Mr. H. St. Geo. Gray's excavations at Avebury under the auspices of a Committee of the British Association, have shown that the famous vallum, fosse, and circle had their origin at the end of the Neolithic or beginning of the Bronze Age.

One mile N.W. of Avebury stands Windmill Hill. It may well have been to Avebury what the civil town of Old Sarum and its fortifications were to the clergy and the cathedral. The summit is surrounded by the remains of a rampart, which, however, may not truly deserve that title. For along most of its length it has the appearance of a bank only, supporting the flat platform of the hill top. A trench, recently made in connection with a water supply, failed to disclose any trace of a ditch below the bank at that spot. This, it is true, was overlooking the steeper side of the hill. There were probably other defensive banks on the lower slopes of the hill. Many round barrows stand upon the hill, some within, but most without the camp. Not far from the hill, at Winterbourne Monkton, stood a long barrow, destroyed, alas, some years ago, by a farmer.