d8 



On the Tumuli of the St. Adhelm's Head District, 

 [ReadatLeeson, February 14th, 1856.] 



In commencing the first Paper upon the Antiquities of the 

 Isle of Purbeck, I forbear from advancing any suppositions 

 respecting its early Colonists, and the periods of occupation 

 of succeeding races, because such, under our present state of 

 information, can only be derived, not from authentic records, 

 but, from the few works which touch upon the history of the 

 ancient Inhabitants of Britain. It appears to me to be rather 

 desirable to allow these to rest, until tumuli and earthworks have 

 been carefully examined in the different districts, and a chain of 

 evidence thus obtained, which, when carefully analysed and 

 arranged, will afford proof, either corroborative, or the contrary, 

 of former conjectures, and productive of satisfactory conclusions. 

 I merely then, as a groimd upon which to work, extract the 

 opinions of Hutchins, in his " History of Dorset," respecting 

 the subject before us, and an outline of the few discoveries of his 

 time. " We have no account of the Island," he says, " in the 

 British times ; and few or no traces of the Romans appear. In 

 the Saxon times, it is memorable only for the murder of St. 

 Edward, at Corfe Castle ; and the wreck of the Danish Fleet, 

 at Swanwich." With respect to the Tumuli, he suggests that 

 " the Nine Barrows near Corfe, are probably British. Those 

 round Studland Bay, Danish. And that, some, in other parts 

 of the island, may be Roman." But he records very few 

 instances of any discoveries of ancient sepulture. " Near St. 

 Edward's bridge, at Corfe, in 1758, on digging chalk, was 

 found an Urn, seven or eight feet deep, containing five gallons 

 full of burnt bones; the mouth downwards In the qiiarries, 

 which lie south of the town, are sometime found human bones, 



