Passing the Roman road, it traverses an angle of a pasture, and falls into the upper part of the same road again, and marches through two more pastures, all along the quickset hedge-side: so that the quick is planted in the very middle of it. Many of the stones are seen lying in their proper places, both in the pastures and in the road. These stones are all thrown down or reclining, and very large. We measur’d one by the style 12 feet long, 6 and a half broad, 3 and a half thick.
At the bottom of these pastures on the right, runs the virgin stream of Kennet, just parted from its fountain by Silbury-hill. One stone is still standing by a little green lane going down to the river. Now our avenue marches directly up the hill, across some plough’d fields, still by the hedge of the Marlborough road, where yet stands another stone belonging to it. Then we are brought to the very summit of the celebrated Overton-hill, properly the Hakpen or head of the snake, which is 7000 feet from the vallum of Abury town. 400 cubits, according to Herodotus II, was the stadium of the ancients, our furlong; a space that Hercules is said to run over at one breath. Had the side-interval of the stones of this avenue been the same throughout, 50 cubits, that repeated 100 times the number of the intervals, would produce 5000 cubits. But because, as I said, they lessen’d this interval proportionably, as they came to the neck of the snake, it amounts to 4000 cubits, which is ten stadia, an eastern mile in Dr. Arbuthnot’s tables, amounting to 7000 feet, as Mr. Roger Gale and I measur’d its whole length.
We may observe the proportion between the diameter of the great circle of Abury town, which was 800 cubits, two stadia, and the length of the avenue, which is five times the other. Observe farther, they carry’d the avenue up the side of the hill, so sloping as to make the ascent gradual and easy.
This [Overton-hill], from time immemorial, the country-people have a high notion of. It was (alas, it was!) a very few years ago, crown’d with a most beautiful temple of the Druids. They still call it the sanctuary. I doubt not but it was an asylum in Druid times; and the veneration for it has been handed down thro’ all succession of times and people, as the name, and as several other particulars, that will occasionally be mention’d. It had suffer’d a good deal when I took that prospect of it, with great fidelity, anno 1723, which I give the reader in [plate XXI]. Then, about sixteen years ago, farmer Green aforemention’d took most of the stones away to his buildings at Bekamton; and in the year 1724 farmer Griffin plough’d half of it up. But the vacancy of every stone was most obvious, the hollows still left fresh; and that part of the two circles which I have drawn in the plate, was exactly as I have represented it. In the winter of that year the rest were all carry’d off, and the ground plough’d over.
The loss of this work I did not lament alone; but all the neighbours (except the person that gain’d the little dirty profit) were heartily griev’d for it. It had a beauty that touch’d them far beyond those much greater circles in Abury town. The stones here were not large, set pretty close together, the proportions of them with the intervals, and the proportions between the two circles, all being taken at one view, under the eye, charm’d them. The great stones of the great circles at Abury were not by them discern’d to stand in circles, nor would they easily be persuaded of it. But these of the sanctuary they still talk of with great pleasure and regret.
This Overton-hill, whereon was the elegant temple we are speaking of, is a very pleasant place. ’Tis the southern end of that ridge call’d the Hakpen, broken off by the river Kennet. All the water that falls in that plain wherein the whole work of Abury stands, descends this way. It is a round knoll with a gentle declivity to the east, west, and south. The Kennet, as it were, licks its feet on all those sides. The whole hill has its name from this end.
To our name of Hakpen alludes אחים ochim call’d doleful creatures in our translation, Isaiah xiii. 21. speaking of the desolation of Babylon, “Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of ochim, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.” St. Jerom translates it serpents. The Arabians call a serpent, Haie; and wood-serpents, Hageshin; and thence our Hakpen; Pen is head in british.
עכן acan in the chaldee signifies a serpent, and hak is no other than snake; the spirit in the pronunciation being naturally degenerated into a sibilation, as is often the case, and in this sibilating animal more easily. So super from υπερ, sylva from υλη, sudor, υδωρ. So our word snap comes from the gallic happer, a snacot fish from the latin acus, aculeatus piscis. And in Yorkshire they call snakes hags, and hag-worms. Vide Fuller’s Misc. IV. 15.
The temple that stood here was intended for the head of the snake in the huge picture; and at a distance, when seen in perspective, it very aptly does it. It consisted of two concentric ovals, not much different from circles, their longest diameter being east and west. By the best intelligence I could obtain from the ruins of it, the outer circle was 80 and 90 cubits in diameter, the medium being 85, 146 feet. It consisted of 40 stones, whereof 18 remained, left by farmer Green; but 3 standing. The inner circle was 26 and 30 cubits diameter, equal to the interval between circle and circle.
The stones were 18 in number, somewhat bigger than of the outer circle, but all carried off by Green aforesaid. Every body here remembers both circles entire, and standing, except two or three fallen.