PARISH OF EYFORD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 517 



due to manganese, upon them, which has been so often observed in 

 these long-barrow bones from chambers. 



* On this day (Sept. 29) we came upon what I believe may have 

 been the ruins of a " cist," i. e. of a closed grave, walled in with 

 slabs, and without any passage leading to the exterior such as has 

 been noted in the other barrows, and also in this, and as would 

 have justified us in speaking of it as a chamber 1 . It was 80 ft. 

 from the re-entering angle at the eastward end, and being about 

 5 ft. 6 in, by 4 ft., had its long axis at right angles to, and in the 

 middle line of the barrow. In this cist were found parts of two 

 adult human skeletons, one belonging to a strong man, the other 

 to a woman past the middle period of life ; of the skeletons of 

 three children of from seven or eight years of age ; of one child of 

 about two years of age or less ; of a dog's skeleton, lying in situ, 

 and close to the bones of the old woman ; also scattered bones of ox 

 and sheep. The bones themselves, closely packed at first, had been 

 much disturbed subsequently, as had also the cist itself. An in- 

 dication of this was furnished to us by the discovery of the frag- 

 ments of a drinking-cup only a couple of inches from the surface 

 of the soil over the barrow. This cup was of a not uncommon 

 pattern, thong-made ; and with its paste red outside and black 

 inwards, but was somewhat thicker than " drinking-cups " are 

 usually. It had probably been interred with a body of a later 

 period than those buried in the cist, and had come into the posi- 

 tion in which we found it in consequence of agricultural or other 

 disturbance of the place. To such other disturbance the follow- 

 ing appearances seemed to speak. The bones seemed in a few 

 cases to have been left, partially at least, in situ; but in many 

 cases I found a few bones between a couple of slates, the lower of 

 which, in its turn, overlaid a second set of bones. This would 

 appear to be explicable by supposing that, the roof of the cist being 

 removed, its contents were taken out partially, and thea thrown in 

 again, with any rubble which came to hand, so as to fill the cist 

 up again 2 . It is not safe to say what the precise size of the cist 



1 I must here express my dissent from this view of Dr. Rolleston, the stones 

 which had once composed this receptacle were much displaced, and seemed to me 

 rather to represent the remains of an incompletely closed structure than of a perfect 

 one, in fact they had formed a chamber and not a cist. (W. G.) 



2 I have met with the same peculiar feature in barrows where there certainly had 

 not been any disturbance of the mound, as for instance in a round barrow at Crosby 

 Garrett, described p. 388; and the same occurred in a long barrow [No. ccxxviii], 

 also at Crosby Garrett, where the burnt bones in some instances were placed both above 

 and underneath a flat stone. (W. G.) 



