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.”