488 LONG BARROWS. 



It is 132 ft. long, 50 ft. wide at the east, and 40 ft. at the west 

 end, where the height is 5^ ft., the opposite end being 7 ft. high. 

 A shallow trench was observed along both sides of the mound, but it 

 was not continued round the ends. This feature is frequently found 

 in connection with the long barrows of Wiltshire, and can scarcely 

 be considered as merely accidental. The mound was composed of 

 chalk-rubble, flints, and earth. It may be well, before describing 

 the primary burials, to say that what was no doubt a secondary 

 one was met with, at a place 38 ft. distant from the east end, on 

 the central line of the barrow, and 2 ft. below its surface. It was that 

 of an unburnt body, laid on the back, but inclining to the left side, 

 the legs drawn up, the hands crossed upon the chest, and the head 

 to E. It was very much broken up by rabbit digging, and the 

 skull in consequence was only fragmentary. 



Along the central line of the barrow, and commencing at the 

 east end, where the action of fire had been the strongest, was 

 a deposit of calcined chalk and flint, 3^ ft. wide, and about 4 ft. 

 high, resting upon the natural surface. The evidence of burning 

 became gradually less towards the west. At a point 30 ft. from 

 the east end there was a large quantity of charcoal in lumps, placed 

 just above the natural surface and covering some burnt bones. 

 Beyond this point, although the deposit of chalk and flint still 

 continued, there were no signs of the action of fire. As was found 

 to be the case in the Scamridge long barrow just above described, 

 the mesial deposit of chalk and flint in this mound was perfectly 

 distinct from the general material of the barrow ; and the burning, 

 even in that part where it had been the strongest, had affecled the 

 enclosing chalk rubble and earth only in the slightest degree. The 

 mass of burnt chalk and flint was in some places so hard that it 

 required the vigorous use of the pick-axe to break it up ; whilst 

 in others it was of a soft and, to the touch, of a greasy character, 

 and of a most beautiful pale greenish-yellow colour ; this proved, on 

 analysis, to be merely burnt chalk and silex. At the bottom of 

 the calcined matter, and mainly about 14 ft. from the east end of 

 the barrow, were numerous fragments of human bones, evidently 

 disjointed and dislocated, and probably incomplete before they had 

 been there deposited. They were placed amongst the burnt chalk 

 and flint, sometimes enclosed in the hard calcined mass as fossils 

 are in the rock 1 . Two fragments of a plain, apparently round- 



1 A long 1 barrow was removed, in the course of agricultural operations, on Heslerton 

 Wold, in the years 1862 and 1867. From the account given me by Mr. Dunhill, the 



