PARISH OF UPPER SWELL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 525 



distance from the convex extremity of one of the horns to the ex- 

 treme point to which the smaller end of the harrow was traceable 

 in a S.S.W. direction was 119 ft.: the barrow, however, must be 

 supposed to have suffered some diminution of its length at its 

 narrower and lower end from agricultural and other operations en- 

 tailing the removal of stones. The line of a sunken transverse 

 zone, discovered by making a longitudinal section of the mound, 

 was found to divide the barrow into two segments of nearly equal 

 length, and in this zone were found the primary interments which 

 were the raison ifetre of the construction of the mound. This 

 barrow, therefore^ resembles the other long barrows in this neigh- 

 bourhood, and differs from those described by Sir R. C. Hoare in 

 Wiltshire, and from most of those in Caithness described by Mr. 

 J. Anderson^, in not having its principal interment in that part 

 of the structure upon which the principal trouble had been ex- 

 pended ; that is to say, at its doubly-horned N.N.E. end. Its 

 greatest height above the surface of the ground was about 5 ft., 

 a height which it attains at a distance of about 16 ft. from the 

 centre of the N.N.E. end. This maximum elevation it maintains 

 for a considerable space occupied by large trees, Scotch firs and 

 beeches, amongst the roots of which, however, a sufficiently large 

 number of exploratory excavations were made to assure us that no 

 interments were left unexamined in the region covered by them. 

 From its maximum elevation of 5 ft. the barrow slopes away 

 gradually to a height of 2 ft. 4 in. at a distance of 60 ft. from its 

 extreme N.N.E. point ; and in this plane the transverse zone con- 

 taining interments was found intersecting the barrow. Beyond 

 this line the barrow did not exceed a height of 2 ft. ; but there 

 can be little doubt, inasmuch as till quite recent times a wall of 

 modern construction ran across the long axis of the barrow about 

 this very level, that the barrow must have suffered considerable 

 diminution of its pristine proportions by furnishing materials for 

 the building of this wall, if not of others in the neighbourhood. 

 The barrow sloped again from its highest point down to a height 

 of 4 ft. at its horned end ; but here too some diminution may 

 reasonably be accounted for by a reference to quarrying opera- 

 tions. A wall, made of the flags of the lower oolite laid in 

 horizontal rows, bounded the barrow at its N.N.E. end and along 

 its sides, being somewhat under 4 ft. in height in the former, and 



' Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 485. 



