SILBURY HILL. 241 



or figured, so far as I am aware, nothing can be said as 

 to their characteristics. This authority was of opinion, 

 however, that few, if any, interments in barrows took 

 place after the Roman invasion in Britain; so that these 

 articles must have been in use before or soon after that 

 event. He also discovered an urn in a barrow, with an 

 ornament on the rim in relief like the shape of a horse- 

 shoe.' 



The able veterinary surgeon, Bracy Clark, in 1832, 

 described what he termed ' two ancient horse-shoes,' 

 found near Silbury Hill, Wiltshire. This hill, which is 

 situated on the road from London to Bath, is nothing 

 more than a mound of large size, and is believed to be 

 of great antiquity ; by some it has even been supposed to 

 be the appendage of a Druidical temple, it being placed 

 exactly due south, and possessing other characters of a 

 similar kind. It is to be much regretted that no me- 

 thodical and careful examination has yet been made of 

 this tumulus, for at various times objects of great age 

 and antiquarian value have been obtained from it. An 

 opening was made in it in 1723, when a human skeleton, 

 the antlers of a deer, a knife with a horn handle, and a 

 horse's iron bit were found. Stukely thought the hill 

 was the grave of a great king, and that these were his 

 remains. 'In the month of March, 1723, Mr Holford 

 ordered some trees to be planted on this hill, in the 

 middle of the area at the top, which is 60 cubits (103 feet 

 9 inches) in diameter. The workmen dug up the body 



neither is any notice of them to be found in his Guide to the Wiltshire 

 Barrows. 



■ Ibid., p. 121. 



16 



