feet in diameter, and they were sometimes made of earth. These
circles are regarded by some<27> as being simply burial places, and many
of them have been proved to be such. But others regard them as temples,
meaning thereby not a building, in our sense of the word, but a place of
sanctity, and probably where some form of worship was held. Even if we
allow that they were originally tombs in every case, it does not follow
that they have not also been temples, for the religious sentiment
has, in all ages, and in all places, tended to center in tombs, which
ultimately have become places of worship. Many of our Christian Churches
have originated in this manner, and it is a most obvious transition from
the tomb to the temple. The worship of the spirits of the dead at the
one would naturally grow into the worship of the Great Unknown in the
other.<28>

The preceding cut is a restoration of one of the largest of these
temples. Here we see a circle twelve hundred feet in diameter, of
upright stones, guarded by both a ditch and embankment. From the two
openings in the embankment formerly extended two long winding avenues of
stone. Between them rises Silbury Hill, the largest artificial mound in
Great Britain, being one hundred and thirty feet high. The area of the
large inclosure was about twenty-eight and a half acres. This was a
temple of no inconsiderable size. It was, of course in ruins when the
earliest account of it was written, and we can only speculate as to the
lapse of time since it was venerated as a place of worship.

Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, is a better known ruin, though not on as
large a scale as at Avebury. The cut gives us a restoration of it. The
outer circle of standing stones is one hundred feet in diameter, and
when entire consisted of one hundred stones. These are of sandstone, and
were obtained in the vicinity. A course of stone was laid along the top.
We notice within a smaller circle of stone. The material of these stones
is such that we know they must have come from a distance. Mr. James
tells us that they are erratic--that is, bowlders brought from the North
of Scotland by the glaciers--and that others of the same kind are still
to be seen lying around the country.<29> But the more common opinion
is that they were brought there by the people from a distance, perhaps
Cornwall or the Channel Islands. If this be true, it is evidence of a
strong religious feeling, and a peculiar value must have been