Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough
A canon regular of the Augustinian Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire, formerly known as The Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh, describes the period from 1066 to 1346. Before 1274 the Chronicle is based on other works. Thereafter, the Chronicle is original, and a remarkable source for the events of the time. This book provides a translation of the Chronicle from that date. The Latin source for our translation is the 1849 work edited by Hans Claude Hamilton. Hamilton, in his preface, says: 'In the present work we behold perhaps one of the finest samples of our early chronicles, both as regards the value of the events recorded, and the correctness with which they are detailed; Nor will the pleasing style of composition be lightly passed over by those capable of seeing reflected from it the tokens of a vigorous and cultivated mind, and a favourable specimen of the learning and taste of the age in which it was framed.'
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That Avebury was a burying-place seems tolerably clear from the following passage, disinterred by the late Mr. Kemble from the 'Codex Diplomaticus Œvi Saxonici.' A Saxon conveyancer, in describing the boundaries of the estate of Overton, which lies between Marlborough and Avebury, begins his description at Kennet and Wodensden;1 thence proceeds to the Wansdyke; and after going round the township through a number of wellknown places, comes back to Kennet, where he adds these remarkable words— "thence northward up along the Stone-row, thence to the burial-places." That the Stone-row was the Kennet avenue no one can doubt, and that the burial-places were the Avebury circle, is, to say the least of it, extremely probable.
If Stukeley had not been determined to find a Dracontium at Avebury, he probably would have arrived at this conclusion long ago, for he records that [See Stukeley Avebury VI], 'when Lord Stawell, who owned the manor of Abury, levelled the vallum on the side of the town next the church where the barn now stands, the workmen came to the original surface of the ground, which was easily discernible by a black stratum of mould upon the chalk. Here they found large quantities of buck-horns, bones, oyster-shells, and wood-coals. The old man who was employed in the work says there wasa quantity of a cartload of the horns, that they were very rotten, and that there were many burnt bones among them.' If this be so, the mystery of Avebury may easily be cleared up by a section being cut, or a tunnel bored through the vallum. If burned human bones are found, no one will doubt that the Saxon records are correct, though it hardly requires this testimony to prove that it was, like almost all the circular buildings throughout the world, dedicated to the memory of the dead, and not to the worship of any living God.
Note 1. Everything in this neighbourhood is redolent of Woden; for, besides Wodensden, the great Wansdyke was originally called Wodensdyke. The great battle where Ceawlin was defeated in 591 [592] was at Wodensbeorh, close by, between Avebary and Swindon. The hill between Avebury and Silbury, enclosed by the two avenues, is still called Waden or Woden Hill, and other instances occur all over this part of the country.