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was bent, the chin brought forward on the bosom, and the knees 
raised. There gould be no reasonable doubt that this individual had 
been buried immediately after death. There was one thing in connec- 
tion with this skeleton which requires especial notice, viz., that the 
skull was fractured, and one side of the lower jaw completely smashed 
in, in such a manner that the mouth was full of detached teeth aud 
splinters of bone.. From the somewhat curved or twisted form of these 
splinters, I was led to conclude that they had been broken up when 
the bone was tough, before it had lost its animal matter—in a word 
at the time of death, and that the injury was the cause of death. 
There is no reason however to suppose that this skeleton was interred 
at a different time to the others, with which it was associated. 
At the other extremity of the village several other skeletons were 
dug out about ten years ago by some quarrymen. Of these I know 
nothing, save that, like all the others, they were placed east and west, 
a little more than a foot from the surface, and were unaccompanied 
by weapons, coins, or pottery. 
_ _ I wish now to call your attention to a notice in the Gentleman’s 
Magazine, in the same volume to which I have before alluded, and 
forming part of the same communication. Speaking of Welcombe the 
writer says, “On the highest eminence which has traditionally the 
name of Castle Hill, on the 12th of Feb., 1792, as some labourers 
were digging in order to plant some fir trees, about 14 inches from the 
surface of the ground they discovered many human skeletons, one 
skeleton was quite perfect, in the skull of which was a piece of iron 
weapon, about four inches long and somewhat less than an inch wide, 
very much corroded with rust.” The writer then goes on to say that 
the bones are in avery decomposed state, crumbling to dust on ex- 
posure to the air. ‘A few days after,” he adds, “a person of Stratford 
went out of curiosity to the spot and found an ancient weapon, if I 
may so call it; the whole length was ten inches and a half; the top 
part resembles a sharp spike, six inches long, and a little more than 
half an inch square, from the base of which issued two collateral 
branches curved downwards, the ends rudely wrought in the form of a 
dragons’ head, below which was a socket in which was probably fixed 
a wooden staff or handle.” ‘A dragon was, we are told, the device on 
Prince Uther's Standard.” 
With regard to the period and the occasion of these burying places 
I can offer no satisfactory explanation. Those of Milcote, Bardon 
Hill, Dodwell, and Binton seem to resemble each other so much that 
we may readily suppose they are of the same period, perhaps of abso- 
lutely the same date—the result of a battle which raged hottest at 
Milcote, where the skeletons are most numerous. It is to battle that 
we must look for the-solution. The idea of a pestilence, which was 
suggested by Mr. Chapman as an explanation of these remarkable 
deposits of bone, is now laid on one side by that gentleman himself, 
and in a recent conversation we had on the subject, we were well 
agreed on this point. The fractured cranium at Binton, as well as 
several at Milcote, which bear the marks of spear or pike, speak but 
