28] 



On the Ordnance Map there is marked as standing on the 

 hill-top south of Nailsworth, "The Picked Stone," but this 

 monolith, which is well remembered by many people of the 

 neighbourhood, has been removed, and is believed to have been 

 used in the building of a stack of stone steps in a farm-yard 

 near Barton End. " The Picked Stone " was about 4 feet high, 

 and occupied the highest spot on the hills in that locality. 



In addition to the seven oval barrows already mentioned, 

 there occur in the area included in the sketch map eleven tumuh 

 of a very different construction. They are circular, and do not 

 inclose stone chambers, but are simply mounds of earth and 

 stone, varying from 35 feet to 60 feet in diameter, and were 

 originally about five feet in height. These smaller tumuli have 

 not suffered by the hand of man so generally as the larger; 

 the latter, from their great si^e and .the conspicuous situations 

 they occupy, have attracted the interest of the curious for many 

 generations past, and, as already mentioned, have been greatly 

 injured; whilst these smaller grave-mounds, where they have 

 enjoyed the protection of surrounding woods, have retained 

 their original form and height, and even such as have been 

 brought under cvQtivation and reduced in height have yet 

 retained the deposit of ashes and bones over which they were 

 placed, undisturbed by the action of the plough. 



I must plead guilty to having destroyed for futiu-e antiquaries 

 the interest of eight of these circular tumuli. In 1851 1 assisted 

 in opening the one marked " 12," which stood on the hill-side 

 west of the village of Avening. It was 50 feet iu diameter and 

 5 feet in height. On what had been the original surface, charcoal 

 and ashes were scattered, and at the centre of the mound a 

 handful of burnt human bones were found. No flints were tJien 

 observed, although ten persons were engaged in the opening ; 

 but on a recent visit to this tumulus two worked flints were 

 picked up from its surface. 



Of nearly equal dimensions to the last is a circular tumulus 

 which stands a few hundred yards dii-ectly south of the Lechmore 

 oval tumulus. This I thoroughly examined in November, 1869. 

 The materials forming the central portion of the mound were 



