ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 385 



Ho states that Mrs. Barlow, a lady then residing at Midhurst, 

 by the permission of the proper authorities, caused that exami- 

 nation to be made. The first four mounds appeared to have 

 been previously explored ; and nothing was found in them 

 except pieces of charcoal, ashes, calcined bones, and (in one of 

 them within the Brimstone-Lodge enclosure) some small 

 fragments of an urn, " old, rotten, decayed, crookey," and 

 seeming to have been sun-dried, and not regularly burnt in a 

 potter's kiln. In the fifth (being the smaller of the two upon 

 " Cold-down hill, not far from Hogmoor Pond and Binn's 

 Pond ") an urn was found, placed on the original level of the 

 ground, covered by a flat stone, and containing (as I infer) 

 calcined human bones or ashes. Mr. Prettejohn describes it as 

 " of a bilged shape, something between a pitcher and a flower- 

 pot," about eleven or twelve inches high, and capable of con- 

 taining two or three quarts. It was " in appearance, weak; " 

 but it was, with care, sent off " by two men to Midhurst " 

 (a distance of twelve miles), " carrying it on a sling on a pole." 

 Mrs. Barlow supposed it to be not only a relic of much in- 

 terest and value, but of antiquity far greater than Roman- 

 British times ; but a friend, learned in these subjects, whom I 

 have consulted, is led by the description given to doubt the 

 soundness of that opinion. No coins were found in any of 

 the tumuli thus examined. 



With respect to earlier explorations, all that I can gather, 

 through the recollections of old inhabitants, is, that some of the 

 tumuli on the Forest were opened by a gentleman named 

 Butler, certainly not less than sixty years ago. I have myself 

 lately opened the largest of those not covered by plantations 

 on my own property ; nothing, however, was found there, 

 except traces of former disturbance of the ground down to the 

 natural level, and a cavity which might, not improbably, have 

 once contained a sepulchral urn. 



It occurs to me also to mention in this place (though their 

 origin, nature, and purpose is obscure) that, immediately to 

 the south-west of the five tumuli on the Blackmoor Ridge, 

 overlooking Woolmer Pond, are a series of ancient parallel 

 trenches (six or seven in number) of some depth, running 



VOL. II. 2 C 



