34^ 



!^0cri]ptioit of it §aiToto itceiitlg ©j^cnclr m 

 ©&aioit pilL 



By C. PoNTiNG, Esq. 



I^NOTHER of these ancient tumuli having disappeared, and 



rm*^ an opportunity having been afforded me of seeing it opened, 

 I venture to place on record some account of it. I could have wished 

 this duty had fallen into abler and more expex'ienced hands, and I 

 regret that my effort to obtain the presence of our worthy Secretary 

 to witness the opening was defeated by the incessant downpour of 

 rain during the day on which it was necessary it should be done : 

 otherwise that gentleman had, in spite of his ill health at the time, 

 undertaken to be there. 



The barrow was the second from the south along the range of 

 hills between West Kennett and Abury, on the estate of the trustees 

 of the late Mr. Tanner. The land around and over it being arable, 

 the barrow had become much flattened, and the cairn of sarsens 

 which it contained almost denuded of the covering of soil, by probably 

 centuries of cultivation. I may here remark that an interesting 

 contrast is shown, illustrative of the levelling effects of this process, 

 in the well-preserved barrows on the adjacent down land, northwards 

 of the arable, and which are planted over. The stones of the cairn 

 being found to interfere with the use of the plough, workmen were, 

 in February last, put to remove what they at first thought to be a 

 few stray sarsens. 



I was made acquainted with this by one o£ the stone-cutters 

 bringing me a small earthen vessel, which he had found amongst 

 what he described as a " heap of stones." This vessel is of British 

 manufacture, rude and imperfectly burnt, 3j inches in diameter, and 

 the same in height, and is apparently a food-cup. AVith it a skeleton 

 evidently a secondary interment in the cairn of the barrow — was 



