The sombre tone of the turf that clothes it is remarkable;
when seen against the pale sweep of the Downs behind, its sides do not
appear to _reflect_ light at all.
[Illustration: SILBURY HILL.]
"As a cathedral is to a parish church," Aubrey's comparison of Avebury
with Stonehenge is difficult to understand upon merely a casual visit.
To grasp the unique character of this, the oldest prehistoric monument
in Europe, and perhaps in the world, we must take for granted the
investigations and discoveries of antiquaries and archaeologists
during the last 250 years, and if the comparison between their
conjectural but approximately correct plans and the present aspect of
this mysterious relic of the Stone Age is disappointing and
perplexing, we can only be thankful that the work of Farmer Green and
Tom Robinson, the two despoilers mentioned by the earliest
investigators, has been prevented in their descendants, and that
though the circles are incapable of restoration, the few stones that
remain will be preserved for all time.
Avebury is undoubtedly older than Stonehenge and must belong to the
true Neolithic period, whether the former does or not.
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