PARISH 01*' NETHER SWELL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 513 



or sheep, pig, foumart, water-vole, and grouse were discovered. No 

 piece of pottery or flint occurred in any part of the mound. 



Parish of Nether Swell, Gloucestershire. Ord. Maj). xliv. n.e. 



CCXXIX. This barrow^ is situated in the same field, the Cow 

 Common, in which the round barrows, already described pp. 446 

 sec[., are placed. It had been to some extent removed at the 

 eastern end in the years 1867-8, and at the same time had under- 

 gone a partial examination by the Rev. David Royce, the Vicar of 

 the parish. It is probable, if we may judge fi-om the recollection 

 of some of the persons employed about it at that time, that it had 

 originally termina,ted at the east end in the same ' horned ' fashion 

 as was found to characterise the three barrows next to be described. 

 It has a direction E.S.E. and W.N.W., and must have been about 

 150 ft. long, 77 ft. wide at the east and 40 ft. wide at the west 

 end; being now, at the highest point, that where the sepulchral 

 chamber was found, about 5 ft. high. It had originally no doubt 

 been higher. It is entirely composed of limestone slabs and rubble, 

 and is surrounded by a carefully constructed wall or facing, made 

 of thin oolitic slates, laid in horizontal courses, which at one time 

 in all probability was continued entirely round the barrow. This 

 cannot now be traced at the west end, and has disappeared at the 

 east end in consequence of the total destruction of the mound at 

 that part. This wall or facing, when first laid bare, was about 

 2^ ft. high on the south side, but not so much on the north, having 

 possibly there undergone a greater amount of disintegration ; it 

 had no doubt originally been higher than it was anywhere found 

 to be when discovered. The primary interments appear to have 

 been principally deposited in and near to a chamber on the north 

 side, which was examined by Mr. Royce in 1867. It was found 

 at a point 55 ft. from the east end, and it had a passage or entrance 

 leading into it from the outside of the barrow, the enclosing wall 

 being pierced, and turning inwards, at the place. The sides of the 

 chamber were constructed of large upright slabs of stone, one being 

 as much as 3^ ft. by 2 ft. 4 in., but how the roof had been formed it 



* I have given only a short account of this and of the two following barrows 

 because Professor Rolleston has already printed a most exhaustive and valuable 

 description of them in a paper ' On the People of the Long BaiTOw Period,' Journ. 

 Anthrop. Institute, vol. v. p. 120. 



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