ANCIENT CHAMBERED TUJ1ULI. 53 



that a low wall, built of unmortared stones, on each 

 side the doorway, was continued in front of the 

 tumulus to the distance of twelve and fourteen paces on 

 each side, and then turned suddenly, almost at a right 

 angle, and continued round the tumulus to the northern 

 end. This wall has been laid bare all round, and proves 

 to be the finishing of the cairn, which was afterwards 

 covered over with vegetable mould, and made to subside 

 gradually into the natural ground. (See plate III.) 



The walling was quite perfect, except in one place in 

 front, where a hedge and ditch had formerly been carried, 

 and in places on the sides, where the roots of the trees 

 growing on the cairn had broken through, and disarranged 

 the regularity of the stone-work. 



When first opened, the stone-work presented the appear- 

 ance of modern walling ; and, in fact, all our modern dry 

 walling seems to have originated with the primitive inhabit- 

 ants of the land, and been continued to our times. At the 

 northern extremity, where the ancient walling had been 

 pulled down and carried away, the cairn has been repaired 

 by modern walling, which is built up after the manner of the 

 ancient, but somewhat higher for the sake of protection, 

 but the juncture of the new with the old is marked by 

 two upright stones introduced in the walling. 



The portion of the tumulus which collapsed seems to 

 have been that part which was first laid open when Mr. 

 Skinner examined it, and from whence the stones, as he 

 states, had been carried away. One of the workmen em- 

 ployed in repairing the cairn told me that he could reraem- 

 ber, when a boy, stones being taken from the top and the 

 side ; this has somewhat depressed the elevation, and 

 taken off from that appearance which it probably formerly 

 presented, of a large boat or vessel turned keel upward. 



