Jtncient f ritish Brns. 



By Dr. WAKE SMART. 



ITH a wealth of Ancient British pottery in the 

 cabinets of private collectors in Dorset, and in the 

 public Museum, and in Libraries with illustrated 

 works relating to the subject, I am not aware of 

 any attempt having been made to reduce the facts 

 thus obtained to a systematic order or classifica- 

 tion, by which their value may be better understood and appre- 

 ciated. It may be thought a presumption on my part to attempt 

 or even suggest any action of the kind alluded to, and, if induced 

 to do so, my motive will be simply to place the facts we have at 

 hand in a clearer light, with the hope of improving our knowledge 

 and increasing their value as historical data. 



In his " Description of the Deverel Barrow, opened in A.D. 1825 

 by William Augustus Miles, Esq.," there is an introductory letter 

 from his friend and patron, the late Sir E. C. Hoare, Bart., of 

 Stourhead, wherein the worthy Baronet writes as follows : " I 

 have been for many years past engaged in opening the numerous 

 barrows about Stonehenge, Abury, and Everley, in Wilts ; and 

 you have been more fortunate in this one Tumulus than I have 

 been in hundreds ; nor have I, in my Museum, more than one [urn] 

 of the upright form, like those numbered 2, 3, 7, 12, 15, 22. I can 

 safely pronounce your urns to be of the earliest British manufacture, 



