THE LATE LIKUT. -GENERAL PITT-RIVERS. 25I 



cemetery ofWinkelbury, Bockerly Dyke, and the Wandsdyke, it is princi- 

 pallv the villages or camps of the Bronze and the Komano-British ages that 

 are described in these volumes. Several Bronze Age camps have been 

 excavated, and the occurrence of vessels and quantities of fragments of pottery, 

 similar to that found in the barrows, serves to dispel the idea, held by some, 

 that such vessels were fabricated solely for sepulchral purposes and show 

 conclusively that such pottery was in common use. There are the settlements 

 of Woodcuts, Rotherly and Vindogladia, the latter with which Bockerly 

 Dyke is associated, besides portions of the remains of other Roman-British 

 villages, all producing relics and skeletons with marked characteristics, distinct 

 from those of the Bronze Age. The relics procured from the villages were, 

 relatively to the vast amount of excavation necessarily undertaken, small in 

 quantity and poor in description, it is therefore the more to the credit of Gen. 

 Pitt-Rivers that he persevered so continuously in the exploration of such sites. 

 They were such as would perhaps present but few attractions to most 

 excavators, looking for greater compensation in the shape of numerous and 

 imposing relics. 



Not the least important of the results of these excavations are the 

 measurements obtained from the human remains. A large number of 

 skeletons of the Stone aud Bronze Ages, and the Romano-British and Saxon 

 periods, have been discovered and carefully measured These data constitute 

 an invaluable contribution to anthropometrical science. Pitt-Rivers had to 

 contend with much opposition from well meaning but unscientific people 

 concerning the unearthing of human skeletons. On one occasion a local 

 clergyman came to him and begged that he would cease disturbing human 

 remains. On the reasons for doing so being explained to him, he requested, 

 that after the measurements had been obtained, the bones might be 

 re-interred in his churchyard. " My dear sir," exclaimed the General, "are 

 you aware that these people were pagans ? Would you have pagans buried 

 in consecrated ground ? " This apparently removed any scruples the reverend 

 gentleman may have had, for he never troubled further in the cause of the 

 early Britons. 



The great care taken in recording all that was found, has furnished a mass 

 of evidence which throws considerable light on the nature and social condition 

 of our pastoral predecessors. Though much remains to be done and similar 

 explorations are, indeed, much needed in other districts to complete the story, 

 it is not too much to say that Gen. Pitt-Rivers has given to us one of those 

 pages of our history which Green declared himself unable to write until such 

 researches had been undertaken. 



He died on the 4th May, iqoo, and was cremated at Woking ; the ashes 

 were buried at Tollard Royal Church, Wiltshire. 



The excellent portrait accompanying this notice ii from a photograph by 

 Messrs. Downey and Co., and is reproduced from the third volume of the 

 Excavations in Cranborne Chase. 



For the photographs of the bust and Rushmore House, I am indebted to 

 my friend and former colleague Mr. W. S. Tomkin, by whom the negatives 

 were taken. 



F. W. Reader. 



[Mr. Reader has kindly presented the blocks of the illustrations used in 

 this notice. — Ed.] 



