposed, that all (even from foreign countries) who wished to be perfectly skilled in :druidical science, repaired for instruction. That this was the grand metropolitan station, is rendered most probable from its magnitude, the convenience of its 'situation, and the various British roads which con verged to this spot ; as also from the vast numbers of tumuli or barrows, and other relics of remote anti quity which are to be found in its neighbourhood. The temple consisted of large unhewn stones placed perpendicularly in the ground at nearly regular dis tances from each other, and disposed in parallel rows and circles. Most of these stones measured from ten to nineteen feet in height above the ground, forty feet in circumference, and weighed from forty to fifty four tons each. The principal part of the temple
was surrounded by a ditch and vallum about 30 feet in height, which embraced an area of 22 acres. With in this melosure stood a large circle consisting of 100 stones, and including two double concentric circles, composed with 88 stones, and three others called the cove, with one called the central obelisk. From the large circle proceeded two avenues, extending about a mile in length each way, and consisting of 200 stones. The one towards the south-east, called the Kennet avenue, was terminated with two concentric oval arrangements of stones ; and the other, the Beckhampton avenue, towards the west, had only a single stone at the extremity. The whole work is supposed to have originally consisted of 650 stones; but most of them have been thrown down, broken to pieces, and appropriated to ether purposes, and a very few now remain in their original position. As a do cument of British antiquity, and a singular monument of ancient customs, the temple of Avebury deserves the attention of the antiquary and historian ; and we cannot but regret the heedless industry of those who have laboured to destroy these venerable vestiges of former times. See Rees' Cyclopcedia ; and Britton's Beauties of IViltshire, vol. iii. (p)