By Mrs. M. E. Gunnington. 3 



Considerable local interest was shown in the work and during 

 the digging the barrow was seldom without visitors, many of 

 whom much encouraged the workers by the interest they took in 

 the work and many helpful suggestions.^ 



The barrow has suffered much through the action of the plough 

 during the many years that it has been under cultivation, and 

 already it could easily have escaped the notice of anyone not on 

 the look-out for it. A few more years of continued ploughing, 

 and all trace of its existence would have vanished for ever, and 

 its contents have been scattered and unrecognised. The knowledge 

 of the danger impending to any relics that it might contain 

 doubtless influenced Dr. Blake Maurice, of Marlborough, who is 

 the landowner, and by whose kind permission and assistance it 

 has been opened, in his determination to have it investigated before 

 it was too late, and archaeologists are indebted to him for his 

 timely and considerate action. The field in which it lies is known 

 as Barrow Field or Piece, and seems to have been so called from 

 time immemorial. The barrow itself lies about 100 yards to the 

 north of the Bath Koad. That it should thus have imposed its 

 name upon the land in a neighbourhood where barrows are familiar 

 objects, and where, formerly, they were even more numerous than 

 they are to-day, is interesting as affording evidence of its former 

 size and importance ! it suggests that this barrow must, for some 

 reason, have been thought of a little more consequence than most 

 of its fellows. It recalls to mind the interesting and curious story 

 told of the cairn near Mold, from which came the gold corselet (?) 

 now in the British Museum,^ and other tales analogous to it and 

 equally weird. Is it possible that through the long centuries here 

 also lingered a dim memory, enshrined in tradition, of some great 

 deed, or of a great and loving veneration, though nothing more 



' Special thanks are due to Mr. and Mrs. Bucknall, of Plough Cottage, for 

 the very considerable help and assistance they rendered in many ways, 

 in addition to much personal kindness. 



- This piece of gold armour formerly described as a corselet is now believed 

 fo be a peytral or brunt for a pony. See British Museum Guide to the 

 Bronte Age, p. 149 ; for account of the find, Arch(eologia, XXVI., p. 422. 



B 2 



