Contents of one of the Bratley Barrows. 201 



remarkably hard gravelly soil, so hard that the labourers 

 made very slow progress even with their pick-axes. I did not 

 excavate any more, as they were all evidently of the same 

 character. The choice of such a soil, especially with the instru- 

 ments they possessed, may, perhaps, show the importance which 

 the Britons attached to the rite of burial. 



About a quarter of a mile, or rather less, from this great 

 graveyard lay a solitary mound, two feet and a half in height, 

 having a circumference of twenty-seven feet, a very common 

 measurement, but without any trench. Upon digging into it 

 on the east side we quickly came, about four inches from the 

 surface, upon a patch of charcoal and burnt earth. Proceeding 

 farther, we reached two well-defined layers of charcoal, the 

 uppermost two feet from the top of the barrow. A band of 

 red burnt earth, measuring five inches, separated these two beds, 

 in both of which in places appeared white spots and patches 

 of limy matter, the remains of calcined bones. In the centre, 

 as shown in the illustration, we found a Keltic urn. Imbedded 

 in a fine white burnt clay, which had hardened, placed with "its 

 mouth uppermost, and ornamented with a rough cable-moulding, 

 and two small ears, it stood on the level of the natural soil, 

 rising to within sixteen inches of the top of the mound. 



Digging on both sides, we discovered two more urns im- 

 bedded in the same hard white sandy clay, so hard that it had 

 to be scraped away with knives. Like the first, they were made 

 by hand, and when exposed quite shone with a bright vermilion, 

 which quickly changed to a dull grey. The paste, however, was 

 a light yellow, mixed with coarse gritty sand. And the three 

 were placed, as shown by the compass, exactly due north-east 

 and south-west. 



A plain moulding ran round the south-west urn, which was 



DD 



