he new
coinage in 1891. In 1900 he was raised to the peerage, under the title of
Baron Avebury, and he continued to play a leading part in public life, not
only by the weight of his authority on many subjects, but by the readiness
with which he lent his support to movements for the public benefit. Among
other matters he was a prominent advocate of proportional representation.
As an original author and a thoughtful popularizer of natural history and
philosophy he had few rivals in his day, as is evidenced by the number of
editions issued of many of his writings, among which the most widely-read
have been: _The Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects_ (1873), _British Wild
Flowers_ (1875), _Ants, Bees and Wasps_ (1882), _Flowers, Fruit and Leaves_
(1886), _The Pleasures of Life_ (1887), _The Senses, Instincts and
Intelligence of Animals_ (1888), _The Beauties of Nature_ (1892), _The Use
of Life_ (1894).

AVEBURY, a village in the Devizes parliamentary division of Wiltshire,
England, on the river Kennet, 8 m. by road from Marlborough. The fine
church of St James contains an early font with Norman carving, a rich
Norman doorway, a painted reredos, and a beautiful old roodstone in good
preservation. Avebury House is Elizabethan, with a curious stone dovecot.
The village has encroached upon the remains of a huge stone circle (not
quite circular), surrounded by a ditch and rampart of earth, and once
approached by two avenues of monoliths. Within the larger circle were two
smaller ones, placed not in the axis of the great one but on its
north-eastern side, each of which consisted of a double concentric ring of
stones; the centre being in one case a menhir or pillar, in the other a
dolmen or tablestone resting on two uprights. Few traces remain, as the
monoliths have been largely broken up for building purposes. The circle is
the largest specimen of primitive stone monuments in Britain, measuring on
the average 1200 ft. in diameter. The stones are all the native Sarsens
which occur everywhere in the district, and show no evidence of having been
hewn. Those still remaining vary in size from 5 to 20 ft. in height above
ground, and from 3 to 12 ft. in breadth. As in the case of Stonehenge, the
purpose for which the Avebury monument was erected has been the source of
much difference of opinion among antiquaries, Dr Stukely (_Stonehenge a
Temple restored to the British Druids_, 1740) regarding it as a Druidical
temple, while Fergusson (_R