PARISH OF COLD KIRBY. 337 



near the urn. At the bottom of the barrow, on the natural surface, 

 the whole central part was covered with remains of birch branches, 

 some of which had been of considerable size, the bark being- as 

 fresh in appearance as if it had been but newly placed there. It 

 might naturally be supposed that these branches had been laid 

 there to support a body, if, as seems likely, there had been an in- 

 terment at the spot, but there was no trace left of the bones. The 

 barrow was wet at the place in question, but nevertheless I should 

 have expected to have found some remains of the bones, though 

 certainly under the circumstances they might have been but slight. 

 A square-ended short flake of flint unburnt and a flint scraper burnt 

 were met with in the barrow. 



PARISH OF COLD KIRBY. Ord. Map. xcvi. s.w. 



Upon the well-known Hambleton training-ground, near Thirsk, 

 are several barrows placed in a most commanding position at the 

 verge of the lime-stone cliff which there overlooks the great plain 

 of York. An ancient earth-work known as the Casten Dike runs 

 parallel, for a distance of some miles, with the range of the cliffs. 

 At the very edge of the crag, which itself forms one side of the 

 defences, a small fortified place is situated. Most of the barrows 

 there have been opened, but so far as I know without any but a very 

 trifling account of the results having been recorded 1 . 



C XX VII. I examined one of those which had been left un- 

 touched. It was 30 ft. in diameter, 4 ft. high, and was made of 

 stones ; these consisted of limestone flags of various sizes laid flat 

 upon each other. At the centre the flag-stones became larger, and 

 were arranged in a circular form sloping and overlapping each other 

 from the central point ; this inner cairn, so to call it, having 

 a diameter of 12 ft. Below the stones was a layer of clay, from 6 in. 

 to 8 in. thick, placed upon the natural surface. No trace of an in- 

 terment was discovered, and the only explanation I can offer (which 



1 A paper by the late Mr. Denny, Curator of the Leeds Museum, Notice of Early 

 British Tumuli,' &c., contains an account of the opening of several barrows in the. 

 same locality, and amongst them of one on the Hambleton training-ground, close to an 

 entrenchment called the Cleve Dike, in which was a cinerary urn, and amongst the 

 burnt bones in it a smaller vessel. The paper was read before the West Biding Geo- 

 logical and Polytechnic Society, Nov. 22, 1865, and is printed in the Proceedings of 

 the Society for that year, p. 488. 



Z 



