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Notice of the Discovery of an Ancient Sarcophagus containing a Hu- 

 man Skeleton and an Urn. By Francis Douglas, M.D. Kelso. 



At a late meeting of this Club, I happened, in the course of our fore- 

 noon ramble, to mention the discovery, on the banks of the Tweed, of a 

 skeleton enclosed in a rudely formed sarcophagus, and accompanied with 

 an urn, evidently of very ancient date. At the request of the Members 

 then present, I have made minute inquiries regarding all the circum- 

 stances connected with the discovery of these ancient relics, and I now 

 offer the result of my investigation. 



In the month of March last (1843), some workmen were employed 

 on the farm of EJenmouth, two and a half miles below Kelso, to level 

 a small tumulus immediately overhanging a precipitous bank of the 

 Tweed, at a spot familiarly known to lovers of the ** gentle craft" as 

 Sprouston Dub. The object which the farmer had in view, was to 

 level the tumulus for the purpose of filling up a small ravine which 

 intersected one of his fields. The barrow or tumulus itself had origin- 

 ally been circular, and probably about twenty feet in diameter at its 

 base, but a segment had been removed, during the lapse of years, by 

 successive portions of the precipice, on which it was raised, falling over 

 into the river beneath, by the gradual undermining of the bank, and 

 the friable nature of the limestone and shales which compose it. On 

 the top of the bank generally the soil is shallow, and covers a substra- 

 tum of gravel ; but the mound itself was of several feet elevation, and 

 consisted entirely of pure earth, thereby indicating its artificial struc- 

 ture. The whole tumulus di^ not exceed seven or eight feet in height, 

 and it was at the depth of six feet from its apex that the coffin enclos- 

 ing the skeleton was discovered. 



The sarcophagus, if such a rude attempt to separate human remains 

 from parent earth can be so termed, consisted of five flat stones of va- 

 rious sizes. The sides were composed of two flat stones kept apart at 

 either end by two smaller ones, and the whole was covered by a tri- 

 angular slab, which overlapped at several points the parallelogram con- 

 taining the bones. The whole did not exceed two feet in length, and 

 fifteen inches in breadth and depth. The stones had never been hewn, 

 and consisted of the limestone rocks which abound in the bank and in 

 the bed of the river near the spot. 



The skeleton which was discovered in this tomb was evidently that 

 of a child about seven or eight years of age, judging from its size, from 

 the growth of the teeth, and from the want of osseous union which ex- 



