..The chalk ridge of Martinsell and St. Anne's Hill, not far from the centre of the county, furnishes three springs, which, as old Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary of the seventeenth century observed, 'do take their courses thence three several waies:' one to the German ocean through the Thames, one by Salisbury to the Channel, the third by Calne and Bristol into the Atlantic.

The "Fallen Kistvaen" lies about three quarters of a mile due south of that in Temple Bottom, and owing to the heath and furze which abound thereabouts is not easily discovered. Parts of the mound which once covered it, and some of the stones which apparently surrounded it, are still to be seen.

When I first became acquainted with it - some twenty-five years ago - the covering stone, a very massive slab, was entire, but one or more of its supporters having given way, it had slid from its original position, and rested on the ground, still, however, in part upheld by some of its props; and thus, though fallen, presenting an interesting specimen of the kistvaen.

When, however, I visited it about ten years since (and I generally do visit it annually), judge of my dismay at finding the capstone split across by some workmen, who - ignorant that it differed in any respect from the many other sarsen stones lying all round - had selected that unfortunate stone for some building purpose. To arrest the work of destruction was not difficult, for on communication with the then owner, Mr. Baskerville, orders were immediately given that the stones should be spared; adn now that the property has passed into the hands of the noble President of this Meeting, we need not fear any farther injury to it.

The indifference of the stone-masons to the covering stone of the kistvaen is not so surprizing when even so good an antiquary as Aubrey relates how he and Dr. Charleton pointed it out to His Majesty Charles II. and the Duke of York as one of the stones intended for Stonehenge, and "resting on three low stones, as a suffulciment as in order to be carried away"!

The "Mutilated Kistvaen" lies in the centre of the valley known as Temple Bottom, and south-east of Temple Farm, conjectured to be so called from the preceptory of Knights Templars established there in the reign of Henry II. It occupies the corner of a field, very near some detached farm buildings on the estate of Rockley. Sir Richard Hoare spoke of it in his time as "the mutilated remains of a stone barrow, having a kistvaen at the end of it;" and said "it is the finest example we have yet found of this species of interment, excepting the one in Clatford Bottom." (North Wilts, page 42.) I fear Sir Richard would not say the same of it now.

When I first saw it some twenty years ago, it presented little more than the appearance of a heap of stones: indeed a great many loose stones were scattered round the large and more prominent ones, and it was choked with briars and brambles. Unpromising however as was its exterior, I had a great desire to examine its interior, and having received the ready permission of the owner of the property (the same liberal gentleman who so kindly allows us to examine the barrows at Rockley on Thursday next, Mr. William Tanner), I enlisted the help of my friends, Mr. Lukis (then my colleague as one of the Secretaries of this Society) and Mr. Spicer, Rector of Byfleet, in Surrey, and on June 12th, 1861, we proceeded to excavate the stone chamber.

With regard to the formation of the exterior part of it, whether it was originally covered with one or more roofing slabs, and whether it had a covered passage leading to it, we were unable to form any decided opinion, owing to the confusion of stones and its generally dilapidated condition: but we found a sepulchral chamber, guarded by a circle of upright stones, some of them in position; and on the floor of this chamber indications of a layer of charcoal, calcined human bones, and fragments of coarse pottery: we found also several unburnt bones, portions of a human skull and teeth; some of the bones of a hand and foot; and above all a well-formed and perfect bone chisel (now in our Museum at Devizes), of which a sketch is annexed.

We then examined the narrow space between the two parallel upright stones, and at B found unburnt bones of a hand and foot and fragments of pottery, and at C portions of a human skull and teeth, and a stone muller or rubber. The orientation of this chamber was probably east and west.

Mr. H. St. George Gray writes: "On Saturday morning, December 2, the southern of the two large stones at Beckhampton, in the parish of Avebury, North Wilts, fell without giving any warning. Had there been any indication of the likelihood of a fall, the owner of the arable field in which these large sarsens are situated (Mr. George Brown) would have had the stone propped. Within living memory it has always leaned to the south, whereas the stone standing some twenty-five paces to the north-east leans in a northerly direction. The fallen stone is rather the larger of the two. In its prostrate position it measures 18 feet 4 inches in length, its maximum width being nearly 16 feet; approximate thickness, 4 feet 7 inches. Its depth below the surface fo the field was found to be only 2 feet 6 inches; any sockethole there may be cut into the solid chalk must therefore be very shallow. Several small blocks of stones have been revealed by the fall of the monolith.

[...] On the Ordnance sheet the stones at Beckhampton are called 'Long Stones.' They are also known as the 'Longstone Cove,' and the'Devil's Quoits.' Aubrey spoke of three upright stones, but only two remained in Stukeley's time. [...]"