100 



excavations were made by which the following particulars were 

 disclosed. 



The only probable relics, found on or near the surface, of the 

 occupation of Lamel hill by the troops of Fairfax and Lesley, 

 consist of a few coins, and a piece of cast iron which Aveighs 

 nearly two pounds, and seems to have formed part of the bot- 

 tom of a large pot or boiler. It is probably part of a camp- 

 kettle, though some have supposed it to be a piece of armour. 

 These coins are chiefly of the reign of Charles the First ; 

 and consist of a silver penny and two or three farthings 

 of the Scotch coinage of that monarch. There is also a small 

 copper coin of the contemporary Louis the Thirteenth of 

 France. 



Commencing at a depth of about three feet from the surface, 

 human bones were found, in great numbers, throughout the 

 mound ; but complete skeletons were only discovered at a level 

 varying from ten and a half to twelve feet from the summit. All 

 the human remains which were found above this level were in 

 the shape of scattered bones, which had evidently been disturbed 

 since their original interment. No skeletons or other remains 

 were found at a greater depth than twelve feet ; though, in the 

 centre of the tumulus, the excavations were carried to the 

 depth of about twenty feet from the summit.* 



The skeletons were uniformly laid from west to east, — the 

 feet to the east ; — a distance of not more than two or three feet 

 intervening between every two skeletons. At this level, Lamel 

 hill has been the seat of interments arranged nearly or quite 

 as regularly as in any churchyard at the present day. From 

 twenty to thirty skeletons and the detached bones of at least as 

 many more were exhumed ; and it may be concluded that this 

 cemetery has afforded interment to from two to three hundred 

 bodies. 



The bones have all the appearance of great age, being, for the 

 most part, very light, porous, and brittle. Those found nearest 

 the surface, particularly on the south side of the tumulus, are 



* See section-plan of tumulus; plate 2, fig. 1. The section is from east to 

 west, through the centre of the tumulus. 



