348 Abury. 



over the bodies or ashes of some great ones of their day tends to 

 increase the mystery and awe with which thej' are invested. It is 

 to be wished that they might be spared further disfigurement from 

 the furrow and the plantation. There is one cluster which from 

 their elegant forms and elevated position, are strikingly beautiful, 

 especially when seen against the horizon in the evening twilight ; 

 and for the preservation of which I would earnestly plead. Tliey 

 compose the group alluded to by Sir R. Hoare, in one of the pre- 

 vious extracts, and are situated upon Overton Hill, near the Roman 

 road and the turnpike road to Marlborough.^ The barrow which 

 adjoins the site of the 'Sanctuary,' to which we have already 

 alluded, and from which Dr. Thurnam, in 1854, obtained the fine 

 skull which has been figured and described in the ' Crania 

 Britannica,' has this year been divested of its turf for the sake 

 of the ashes. The same process of excoriation has been exten- 

 sively carried on, during the last few months, upon the Down 

 between Beckhampton and Shepherd's Shore, and it seems 

 likely that every year will show a further contraction of our open 

 downs. Might not the owners and occupiers of land be induced to 

 plough round the barrows and leave their surface intact ? In many 

 instances, I doubt not, they have been found as unproductive as 

 that upon which the Cromlech in Clatford Bottom, called the 

 'Devil's Den,' was erected; and, for a ievf stalks of corn or a dozen 

 turnips annually, it is a pit}' to obliterate or degrade these inter- 

 estino- traces of Britain's earliest inhabitants.^ At all events, it 



^ In this group is a beautiful example ol the triple barrow. There is another 

 at Shepherd's Shore. 



^ " It is not to be desired that the ancient barrows belonging to the times 

 of paganism, should be . . . removed. It is true thej^ occur, in certain parts of 

 the country, in such numbers as to offer serious impediments to agricul- 

 ture ; while they contain beside large masses of stone, which in many cases 

 might be vised with advantage. Still they deserve to be protected and pre- 

 served, in as great a number as possible. Thej' are national memorials, 

 which may be said to cover the ashes of our forefathers; and by this means 

 constitute a national possession, which has beeu handed down for centuries, 

 from race to race. "Would we then uuconccruedly destroy these venerable 

 remains of ancient times, without any regard to our posterity ? Would we 

 disturb the peace of the dead, for the sake of some trilling gain." — Primaeval 

 Antiquili«B of Denmark, by J. J. A, Worsaae, 1849, p. 153. 



