208 The Neic Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



same decayed state, and crumbled to pieces as we endeavoured 

 to separate them from the soil. With some difficulty we 

 managed to preserve a few fragments which were identical with 

 those which had been previously discovered in the other barrows 

 at Bratley. They contained, like most of the other vessels, 

 burnt stones and white osseous matter reduced to lime. There 

 seems, however, to have been some difference in their texture 

 with that of the fragments found on the north side, which were 

 less gritty and coarse, and which bore no traces of charcoal or 

 lime.* 



We will now leave Fritham, and cross Sloden and Amber- 

 wood Plantation. Not far from Amberwood Corner, and above 

 Pitt's Enclosure, stand two barrows. The largest was opened 

 thirty years ago by a labouring man, who, to use his own 

 language, " constantly dreamt that he should there find a crock 

 of gold." His opening was rewarded by discovering only some 

 charcoal. In 1851, the Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett also explored 

 it with still less success. It is, however, a remarkable barrow, 

 and differs in character from any of the preceding, being com- 

 posed in the interior of large sub-angular flints, and cased on 

 the outside with a rampart of earth. Beyond it lies another, 

 very different in style, being made only of earth. This was 

 also opened by Mr. Bartlett, who found some pieces of charcoal, 

 and small fragments of a very coarsely-made urn. 



* An attempt to examine this barrow had been previously made, but 

 the explorers had opened a little to the south-west of the spot where the 

 pottery lay. It is just possible that the large square in Sloden may be of 

 the same character. I cut a small opening at the western end, but it is 

 impossible, on account of the trees, to make any satisfactory excavation. 

 Whatever might have been its original purpose, it was certainly never the 

 site of a church, as is commonly supposed. See ch. iii., p. 32, foot-note. 



