PARISH OF KIRBY UNDERDALE. 135 



be free from wood, it may easily be understood that a tract of 

 country which already fulfilled this requirement must have been 

 a most desirable location for people in the earlier periods of 

 civilisation. It has been remarked that those parts of England 

 which appear to ourselves to be the least adapted to support a 

 population, have been the most extensively occupied in primitive 

 times, as for instance the wolds of Yorkshire, the downs of the 

 southern counties, and the moorland of many different localities. 

 The explanation of this seems to be that all these several districts 

 were more or less free from wood, and were therefore ready for 

 occupation without the labour, to these people a very severe 

 and difficult one, of clearing the ground. 



In the following account of barrow-opening operations I propose 

 to take the successive groups of sepulchral mounds in a sort of 

 order, commencing from the point most to the west, and proceeding 

 in an easterly direction, along the northern border of the wolds, 

 leaving those which have been subjected to examination towards 

 the south-eastern and southern parts to be last described. 



PARISH OF KIRBY UNDERDALE. Ord. Map (one-inch scale) xcm. N.E. 



I. One of the most interesting barrows in some respects that 

 I have opened was in the parish of Kirby Underdale, and situated 

 at Uncleby, on the western ridge of the wolds, where it over- 

 looks the plain towards York. I must, however, be content with 

 giving details only as to a very small part of the contents of this 

 grave-mound, because I do not intend, in the present account, 

 to enter upon any description of Roman or post-Roman places of 

 interment. 



The barrow in question had, at a long time subsequent to its 

 original construction, been made use of for burial purposes by a 

 community of Angles (presumably the ancient inhabitants of what 

 is now called Kirby), who had placed in it the bodies of above 

 seventy men, women, and children, some of whom, it would appear, 

 had belonged to the poorer classes of the community, whilst others 

 had certainly been persons of wealth and importance. Quite a 

 small museum of warlike, domestic, and personal relics was 

 furnished by the results of a fortnight's digging, and some 

 remarkable features in connection with Anglian interments were 

 ascertained and recorded. Of these I will, however, only mention 



