216 



Another Extract— Dated March 19 and 20, 1851. 



" John Watkins, our gardener, showed mo a bhie and white hone, of very- 

 fine quality, which his father found, together with a quantity of gim-fiints, many 

 quite new, and many fragments of flint, as if they had been cut out on that spot, 

 under about twelve feet of earth, in a part of the entrenchment removed by Mr. 

 Blakemore beneath the Iron Tower. A skull was found in the same spot. 

 Bones, he thinks, have been found in King Arthur's Hall — [perhaps sheep — 

 T. W.W.] A whole skeleton was found in what he called a ' Roman joint ' (which 

 I believe means a fissure in the rocks supposed to contain ore), in the rocks round 

 the E. end of the hill, above Mr. Blakemore's liuie-kiln. It seemed to have been 

 merel}' covered with leaves. It was suspected, however, to have been that of a 

 man who was formerly murdered down by the Fish -house. An old woman, dur- 

 ing his own recollection, walked over the Oat Rocks durino; the night, being of 

 weak intellect, and was killed ; it was two or three days before her body was 

 found." 



Dr. Bull said they were very much indebted to Mr. Webb for his interesting 

 letter and extracts. The finding of the giant skeleton must be looked upon as tra- 

 ditional. Heath's book. The Excursion Doivn the Wye from Ross to Monmouth, was 

 published in the year 1799, and the discovery of the skeleton is stated to have 

 taken place in year 1700. Mr. Heath, who was a printer at Monmouth, gives the 

 tale on the authority of a letter written by Mr. George White, of the New Weir, 

 who admits it to have been " varyously told." Mr. White's letter thus gives the 

 incident : "A poor woman being in search of a goat that annually brought her 

 two kids, meeting some woodcutters near the camp, enquired if they had seen her 

 goat, and received information that it had been observed going into such a hole 

 near the mouth of the camp, which being somewhat small, the woman desired her 

 informers to break down part (of the rock) to let in more light. I don't know 

 whether the goat was found, but in return something more surprising, by the 

 additional light thrown in, presented itself to their view, which was the body of 

 a man of very large stature upon the ledge of the rock, and covered over by a 

 natural tomb, an arch of the same rock. He lay at his length, I think, upon his 

 back, with a spear by his side. One of them ventured to touch the body of this 

 once mighty man, and all sunk down in dust." The hones were carried down to 

 Mr. George White. " 'Tis said the wooden part of the spear had mouldered into 

 dust, but the head, which was of brass, was carried down to the master. " Var- 

 ious accounts are given of the size of the bones, some making the skeleton as much 

 as 10 or 11 feet long. They were sent to Captain Scudamore, of Kentchurch, and 

 eventually to a Mr. Pye, a surgeon of Bristol, who was on the point of sailing to 

 Jamaica. He took the bones with him, when the ship was cast away and himself 

 and the bones buried in the sea. 



The way was now taken by the roiks where the bones were found over the 

 park walls for King Arthur's cave, and whilst the descent is made it will be well 

 to give a brief account of the botanical observations of the day. Close by the 



