179 



THIXENDALE. 



The next excavations of the Club were made at a farm 

 called Riggs, the property of Mr. Seymour, and situated in the 

 parish of Thixendale. In a field, called the Howe field, are 

 situated two large barrows ; they are of very considerable height, 

 about 160 feet apart, surrounded each by a separate trench ; in 

 an adjoining field, to the south, is a third small tumulus, having 

 an elevation of 2 or 3 feet. 



In the year 1844, whilst digging into the most southerly 

 mound and near its base, a British vase of sundried clay was 

 discovered. It is 5^ inches high and 6^ inches in diameter at the 

 mouth, coloured with some black earthy matter, and had been 

 deposited in a sort of circular pavement of chalk stone. The 

 clay of the tumulus was stated to have been of an unctuous 

 character, and to have presented an appearance of alternate 

 striae, varying from a reddish brown to a blue grey. Since the 

 period of the visitation of the Club, the tenant, Mr. J. Buckle, 

 has presented to the Society a remarkably fine celt of bronze, 

 which had been turned up in ploughing. This, and the 

 urn presented by Mr. Seymour, are now in the Museum of the 

 Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 



The adjoining tumulus was at least 12 feet in height, hav- 

 ing a circumference within the wide and almost obliterated 

 trench of 260 feet. After digging about 6 feet through frag- 

 ments of chalk and flint, near the centre, a deposit of burnt 

 human bones with some traces of charcoal, was reached, and 

 separated from them, by about a foot of earth, was a heap of 

 large flints, many of them exhibiting traces of the action of fire. 

 This cairn was 2 feet in height and 5 feet in diameter, and 

 2 feet in depth, raised on a bed of clay spread on the natural 

 chalk rock. Among the flints were traces of a grey sooty like 

 matter, and at the bottom of the cairn, beneath charred flints, 

 were portions of a deer's horn much decayed, and a few scat- 

 tered bones of the rat. 



ALDROW. 



The examination of the large series of Wold tumuli, extend- 

 ing from Acklam to Huggate, was rendered complete by 



