178 ON THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES OF WARWICKSHIRE. 



isting British trackways, and in considering the tumuli with refcr- 

 rence to them in this light, as also from an examination of their in- 

 ternal contents, whenever such has taken place, we are led to the 

 conclusion that these isolated tamuli or barrows (for we have them 

 not in this county in groups) are not Roman, hut British. 



The antiquities, then, of this county, which may be considered 

 as of British origin, consist chiefly of fortified camps, vestiges of the 

 settlements of the ancient occupants, which were not fortified, and 

 the tumuli or barrows I have alluded to. 



No druidical or stone circle, that I am aware of, is to be found 

 in this county ; there is, however, close bordering upon it, on the 

 confines of Oxfordshire, a celebrated druidical temple, the Rollright 

 Stones, near Barton-on-the-Heath, in which parish, a few years 

 ago, a polished sacrificial instrument, or celt of flint,* was acciden- 

 tally picked up in a ploughed field ; and this was probably used in 

 the augural rites pertaining to druidical worship. 



With respect to British settlements or towns which retain no 

 marks of ancient fortification, but few vestiges have hitherto been 

 discovered within this county, although we have no reason to think 

 otherwise than that it was anciently as thicMy populated as any 

 other district in this island. 



That the sites of these settlements should lie undiscovered is not 

 at all surprising, when we consider how much more likely all traces 

 of such remains are to have been obliterated, in the course of ages, 

 in a rich and fertile county such as this, well wooded and culti- 

 vated, and divided into small inclosures, than when situated on 

 barren downs and in mountainous districts, where the ploughshare 

 is unknown, and where, indeed, its operation would be useless. It 

 is in such wild and desolate spots that we are apt to meet, with a 

 much greater probability of success, with vestiges of the ancient in- 

 habitants of this island, than in the well-cultivated lowlands. It is 

 in the otherwise most unproductive parts and unin closed districts 

 that we find evident marks and indications of early settlement, of 

 ancient towns now covered with greensward, distinguished by the 

 irregularities of the surface, and the sites of which, when dug into, 

 become apparent, by the rich black mould and factitious soil imme- 

 diately beneath it. The features of British fortresses are, of course, 

 more prominently developed, for the Britons were accustomed to 

 choose for the sites of their fastnesses the summits of hills, places 

 naturally strong, but which they contributed to render still more 



• Now in the possession of F. L. Colvile, Esq., Barton-on-the-Heath. 



