174 REPORT ON THE STAPENHILL EXPLORATIONS. 
On the Downs, and other elevated and generally waste lands, 
in various parts of England, but more particularly in the south- 
eastern districts, are to be seen extensive groups of small cone- 
shaped mounds, which have been termed Tumuli, or Barrows, 
and which, from the nature of their contents, have been ascribed 
to the Anglo-Saxon period. 
Allowing for the fact that many of the barrows of this period 
have been somewhat abridged of their original height, due, 
doubtless, to aerial denudation, arising from their exposed situation, 
while others have been so by accident; yet they are on the whole 
very inferior in size to those of the Celtic or early British period ; 
indeed, in some localities their construction more nearly approaches 
to the form of grave of the present day ; namely, a small raised 
narrow mound, so that they are, strictly speaking, series of grave- 
hills. 
There is little externally to distinguish the larger Anglo-Saxon 
barrows from many of those of the British. Where they are 
found intact, they generally consist of a conical mound thirteen 
to thirty-five feet in circumference, surrounded by a shallow 
trench. Beneath such a mound is a rectangular grave, varying 
in depth from one to six feet ; the body is usually found lying 
full-length on its back with the feet pointing towards the north. 
By the earlier archzeologists it was conjectured that these barrows 
were the graves of those slain in battle ; but the more careful 
investigations of the last twenty years or more have added many 
new and interesting facts to those already revealed, and which go to 
prove beyond a doubt that these barrows are the last resting places 
of a people in quiet possession of the country. Such barrows, 
then, may be said to date from the time of the first arrival of the 
Saxons or English in Britain up to the middle of the eighth 
century, when Christian sepulture was admitted within the walls 
of towns and monasteries, and the Pagan mode of interment was 
abandoned. 
Numerous interments have been discovered which have been 
undistinguished by barrows, and possessing no external indica- 
tions of sepulture; such have occurred at Barrow Furlong in 
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