By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 135 



is to be observed that these fragments of broken pottery, are not 

 to be attributed to breaking since their interment: for in the first 

 place portions only of them are to be found : and moreover they 

 bear marks of having been submitted to a great heat since their 

 fracture. What their object was we know not : though it is clear 

 that they must have been connected with some rite or custom. 



Over the bodies so buried, was frequentlj' raised a monument to 

 protect the beloved remains, to mark the hallowed spot, and to 

 record the memory of the deceased. First in order, as most noble 

 and imposing, and which above all others proclaim the grandeur 

 of the Celtic race, are the cromlechs. These are huge masses of 

 shapeless stone, of a Cyclopean character,' cleverly poised on one 

 another, so as to protect the honoured remains interred below, and 

 though now by lapse of time and the effect of weather, generally 

 denuded of their coverings, they are supposed to have been uni- 

 versally enclosed within a mound of earth. We have several good 

 examples of the cromlech on our Downs of North Wilts ; and I 

 still hold to the opinion expressed elsewhere,^ that Silbury, if it 

 could be more thoroughly examined, would be found to contain 

 one or more of these massive tombs. 



More common, but still works of considerable magnitude, and 

 telling of much manual labour, are the barrows,^ the tumuli which 

 abound on our Downs in great profusion, though now alas fast 

 disappearing under the plough. They have been classed by Sir 

 Richard Hoare under various titles, according to their shape ; as 

 the long, the round, the broad, the bell, the pond, the Druid ;* they 

 are of various sizes, and often occur in groups, and mark the burial 



in the course of our researches. [Ten years' diggings in Celtic and Saxon grave 

 hills, p. 190. See the Hand book of German Antiquities, Dresden, 1836, p. 94.] 

 1 Archfeological Journal, i., 142—151, 222—232. iii., 39—44. 

 •' The English at Home," by Alphonse Esquiros. 



^Wiltshire Magazine, vol. vii., p. 154. 

 * The prevalence of tumular interments throughout the globe at a remote date 

 was universal, showing that all men sprang from one stock, and though dispersed 

 retained their primitive usages almost unchanged. [See continuation of this 

 subject in Bateman's "Ten years' diggings in Celtic and Saxon grave-hills : 

 Introduction,] 



*Sir R. Hoare's Ancient Wilts, vol. i., p. 20. 



