PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB I27 



making shallow excavations in other parts of its surface. 

 Nowhere was there the slightest evidence of masonry. It 

 seemed to be entirely made up of loose rubble, thrown, 

 as an onlooker said, " all of a yep " (heap), or as loads of 

 broken stone are lipped from carts along the margins of 

 our roads. 



Finding that the " crust " of the circular mound was of 

 the same rubbly character as its extension, we decided to 

 dig into its centre from its crown. Two trenches were 

 made, intersecting at right angles ; and a few inches below 

 the surface the rubble was found to be resting upon a 

 mass of stones which in size, shape, and setting were like 

 the dry walling so common upon the Cotteswolds. As 

 we went downwards we carefully extended the area of the 

 excavation, and kept a sharp look out for any sign of a cist 

 or other evidence of human burial. All the stones had a 

 slight tilt from an imaginary central line, as though they 

 had been built over a small object placed in the centre at 

 the surface of the ground. But of such an object in that 

 position no sign whatever did we find. East of the 

 central Hne, however, there seemed to be indications of a 

 small chamber, and every stone was carefully removed in 

 approaching it. Our surmise proved to be correct. 

 About two feet from the centre, on the original surface of 

 the ground, was a cist, approximately two feet square, and 

 nine inches deep, formed of rough, unshaped stone slabs. 

 As a general rule, cists in round barrows contain human 

 bones or other undoubted human reUcs. This one con- 

 tained a few handfuls of phosphate of hme and dirt. So 

 far as we could find, and we examined the mound very 

 carefully, this chamber was the only evidence of the 

 purpose for which the barrow was built. In round 

 barrows in Gloucestershire, Canon Greenwell says, the 

 [trevailing practice was burial after cremation. The only 

 inference in this case seems to be that a body had been 



