WILTSHIRE. I.. ABOUT CHALK. A LINE drawn from the east of the Wash to Portland Bill cuts off a corner of England peculiar in many ways. Dig below the surface-earth deep enough to reach the underlying rock almost anywhere east of this line and you come upon a very familiar substance indeed-common chalk. What is chalk, and how comes so great a piece of England to be made of chalk? Many ages ago this piece of country lay under very deep sea, along the bottom of which was a white muddy sediment, hundreds of feet in thickness. The rivers brought much earth to the sea, and in this earth was a good deal of carbonate of lime, but in such atoms that it could not be seen, and might have floated in the water for ever without sinking to the bottom. The sea, however, was full of tiny creatures, so small, "you could put millions of them into a schoolgirl's thimble." These creatures used the carbonate of lime to form shells round their soft bodies. They lived, perhaps, a day; as they died, they sunk slowly; there was always a shower of these, light as motes, falling on the floor of the sea. This went on, century after century, for thousands of years; these minute shells forming, by slow degrees, ness. the white, oozy sea bottom-a bed 1500 feet in thickAt last a change began, a very slow change. Perhaps at the rate of a few feet in a century, the ocean floor was raised, and raised, until at last there was no place for the waters, which were forced to find a bed elsewhere. Where the ocean had been, a great chalk continent stretched across what is now Europe. At first, this was only a pasty mud flat, but it hardened by degrees, and, by means of wind and rain, and in other ways, a mould was formed, and vegetation followed. Great changes have taken place since; in many places the chalk continent has been quite washed away or heaved apart. Where pieces of this old continent still exist, it is no longer a flat plain, but has been weather-worn into rounded hills and valleys covered with close short grass or with various crops. II. SALISBURY PLAIN AND STONEHENGE. THE greater part of Wiltshire belongs to the chalk country; Inkpen Beacon, over 1000 feet high, the highest of the chalk hills, rises just where Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire join. From this point four ranges of chalk hills branch out; the Chiltern Hills, and, joining them, the East Anglian Heights, which reach the coast of Norfolk, by the Wash; the North Downs of Surrey, the South Downs of Sussex, and the Downs of Dorset. Salisbury Plain in the south of Wilts is in the very heart of the chalk country. It is a great stretch of SALISBURY PLAIN AND STONEHENGE. 265 rather barren land, twenty miles long and fifteen broad, which heaves and swells with its chalky waves like the ocean heaving after a storm. Chalky, but the chalk is well hidden by the sweet short grass which feeds countless flocks of sheep, each attended by its own shepherd. The people of the plain have always been shepherd folk, used to lonely wanderings among the deep valleys and over the smooth downs, bare of trees, where a keen sweet wind is always blowing— "Wild are the walks on these lonely downs." Upon this wild plain, strange, out-of-the-way sights are to be seen. There are huge mounds or hills whose regular shape shows they have been raised by man; some are long, some bowl-shaped, some the shape of a bell. What are these, and why should men have undertaken such laborious works? They speak of love and honour for the dead. Each barrow, so they are called, is a sepulchral mound, raised perhaps 2000 years ago by loving hands. They are relics of a people who have nearly passed away, the Britons, the first inhabitants of our country about whom anything is known. Upon the plain, too, some ten miles north of Salisbury, is another mighty relic of these people, the great temple of Stonehenge, open to the heavens, where, perhaps, the Druid priests performed their rites. Stonehenge, when complete, consisted of two circles, one within the other, and of two imperfect circles within these, with a bank and ditch round the whole. The outer circle was formed of huge upright stones, set about a yard apart, and connected by other stones laid on the top of these so as to form a circle, about sixteen feet from the ground. Within the circles the blocks stood higher, twenty-five feet from the ground. But Stonehenge has been spoiled; many of these blocks have been thrown down or carried away, though the remains of the great circle are still to be seen. Around the site of the temple is a circle of barrows, known as the Old King Barrows. There is a delightful legend about the raising of Stonehenge ;-Hengist, the Saxon, summoned the British king, Vortigern, to a conference on Salisbury Plain, and there treacherously slew him and three hundred of his nobles. The king who came after Vortigern resolved to raise a monument which should keep this evil deed in memory. He summoned the enchanter Merlin to his aid. Merlin told him of a great stone circle in Ireland which had been brought out of Africa by giants. The king desired the enchanter to bring it to England and set it up on Salisbury Plain. He filled his caldron, muttered his spells, and the stones came floating over the sea, and marched through the land, and set themselves up upon Salisbury Plain, where they may be seen to this day. To the north of Salisbury Plain are the Marlborough Downs, very like the Plain itself; and not far from the town of Marlborough, which is chiefly remarkable for its college, is Avebury. This is an older Druid temple than even Stonehenge, and is sometimes called the Serpent Temple, because there are two stone avenues leading up to it which give it a serpent-like form. Not far from Avebury is Silbury Hill; a marvellous hill, truly, for it is not one of nature's making, but is |