THE FAERY YEAR 



heads, with other relics of the New Stone Age ; 

 also, oddly enough, a quantity of broken pieces of, 

 not British, but Roman pottery, of various colour 

 and make, some of rather finished and decorative 

 design. But in or about this barrow we have not 

 yet found a flaked flint or spear head. The centre 

 of the barrow may yield some better treasure, how- 

 ever, such as incense cup, food and drinking vessels, 

 or cinerary urn. 



Beautiful specimens of pottery, probably belong- 

 ing to the end of the Stone Age and to the succeed- 

 ing Bronze Age, have been found in these round 

 barrows beside the bones and hair of the early 

 British leader. Leader surely he was. How other- 

 wise can we explain the vast toil which these people 

 with rough stone and stake undertook when they 

 piled the mounds ? And, if leader, it almost follows 

 he led in war in those turbulent times among the hill 

 fortresses of southern England. 



Within a stone's-throw of the barrow in this 

 secluded spot, whose solemn quiet is accented by 

 the wind in the tree-tops and the wild thrush carol, 

 are the remains of a deep ditch and bank that may 

 belong to the same period. They are much less 

 worn away and degraded than many of the myste- 

 rious lines or " devil's dykes " that score the woods 

 and wastes of barrow England. In the making of 

 the dykes and round or long barrows such worked 

 flints as we find to-day could have been used only 

 indirectly. There could be no digging or piling up 

 to the least effect with such small stones. Great 



