526 LONG BAKROWS. 



sinking to 2 ft., and indeed, as now left, much lower in the latter 

 regions 1 . 



The Rev. David Royee, of Nether Swell, discovered not only 

 the horns at the N.N.E. end of the barrow, but after making 

 several exploratory cuttings into the deeper part of the barrow 

 with no other result than that of finding three superficially-placed 

 Saxon interments, he came upon the primary interment whilst 

 carrying a trench down the middle line or central axis of the 

 tumulus from its narrower S. S.W. end upwards. This primary 

 burial was contained, as already stated, in a sunken transverse zone, 

 and merited thus, what burials in long barrows do not usually merit, 

 the title of an ' interment.' Examination and excavations carried 

 on subsequently to its first discovery, partly by Mr. Royce and 

 partly by me, showed us that this interment had had provided for 

 it a trench about 28 ft. long, 6 ft. 4 in. wide, and 2 ft. deep, which 

 ran across the long axis of the barrow from W.N.W. to E.S.E., 

 but fell short of reaching its lateral boundary walls by a space at 

 either end of about 6 ft. This latter space at either end of the 

 trench-grave corresponded with a kind of passage or gallery some- 

 what narrower than the grave and limited by oolitic slabs set on 

 edge. Like the grave it was filled up with rubble, and it con- 

 tained also some bones, but these may be considered to have been 

 put there in the process of displacing some of the earlier for later 

 primary interments. The lateral boundary walls had been carried, 

 probably at a height of 2 ft., their greatest height as now standing, 

 uninterruptedly past the ends of these passages : whether in their 

 pristine condition some sort of indication may not have been 

 furnished by them of the difference between the contents of the 

 barrow in this and in other segments of its length is matter for 

 conjecture. But it may be remarked that a segment of a barrow, 

 which was from time to time disturbed for successive interments, 

 would of itself assume an appearance sufficiently different from that 



1 A reference to the plans given by Mr. Joseph Anderson, Proc. Soc. Ant. Scotland, 

 vol. vii. 1868, pi. Ixi ; or by Dr. Thurnam, Proc. Soc. Ant. London, April 1868, and 

 Archseologia, xlii. 1869; or by Sir John Lubbock, Journ. Ethn. Soc. Lond., vol. ii. 

 pi. xxvii. 1870; or by myself, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. v. p. 120, October 1875, 

 will enable the reader to understand the construction of these * horned cairns' or 

 barrows better than any description. In the present instance, the more eastwardly 

 placed of the two horns at the N.N.E. end had been nearly entirely destroyed by 

 quarrying ; the relations however of the remaining horn and the lateral walls coupled 

 with what we had to guide us in the proportions of the horns of the other barrows in 

 this neighbourhood enabled us to form a very probable, howbeit conjectural restora- 

 tion of the half obliterated end. 



