Communicated hy the Eev. John A, Lloyd. Ill 



with his head to the east hardly seems to have been a recognized 

 rule. Our list of vicars dates from 1321. (iv.) Another hypothesis 

 has been suggested with reference to the position of this grave, 

 viz., that since its position is east and west by the compass, it might 

 have been the wish of the deceased person or of his friends to be 

 buried in the line shewn by the magnet, then a novelty. This, again, 

 would give a date subsequent to the thirteenth century, previous to 

 which the compass would not have been generally known in this 

 country. 



I do not think it probable that the line of this grave would have 

 been so much altered from that of other graves in the churchyard 

 merely for the sake of avoiding some obstacle, as a tomb or grave. 

 A person of sufl&cient importance to have such an excavation in the 

 rock would hardly have been buried in an unusual position merely 

 to avoid an obstacle. 



These may have been the graves of some of the Wroughton family, 

 whose name occurs in the neighbourhood, as Canon Jackson informs 

 me, as early as 1356. A member of this family, William Wrofton, 

 of Wroughton, died owner of Brodehenton, 1392, whose (probably) 

 memorial stone, incised for a brass 3 feet in length, has been recently 

 found in the chancel forming a base upon which rested a large 

 classic tomb to his descendant Sir Thomas Wroughton. No bones 

 were beneath this slab, and this lord of the manor may have been 

 one of those interred in the rock outside the chancel, stone coffins 

 not being then in such frequent use for persons of distinction as in 

 previous years. 



Professor Rolleston premises that the skull is not pre-historic, but 

 previous to the introduction of the potato, which gives us a wide 

 limit. 



May not the Broad Hinton rock graves mark a kind of transition 

 between stone and wood coffins, for the interment of persons of 

 rank and importance. 



It would be most interesting to know particulars of any similar 

 graves, if discovered. At Heysham, in Lancashire, the rector in- 

 forms me there are seven graves cut in the solid rock, the largest 

 about 6 feet 4 inches : " Jf'ive full-sized ones, and two smaller ones 



