

PARISH OF RYLSTON. 375 



any cereal crop could ever have been grown upon them. They 

 have also been attributed to the way in which the separate portions 

 of land in the common field of a village have been ploughed ; by 

 which process, at the side of each portion, a bank of greater or less 

 size was gradually thrown up. Some of them, I have no doubt, are 

 the result of such a mode of ploughing, but a large number are 

 evidently due to some different practice, and indeed in many cases 

 they have undoubtedly been cut out of the hill side. 



CLXII. The barrow now under notice, which is situated at 

 Scale House, near Rylston, had been dug into at the centre, by the 

 tenant, about a year before I subjected it to examination ; and to 

 this disturbance is due in some measure the unsatisfactory condition 

 in which the remains were found. It was 30 ft. in diameter, 5 ft. 

 high, and was made of clay; having a shallow trench close to the 

 base and completely encircling the mound. Immediately beneath 

 the surface of the barrow, at the centre, there was a layer of flat 

 stones, about 6 ft. in diameter, carefully arranged. Under these 

 stones the clay was firmly compacted, and rested upon a thin stratum 

 of dark-coloured earthy matter which was very fully charged with 

 charcoal. Beneath this again was a layer of finer clay, or rather of 

 clay which appeared to have undergone a process of tempering. 

 Below this finer clay, and carefully embedded in it, was an oaken 

 coffin laid upon clay, and to some extent supported by a few stones, 

 the whole being placed in a slight hollow sunk below the surface of 

 the ground. The coffin was formed of the trunk of an oak tree 

 split in two and then hollowed out. It was 7J ft. long and 1 ft. 

 11 in. wide; the trunk had been cut off at each end and then 

 partially rounded, but on the outside no attempt at squaring or 

 other workmanship had interfered with the natural surface of the 

 timber. The hollow within was 6 ft. 4 in. long and 1 ft. wide, 

 roughly hewn out, and still showing the marks of the tool employed ; 

 the ends inside were finished off square. It was not possible to 

 make out the precise nature of the tool which had been employed, 

 but the appearances warranted the conclusion that it had been a 

 narrow-edged metal implement. The coffin was very much broken, 

 in consequence of the disturbance before mentioned ; it was however 

 still sufficiently entire to allow its arrangement to be seen. It was 

 laid north and south, having the thicker end where the head of 

 the enclosed body had no doubt been placed to the south. The 

 body had entirely gone to decay, and nothing was observed 



