366 dies, quia annus bissextilis, cuilibet per diem 2d.

Eidem pro putura 12 canum Regis vulper' per idem tempus, pro quolibet per diem ob. Eidem pro expens' unius equi portantis retia sua, a 20 die Novemb', anno presenti 28, incipiente usque ultimum diem Aprilis, utroque computato, per 163 dies, per diem 3d.

4

Eidem pro expens' ejusdem equi portantis retia modo predicto, a primo die Septembr', quo die incipit seisona ad venand' ad vulpes. post seisonam mortuam anni presentis usque 19 diem Novembr' anno presente finiente, utroque computato, per 80 dies, per diem 3d. P. 103. Will'mo de Blatherwyk, venatori Regis ad vulpes, pro calciamentis hiemalibus anni presentis, pro se et garcionibus suis, cuilibet eorum 2s. 4d.

P. 317. Eidem, pro roba sua totius anni presentis

Eidem, pro robis duorum garcionum suorum, pro quolibet 10s.

P. 96. Henrico de Blakeburn, eunti per preceptum Regis pro quodam leporar' gruar' ad opus Regis querend' pro expensis suis eundo, morando, et redeundo, et pro putura ejusdem leporar' veniendo ad Regem; per manus proprias apud Berewycum, 28 die Decembris 1790, Sept.

1

CXXII. Description of several Barrows opened in Dorsetshire.

MR. URBAN,

Winchester, Oct. 1.

IF the Life of Man be short, as it is termed in Scripture, it is a wish congenial to his heart, that his memory at least should be of long continuance. This sentiment accounts for the universal practice of raising Sepulchral Monuments, and is finely illustrated by the plaintive Gray :

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resign'd;
Left the warm precincts of the chearful day,
Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look, behind?

The most simple and natural kind of Sepulchral Monument, and therefore the most ancient and universal, consists in a mound of earth, or a heap of stones, raised over the remains of the deceased. Of such monuments, mention is made in the book of Joshua, and in the poems of Homer, Virgil, and Horace; and of such, instances occur in every part of this kingdom; especially in those elevated and sequestered situations where they have neither been defaced by agriculture nor inundations. It has often been a subject of surprise to me, that, in an age marked by its taste for Antiquarian researches, greater attention should not have been paid to these most ancient and genuine records of past ages, so far, at least, as to ascertain to which of the successive inhabitants of this island they are to be ascribed, or whether, in fact, they are the work of more than one people. This can only be done by an examination of the contents of several of them in different counties, and in different situations, by persons whose learning, ingenuity, and attention, qualify them for the task. In searching, however, into these rude memorials of our forefathers, the true antiquary will ever respect their remains; and, whilst he enters into their views by endeavouring to revive their memory, he will also as far as possible consult their wishes, in leaving to their bones their ancient place of sepulture.

Having been lately on a visit to a gentleman in Dorsetshire, on whose estate an incredible number of these barrows are found, he kindly complied with my wishes in causing several of them to be opened. I shall first describe, in the most accurate manner I am able, the contents of the several barrows; and then give such conjectures as occur to me, concerning the people to whom they belonged: not without a view, however, that greater light may hereafter be thrown on the subject by persons whose experience and information, in this branch of antiquarian study, are superior to my own.

We began with two barrows of no great dimensions opposite to East Lullworth, on a level piece of ground that is met with in the ascent up of a steep and lofty mountain, the top of which is crowned with a bold double intrenchment, of Roman or Barbaric workmanship, and which is known by the name of Flower's barrow. If we pay any regard to the conjecture of Hutchins, in his History of Dorsetshire, who derives the name of Flower's barrow from a supposed Roman General of the name of Florus, the question will be solved at once what people raised this strong intrenchment; and it will afford some kind of presumptive proof that the barrows below contained Roman remains. But we are to observe,

that he produces no proof whatever of any Roman General of the name of Florus ever having been in those parts; nor does the figure of the camp affect the Roman quadrangle, but seems rather to humour the natural shape of the hill. Indeed part of it, by some convulsion of Nature, appears to have sunk below its original level, while no small portion of it has fallen into the sea below, which, at the depth of seven hundred feet, is for ever undermining its rocky base. In these two barrows we found promiscuously scattered perfect human teeth, burnt human bones, together with those of animals, such as pieces of the jaw-bones of horses or oxen, teeth of the same animals, tusks of boars, small round stones of the Portland kind not bigger than children's marbles, pointed stones that possibly have been the heads of weapons, certain lumps of corroded metal, seemingly iron, but of an undetermined shape, a few particles of yellow metal, which being lost could not undergo the assay, some crumbling pieces of dark-coloured unburnt urns. together with a few lumps of brick or earthenware, that appeared to have been well burnt. In addition to all this, we perceived a considerable quantity of fine, rich, black earth, with a certain white mouldiness between the particles, which must have been fetched from a considerable distance, and which I have invariably found strewed over the remains of the dead in these ancient sepulchres. The bottom of one of these graves was paved with large, round stones, that had been worked smooth by the action of the sea, and which apparently had been fetched from the adjacent shore.

