ANCIENT CIIAMBEKED TUMULI. 39 



time " a bank of earth came to be heaped up against the 

 supports outwardly, as a means of protection, to within a 

 few inches of the under surface of the cap-stone." 



"This earth work," says he, "is the flrst indication of 

 those lofty tumuli which were raised by politer nations of 

 the world, and of the barrows of nomadic tribes. White 

 navigation was in its infancy, and Celtic canoes of hollow 

 trees were risked upon the waters of British seas, the 

 native population respected the resting-places of their de- 

 parted countrymen, and, trusting to this feeling, gave only 

 slight protection to their tombs ; but as warlike strangers 

 succeeded in disturbing the peace of the Community, they 

 buried their dead more securely, and ultimately, as though 

 in imitation of other nations, raised over these megalithic 

 vaults high mounds of earth, intermixed with small stones 

 and fragments." 



" The most simple and natural kind of sepulchral mon- 

 ument, and therefore the most ancient and universal," 

 observes Dr. Stukely, " consists in a mound of earth or 

 heap of stones raised over the remains of the deceased. 

 Of such monuments mention is made' in the Book of 

 Joshua and the Poems of Homer, Virgil, and Horace. 

 Of such, instances occur in every part of the kingdom, es- 

 pecially in those elevated and sequestered situations, where 

 they have neither been defaced by agriculture or inunda- 

 tions. It has often been a subject of surprise to me," says 

 Stukely, " that in an age marked by its taste for antiqua- 

 rian researches, greater attention should not have been 

 paid to these most genuine records of past ages, so far at 

 least as to ascertain to which of the successive inhabitants 

 of this island they are to be ascribed, or whether, in fact, 

 tlioy are the work of more than one people. This can 



VOL. Till., 1858, PART II. V 



