By William Long, Esq. 151 



parallel with another of average proportions, and is only separated 

 from it by an interval of about 100 yards. At Knowl Hill, on the 

 southern border of the county, near Fordingbridge, are two long 

 barrows of large size, which I have not myself seen, but which are 

 laid down on the maps much nearer to each other than is at all 

 common. As a rule long barrows occupy the highest points on the 

 downs, m situations commanding extensive views over the adjoining 

 valleys, and so as to be visible at a great distance. Salisbury Plain 

 may be said to be guarded as it were by a series of such long barrows, 

 which look down upon its escarpments like so many watch-towers. 

 Others occupy elevated central spots on the interior o£ the plain; 

 and some of these— as Ell-barrow and Knighton-barrow— are well- 

 known landmarks to the hunter and wayfarer over these extensive 

 and (in winter) dreary downs. Several of the clusters of round 

 barrows near Stonehenge are grouped around, or in close proximity 

 to, a single long barrow. On inspecting such a group as that on 

 Winterbourne Stoke Down, where out of twenty-seven tumuli we 

 find a single long barrow, or as that on Lake Down, where to 

 twenty-three circular barrows of various forms we also have 

 one long barrow, it might at first be thought that the long and 

 circular barrows were of the same date, and that the elongated 

 tumulus, as well as the variations in the forms of the round barrows, 

 had its origin merely in the taste or caprice of those by whom it 

 was erected. Knowing, however, as we do, that the examination of 

 the long barrow discloses an entirely different method of sepulture, 

 and indicates a much earlier epoch than does that of the round bar- 

 rows, we come rather to regard them as the burial places of an earlier 

 race, probably the original possessors of the soil, around which the 

 tombs of a later and more cultivated people were afterwards erected. 

 As a rule, these tumuli stand apart from those of circular form. 

 • . In by far the greater proportion of long barrows, the mound 

 IS placed east and west, or nearly so, with the east end somewhat 

 higher and broader that the other. Under this more prominent and 

 elevated extremity the sepulchral deposit is usually found at or near 

 the natural level of the ground ; but although this is the general 

 rule, a certain proportion depart decidedly from such a system of 