From the confused state in which we found the contents of these two barrows, which indeed were situated near what had formerly been an inhabited spot, as the name of Arish Mill indicates, we were satisfied they had been in some past time disturbed: we therefore determined to make our next research in a more remote and inaccessible situation. With this view we pitched upon a large barrow, being twelve feet in perpendicular height, and two hundred in circumference, situated at the highest point of a lofty mountain about midway between the Points of Portland and Purbeck Islands. This tumulus is known in the country by the name of Hambury-taut, or toote, the first of which words I conjecture, may be the name of the chieftain there buried, while the other two appear to be the corruption of Saxon and British. words expressive of a barrow. Many of the same articles were found on the surface and at the extremities of this, as in the former barrows, such as burnt human bones, bits of metal, &c. but on our approaching to the centre, at about

the depth of four feet from the surface, a skeleton appeared in perfect preservation, lying with its head to the North, but so tender, as to crumble into dust with the least pressure; its posture, which was that of a person sleeping on his side, with the feet rather drawn up, one hand resting on its breast, the other on its hip, prevented it from being accurately measured. The account of the people, however, employed in digging, we found afterwards had magnified it to the size of seven, and even of eight feet. But what may be said with certainty is, that the thigh-bone measured twenty inches, which in a well-proportioned man, I find, gives a height of six feet and of about as many inches. One of the leg-bones appeared to have been fractured; but whether this had happened by some wound in war, or by some accident at the funeral, or by the weight of the superincumbent earth, it is impossible to determine. On the breast of the skeleton was deposited a rude urn, too much decayed to be handled without falling to pieces, of about the measure of two quarts, but empty of every thing except the same fine mould that covered the skeleton. Near the neck of the latter were found many of the round stones I have before mentioned, but of different sizes, from that of a pigeon's egg down to that of a pea. As they were imperforated, it is not improbable they had once been covered with metal, in which state they might have formed a necklace, or any similar ornament. The substance of the barrow, as high as the site of the body, was formed of flints and stones; into which a shaft was sunk to a considerable depth, but without finding any thing worth notice. The next day, however, the country people, who had witnessed the diligence of our researches, which they conceived must have had an object of greater value in view than bones and earthen vessels, being encouraged moreover by a popular tradition, that a treasure lies hidden in the earth somewhere between Weymouth and Purbeck Island, assembled, and dug to the very bottom of the centre of the barrow, where they found nothing but a large heap of ashes, in all probability the remains of a funeral pile which had been erected on that spot. Another small barrow, that was opened the same day, yielded nothing but bones and broken urns.

Unavoidable business calling me home at the end of the week, my respectable friend communicated to me, by letter, the result of his searches, the ensuing week; of which the following is an extract;

"On the Thursday after you left us, we pitched our. tent near another of those barrows, and set to work upon it.

We discovered, at about the depth of two feet, no less than five distinct skeletons: three of them were in a row, lying on their backs, two of which appeared to be of the common size, but that in the middle was a small one, probably of some young person. The two others were at the distance of a few feet from these, of the ordinary size, with the head of one lying on the breast of the other. Each of the skeletons had an urn upon it; but these were so perished, that upon being touched they fell into earth, except a few pieces near the top rim of one of them, which I have preserved for your inspection. Under the head of one of the three that lay in a row we found a small earthen urn, about the size of the cup part of an ordinary wine glass."

I have only to add to this account, that the small urn just mentioned, which was of the same shape with the rest we found, namely, that of a truncated cone, was about two inches high, and one in diameter, and that, though nicely covered with the shell of a limpet, it was quite empty: likewise that the broken pieces of urn were ornamented by being rudely indented in a zigzag fashion; and that the five skeletons were not all exactly on the same level in the barrow, which appears to have been a family sepulchre, but that the two last mentioned seemed to have been deposited in the side of the barrow without taking it to pieces.

Five or six other barrows in the same neighbourhood have since been opened by the same gentleman; but, as the contents of them all were nearly the same, I shall satisfy myself with giving an account of one of them, which was opened in my presence. It was one out of three which stood in a line at about the distance of one hundred and fifty feet from each other, being about the same number of feet in circumference, and about ten in perpendicular height. On a shaft being cut to the centre of the barrow, we found a kind of rude vault or kistvaen, formed with unhewed stones, inclosing an urn capable of holding about two gallons, and full of burnt human bones, being covered at the top with a thin, flat stone, and having a quantity of the roots of quilchgrass undecayed near it, which also frequently occurred in the other barrows. The urn in question was composed of a coarse black clay, of the shape above described, and did not seem either to have been turned with a lathe, or burnt in a kiln, but merely hardened by fire or the heat of the sun. Of the same substance and form were all the other urns discovered in this neighbourhood: there was this difference, however, in their position, that some of them stood upright, and others were found inverted.

VOL. I.