198 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



first of all take those on Sway and Shirley Commons, opened 

 by Warner.* The largest stands a little to the east of Shirley 

 Holms, close to Fetmoor Pond, measuring about a hundred 

 yards in circumference, and surrounded by three smaller mounds 

 varying from thirty to fifty yards, and two more nearly in- 

 distinct. These two last are, I suspect, those opened by 

 Warner, where, after piercing the mound, he found on the 

 natural soil a layer of burnt earth mixed with charcoal, and 

 below this, at the depth of two feet, a small coarse urn with 

 " an inverted brim,"t containing ashes and calcined bones. 



Some more lie to the northward, and are distinguished by 

 being trenched. Two of these also were opened by Warner, 

 but he failed to discover anything beyond charcoal and burnt 

 earth. 



His opinion was that these last belonged to the West- Saxons 

 and the former to the Kelts, who were slain defending their 

 country against Cerdic. So large a generalization, however, 

 requires far stronger evidence than can at present be produced. 



Warner, too, is besides wrong in much of his criticism, such 

 as that the Teutonic nations never practised urn-burial ; whilst 

 the banks in which he sees fortifications may be only the 

 embankments within which dwelt a British population. 



Still there is some probability about the conjecture. A 

 little farther down the Brockenhurst stream are Ambrose Hole 

 and Ampress Farm, both names unmistakeably referring to 

 Ambrosius Aurelianus, or Natan-Leod, who led the Britons 



* South- Wester n Parts of Hampshire, vol i. pp. 69-79. 



t Warner probably meant an overhanging brim, such as is common 

 to most of the early Keltic cinerary urns, or, perhaps, one like that of the 

 left-hand urn in the illustration at p 196, which is more contracted than 

 the others. He unfortunately gives us no dimensions. 



198 



