New Eoad at Purley : Archaological and Ethnological. 25 



twenty of them. The bodies were put into the ground some two 

 feet deep, of which eighteen inches was in the chalk, in a trench 

 cut out clearly and sharply. They appear to have been placed 

 in these trenches on the hard, bare chalk, without any coffin. 

 No evidence of clothing of any kind has been discovered in any 

 of those which I have examined, although I have carefully 

 looked for it ; and with a single exception no weapons, orna- 

 ments, or pottery have been found. I have not the evidence of 

 an eye-witness ; but the general consensus of opinion, among 

 those who saw the bones disinterred, is that they were laid 

 straight in the graves, and that the heads were placed towards 

 the west and the feet to the east. There was no evidence of 

 barrow or mound above the graves, although this may be 

 easily accounted for in consequence of the down having been 

 under cultivation as far back as the memory of the present 

 generation extends. The bones which I have been able to 

 examine are of men, of women, and of children. My attention 

 was directed in the first instance to some sharply-defined, square- 

 shaped excavations, in the sections which had been made in 

 sinking the level of the road. The sides had not then been 

 sloped. Observing these sections, I was interested in making 

 out a reason for them, supposing them to have been continuous 

 trenches. Poking among the broken-up chalk, I observed two 

 round objects, which appeared at first to be fossil, but on 

 examination they were shewn to be sections through natural 

 bone, and I gradually worked out the shafts of the thigh-bones 

 of a young person. 



A further examination showed that in each of the square 

 sections, of which there were five, a grave had been cut trans- 

 versely across in sinking the road, and a skeleton disturbed. An 

 examination of the heaps of mould which were cast aside 

 showed that portions of human bones had been thrown up, and 

 it was not long before several almost perfect bones were brought 

 together. I afterwards visited the road when workmen were 

 about, and gathered some of the facts I have mentioned above. 



A careful enquiry on another occasion led to my making the 

 acquaintance of a gentleman U\dng in Whiteclifte Eoad (Mr. 

 Cluse), who showed me some portions of another skeleton, and 

 also the remains of a knife, which was taken out of one of the 

 graves, and it is the only portion of metal which has been 

 discovered. 



The point of most importance in this discovery appears to be, 

 that this down was a cemetery belonging to some town situated 

 in the neighbourhood, the evidence of the superficial existence 

 of which has been entirely blotted out. There is no history of 

 any church at this spot, which might account for the graves, 

 and it is certain that at the time of the Conquest none existed 



