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BARROWS. 



Barrows. In process of time, as the Greeks began to acquire 

 a taste for magnificence, their barrows were decora- 

 ted with the statues of animals, or with pillars bear- 

 ing inscriptions in praise of the illustrious dead. 



The Asiatic barrows, though less stupendous than 

 the pyramids of Egypt, were sufficiently grand to 

 excite the admiration of all who beheld them. One 

 of the most famous of these was the tomb of Alyat- 

 tes, king of Lydia, and father of Croesus, which 

 stands in the midst of several others, on the bank of 

 the lake Gygasus, where the burial places of the 

 Lydian princes were situated. The surrounding 

 barrows are of various dimensions ; some of them 

 tower to such a height as to appear at a distance like 

 hills ; but they are all greatly overtopped by that of 

 Alyattes, which, reared on a lofty basis about three 

 quarters of a mile in circumference, rises to the 

 height of 200 feet. All these barrows are covered 

 with green turf, and still retain their conical form, 

 without the smallest sinking in of their summits. 



The savage tribes of America raise the same kind 

 of monuments in honour of their dead. Mr Jeffer- 

 son, in his Notes on the State of Virginia, gives a par- 

 ticular account of the opening of a very large barrow 

 in his neighbourhood ; which consisted of thick stra- 

 ta of bones, promiscuously strewed with alternate 

 strata of earth. It is not ascertained on what occa- 

 sion these barrows may have been made ; but they 

 differ from all others in this, that they are the gene- 

 ral receptacles of immense numbers of dead bodies, 

 and not the monuments of individuals. It seems pro- 

 bable that they were raised on the scene of memora- 

 ble battles, and enclosed the bones of those who had 

 fallen for their country. They are at least of consi- 

 derable notoriety among the Indians ; for Mr Jeffer- 

 son informs us, that " a party of them passing about 

 thirty years ago through that part of the country in 

 which this large barrow is, went through the woods 

 directly to it, without any instruction or inquiry, 

 and, having staid about it some time, with expres- 

 sions which were to be construed to be those of sor- 

 row, they returned to the high road, from which 

 they had deviated about six miles, purposely to pay 

 this visit." 



Innumerable barrows are scattered through various 

 parts of England, but particularly in the downs of 

 Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. Many of these have been 

 opened, and found to contain skeletons, urns, ashes, 

 beads, and other relics. In Scotland and Wales, the 

 barrows are in general made of loose stones, and are 

 known by the name of cairns. (See Cairn.) But 

 in the links of Sandwick, one of the Orkney islands, 

 there are a great number of round barrows, some 

 formed entirely of earth, and others of stones covered 

 with earth. As these barrows generally contained 

 two tiers of coffins, it is probable that they were family 

 vaults, and that, on the death of any one of the fa- 

 mily, the barrow was opened, and the body interred 

 near its kindred bones. In Ireland, too, barrows are 

 very numerous ; and are supposed by Ledwich to have 

 been of Scythian origin. Odin, the deity and legis- 

 lator of the Goths, ordained that large barrows should 

 be erected to the memory of celebrated chiefs : these 

 barrows were composed of stone and earth, and their 

 construction bespeaks amazing labour with no small 



degree of art. The most remarkable monument of Barrows, 

 this kind to be seen in Ireland, is that at New Grange, 

 in the county of Meath. It is founded on a vast col- 

 lection of stones, covered with gravel and earth. Its 

 base extendsover two acres of land: it rises to the height 

 of 70 feet ; and is 300 feet in circumference at the 

 top. (For a more particular account of this mound, 

 see New Giiaxge.) Sepulchral monuments of the 

 same description as that at New Grange, are frequent 

 in Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and the steppes 

 of Tartary ; and hence it has been conjectured that 

 this mound is of Danish construction. 



So much for the sepultural character of barrows : 

 But there is another no less interesting aspect, in 

 which the British barrows at least are to be viewed ; 

 viz. as parts of an amazing system of vigilance and 

 communication. " These barrows," says Mr Stack- 

 house, " are like as many mirrors, placed with such 

 optical skill and accuracy, that they conduct the vi 

 sualrayfrom point to point, through all the windings 

 and recesses of those circuitous dells which they are 

 evidently intended to overlook." We are informed 

 by Caesar, that the Gauls, from whom the Britons 

 descended, conveyed intelligence with wonderful ce- 

 lerity through the fields and cantons, by shouting 

 with all their might ; thus the news was commu- 

 nicated from one to another, so that what happened 

 at Orleans at sunrise, was known at Auvcrgne before 

 nine in the evening, though the distance is 160 miles. 

 (De Bcllo GalUco, lib. vii. cap. 3.) Mr Staekhouse 

 conjectures, therefore, with great probability, that 

 persons must have been regularly stationed for the 

 express purpose of conveying tidings of any remark- 

 able event, otherwise these dispatches must have been 

 liable to continual interruption. To this purpose, 

 and to a much more speedy communication, the bar- 

 rows, constructed and arranged according to prin- 

 ciples, which, after an attentive examination, he has 

 plainly detected, are most admirably adapted. The 

 principles of their construction and position are these : 

 1st, They form intermediate points of direct commu- 

 nication, either between the castles and the beacons,, 

 (the extremities of the immense chain of vigilance 

 and defence,) or between the temples and the nearest 

 castle. 2d, They communicate reflectively from one 

 to another through all the windings of those dells 

 which intersect the downs. 3d, One or more bar- 

 rows are placed at the extremities of a long and 

 straight valley, so as to command a longitudinal view 

 of the same. 4th, Barrows are sometimes ranged on 

 the sides of these long dells, so as to command a later- 

 al view of the opposite declivities. 5th, The magni- 

 tude and position of each barrow is determined by 

 the point to which its visual line is directed, and not, 

 as has been supposed, by its monumental office, or 

 the dignity of the person interred within it. 6th, 

 Groups of barrows are uniformly limited to the downs 

 only ; but eminent stations are occasionally distin- 

 guished by one or two barrows, in parts of the coun- 

 try to which the barrow system is not adapted, and 

 where, of course, they can only occur in this de- 

 tached manner. 7th, A barrow is never found larger 

 than its station, that is, the point to which its visual 

 line is assigned, requires. 8th, Where a barrow of ex- 

 traordinary magnitude was necessary, no labour baa 



