10 
remarkable exceptions, even in the small portion of ground which we 
broke up: In one case a skeleton lay at right angles with the others, 
and in another curious instance the body appeared to have been 
doubled up upon itself. The only skulls which we were enabled to 
remove in tolerable condition, and from which any ethnological 
indications could be deduced, were of strikingly opposite conformation. 
One nearly perfect, but wanting the lower jaw, is of enormous 
capacity, and decidedly Brachycephalic. The other, not quite so 
perfect, is an admirable specimen of the Dolichocephalic cranium, of 
extreme scaphoidal form. I think it would be very difficult to find 
two more characteristic specimens of these opposite types: But the 
peculiarity of these interments, with which [ was forcibly struck, was 
that the bodies had all been deposited in fine washed sand, evidently 
brought from a distance. There were no superincumbent stones, nor 
stones of any kind to form a grave: not a trace of wooden coffin, or of 
anything of wood or metal.’ The bodies were apparently placed in 
shallow trenches, in which the originally thin soil, on the rock, had 
‘been supplemented with this river send. The soil, of course, would 
subsequently deepen from the accumulation of ages. Or the whole 
burial surface may have been the base of a Jargetumulus. This mode 
of burial was certainly unlike any Christian sepulture; and which, 
indeed, could not have been required ia a locality so near to the old 
churchyard, which has been made use of, for that purpose, during 
historic times. The site of this curious burial place is an elevated 
plateau, which overlooks the surrounding country, and which no 
doubt had been secured as a commanding military position, in ancient 
British, Roman, or Saxon times. Tacitus tells us that Publius 
Ostorius, Lieutenant to the Roman Emperor Claudius, raised several 
forts on the banks of the river Avon, and Severn. Indeed, it is not 
probable that such a strong military position would have been overlooked 
during the roman occupation of thisisland; therefore in all likelihood 
this place had been at one time a fortified camp, enclosed by earth- 
works, which have been long since removed by cultivation. Stukely 
says that on removing an ancient tumulus at the Roman station of 
High Cross (Venones), on the borders of Warwickshire, many human 
skeletons were found lying flat on the ground under the base of the 
mound. But the most striking resemblance to this burial ground was 
discovered a few years ago not far from the same station at Clayster, 
