Tom Robinson: Avebury stone-smasher
William Stukeley (1687-1765) felt sufficient disgust at the destruction of the stones at Avebury to parody farmer Tom Robinson by christening him “The Herostratus of Avebury” and producing this tailpiece for his Aubury book in 1743. On the left smoke rises from one of the burning pits where the stones were first heated and then dowsed with water to crack them. A bat hangs ominously above Robinson, while on his right a hag presides over the dark and tragic scene of even more stones awaiting destruction.
Tom Robinson’s headstone is in Avebury’s churchyard.
More here – http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/the_shame.html
and from the H M J Underhill Archive here -
http://web.arch.ox.ac.uk/archives/underhill/viewarchive.php?albumID=1
