A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



TUMULI 



A very large number of tumuli or barrows are to be found distri- 

 buted over the Berkshire Downs, and some few still exist in other parts 

 of the county. Several are mentioned by earlier writers which can now 

 no longer be seen, and many more have doubtless succumbed to the 

 action of the plough and the exigencies of agricultural improvements. 

 It is strikingly noticeable that the great majority still to be seen are 

 upon the unbroken Downs, or upon those parts which have only been 

 under plough for a short period ; though it must equally be noted that 

 the large tracts of waste land on the Bagshot sands in the eastern part 

 of the county yield very few. 



Of these barrows almost all are circular or nearly circular in form, 

 and the true long barrow seems scarcely to have existed in this county, 

 though there are two that may perhaps be considered under this head. 

 These round barrows are, however, in some cases of very different dates, 

 and have not always been erected for the same purpose. The great 

 majority were no doubt thrown up to cover interments, but some have 

 almost certainly been boundary marks, some look-out places near camps, 

 and some, perhaps, survey stations upon Roman roads. 



Comparatively few of them have been opened, at least by scientific 

 investigators who have left records of their work, and so it will be 

 impossible at the present time to classify them properly. With the 

 exception of the two long barrows already referred to, they will be 

 enumerated, as in the case of the other earthworks, according to the 

 alphabetical order of the parishes in which they are situated, while such 

 information as can be gleaned as to their age and object will be given in 

 each case. 



LONG BARROWS 



It is strange that long barrows, the burial places of the neolithic 

 people, should be so scarce in Berkshire, for it is evident, from the 

 implements that have been found, that this race settled here. It is 

 probable that they occupied only the low-lying tracts, where the soil is 

 more fertile and water abundant, and left the exposed Downs and the 

 dreary wastes of the Bagshot sands uninhabited ; and in that case their 

 tombs would have been set up in those parts which have been for the 

 greatest length of time under cultivation, with the natural result that 

 few if any have survived. 



The only true burial place of this period of which we have any 

 evidence is not, strictly speaking, a tumulus, but what is known as a 

 dolmen ; but as it is now generally believed that such dolmens were 

 once covered with earth, or at least were erected with the intention of 

 being so covered, it is perhaps not inconsistent to include among our 

 tumuli the dolmen known as Wayland Smith's Cave, which is described 

 in the article on Early Man. 



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