ON THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES OF WARWICKSHIRE. 187 



lus SO called, on the Wattling-street, between Rugby and Lutter- 

 worth ; and Cloudesly Bush, a tumulus on the Foss road, about 

 two miles south of High Cross ; both of these, which are mentioned 

 by Dugdale, have, together with many others, of which no traces 

 are now left, been levelled to the ground. Others were constructed 

 at some distance from the road, of which the tumultis at Knightlowe 

 Cross, between Coventry and Dun church, is an instance ; this is on 

 the brow of a hill commanding an extensive view, and is about a 

 quarter of a mile west of the Foss road. Other tumuli lie scattered 

 over the county ; and in attentively examining the position of seve- 

 ral, I find them all to have been so disposed as to be capable of com- 

 municating one with another ; and in this view they may be consi- 

 dered as beacons or posts of observation : and those who have atten- 

 tively surveyed different isolated tumuli, whether in this or in any 

 other piirt of the kingdom, cannot fail to have noticed how com- 

 plete a connection existed between one and another. 



The different tribes of Britain seem to have resorted to these ex- 

 pedients as affording a kind of telegraphic communication between 

 the different fastnesses throughout the country, in the neighbour- 

 hood or vicinity of which they are almost always to be found ; and 

 the signal of danger was made by the flame of fire in the night time, 

 and by the rising of smoke in the day. But it is the evidence af- 

 forded by an examination of their internal contents that justify us 

 in assuming such tumuli to be ancient British ; and on this account 

 therefore, we require a comparison between the different modes of 

 burial adopted by the ancient Britons, by the Romans, and by the 

 Romanized or later Britons. 



The ancient Britons were accustomed sometimes to bury the 

 bodies of their dead entire, and sometimes to burn them ; but the 

 practice of simple inhumation, or burial of the body entire, was 

 undoubtedly the most primitive mode, and this was effected in two 

 ways> the one, by extending the body at full length upon the 

 ground, and piling over it a tumulus, or barrow of earth, or stones, 

 according to the nature of the materials at hand; the other, by de- 

 positing the body in a cist, or rude coffin, formed of rough slabs not 

 long enough to contain the body at full length, but only in a con- 

 tracted position, with the legs gathered up. Of both these modes, 

 which were very common, examples have been found within this 

 county. On levelling a tumulus some forty years ago, near to the 

 British settlement at Kings Newnham, a skeleton was discovered 

 extended at full length on the ground at the bottom of the tumulus, 

 and at a more recent period, not more than three years ago, in dig- 



