Book I.] THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 3 



which is of large size, measuring about ninety feet in 

 diameter, although the deposit was, in comparison, 

 very trifling, induces the supposition that it had been 

 used as a site for a beacon-fire, to guide the traveller 

 over the wild waste of fen-country which spreads in 

 all directions around, and hence, possibly, the name of 

 the " Beacon course." The excavation of this tumulus 

 in 1845 was made from east to west, commencing from 

 the eastern side, in the direction of its centre, in which, 

 at a depth of about three feet, there was found a 

 cinerary urn in an inverted position, slightly tilted on 

 one side, and surrounded by charcoal and burnt earth. 

 It was filled with charcoal, but contained only one 

 small fragment of bone. This vessel, which was of 

 the simplest manufacture, moulded by the hand, and 

 sun-baked, measured in height five inches, and its 

 diameter at the largest part was five inches and a half. 

 From the deep red colouring, and the general appear- 

 ance of the surrounding soil, it would seem that a 

 small hole had been first dug, charcoal and bones 

 burnt in it, the vase placed on the fire in an inverted 

 position, and the whole covered up. About ten feet 

 eastward of the central deposit, on the south side of 

 the line of excavation, and half a foot deeper, a deposit 

 of fragments of bone was found apparently calcined, 

 but with little charcoal or burnt earth, forming a layer 

 not more than three inches thick, and two feet in cir- 

 cumference. There were several pieces of the skull, 

 a portion of the alveolar process, inclosing a tooth, 

 apparently that of a young person, pieces of the femur 

 and clavicle, and other fragments. A little to the 



