Each of these temples is four times as big as Stonehenge.
About 1694, Walter Stretch, father of one of the present inhabitants, found out the way of demolishing these stones by fire. He exercis’d this at first on one of the stones standing in the street before the inn, belonging to the outer circle of the southern temple. That one stone, containing 20 loads, built the dining-room end of the inn. Since then Tom Robinson, another Herostratus of the place, made cruel havock among them. He own’d to us, that two of them cost eight pounds in the execution. Farmer Green ruin’d many of the southern temple to build his houses and walls at Bekamton. Since then many others have occasionally practis’d the sacrilegious method, and most of the houses, walls, and outhouses in the town are raised from these materials. Sir Robert Holford resented this destruction of them; and Reuben Horsall, parish-clerk, had a due veneration for these sacred remains, and assisted me in the best intelligence he was able to give. Concerning the purport of the disposition and manner of the temple hitherto described, I shall speak more largely in [chap. X.] toward the end, concluding this with an inscription of the Triopian farm consecrated by Herodes Atticus.
Ne cuiquam glebam, saxumve impune movere
Ulli sit licitum. Parcarum namque severæ
Pœnæ instant: siquis sacra scelus edat in æde.
Finitimi agricolæ, & vicini attendite cuncti,
Hic fundus sacer est; immotaque jura deorum.
CHAP. VI.
Concerning antiquities found about this place; with a more particular chorography of the country around. Description of the roman road here, via Badonica. A plain demonstration that these works we are writing upon, are older than the roman times. Another like demonstration. Of Divitiacus, of the british Belgæ, who made the wansdike. A Druid axe or celt, found under one of the stones in Abury. Burnt bucks-horns, charcoal, and the like.