342 OPENING OF AN ANCIENT BARROW 
As these barrows were burial places, for persons 
of distinction, until about the year 750, when the 
custom of interment in church yards, was brought 
over, from Rome into England, by Cuthbert, 
archbishop of Canterbury, it is probable, that 
many pilgrimages were made to this shrine of 
relics ; and, that devotees knelt and wept, on the 
top of this barrow, and struck their foreheads on 
this sacred ridge. 
It is also known, that religious festivals were 
observed at these barrows; and, it is probable, that 
venerable and hoary Druids preached, from the 
summit of Castle hill, to listening multitudes. 
EXCAVATIONS IN THE HILL. 
In attempting to make further discoveries, at 
Castle hill, the shaft was sunk down to the rock, 
which was found at the distance of about eighteen 
feet from the top of the hill; and, it was dis- 
covered, that the surface of the rock was about 
four feet higher, in the centre of the hill, than in 
the centre of the fosse, on the west side of the 
hill. From this it appears, that the rock had been 
cut away, in the fosse, on the west side of the 
hill. In sinking this shaft, nothing was found but 
